


What Doesn't Kill You

by Azurite



Category: Yu-Gi-Oh!
Genre: Drama, F/M, Romance
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2003-10-10
Updated: 2016-08-06
Packaged: 2017-10-05 11:09:01
Rating: Mature
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 28
Words: 501,075
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/41132
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Azurite/pseuds/Azurite
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Téa's whole life was turned upside down one night after hanging out with her friends. Her parents gone, she has no one left to turn to...but Seto Kaiba?!</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. This Was Me

**Author's Note:**

> Welcome to Version 3.5 of What Doesn't Kill You! For those of you new to me as an author, the Azureshipping pairing (Seto x Anzu), or this story, please read this note.
> 
> (1) There are no slash/yaoi pairings to be found in WDKY, or any of my fics (for the forseeable future). Why? I'm just not into them for this fandom. Plain and simple as that. Please don't waste your energy trying to convince me.
> 
> (2) On that same note, this story is already established as Azureshipping (Seto x Anzu). There are other implied pairings in here, so keep your eyes peeled. However, this is not one of those "everyone gets paired off!" fics. And I will not invent OCs just to pair the "solo" characters off with. The story is planned out in its entirety; I will not change it for someone else's whims.
> 
> (3) However, I use the dub names for most characters in the story where appropriate; if I make an exception, it's because the dub screwed up the original name, not me.
> 
> (4) If you don't like Anzu/Téa, then don't read this story. Simple as that.
> 
> (5) This story is slated to be 36 chapters long. Chapter 7 has been divided into two chapters so that it fits on FFnet and MMorg. It is currently (as of the latest edit) unfinished, but still being worked on.
> 
> **Disclaimer:** I do not own, nor claim to own Yu-Gi-Oh or any of its characters. This fanfiction is for fun, not for profit, and the only thing I "claim ownership" over (artistic license) is the plot and any original characters.

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> She thought she was strong, that she could handle anything life threw at her. But one has to expect the unexpected...

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> **What Doesn't Kill You  
> Chapter 1: This Was Me ** (Version 4.0)**  
> A Yu-Gi-Oh Fanfiction**  
> **By:** Azurite  
> **Site:** seventh-star DOT net  
> **Conceptualized/First Written:** 10/06/03  
> **Completed/Posted:** 10/10/03
> 
> **Edited:** 8/8/04, 3/25/05, 10/27/05, 5/31/07, 3/23/08 (Thanks Faye Zepher!)
> 
> _**This chapter is rated PG13 or T for angst and such…**_ (fic as a whole is rated R or M!)

"All right guys, see you tomorrow at school!" Téa waved to her friends as she departed from their small group, the guys heading back to the Turtle Game Shop with Yugi, while she … well, Téa hadn't decided what she wanted to do yet.

_'It's not like Mom and Dad are home yet. Dad went to pick Mom up from work and then come home, and we'd have our big family dinner…'_ Téa's inner voice was tinged with sarcasm; being the only child of what seemed like an always-working couple meant that she rarely saw them, let alone spoke to them.

Still, once a month, Mrs. Gardner made it a point to prepare an all-out feast for her husband and daughter, and every month, the dishes were a surprise. However, Mrs. Gardner leaked to Téa the evening before that their monthly dinner this time around would be her daughter's favorite dish— and Téa couldn't wait.

It was unusual that she was so excited to go home— most days, she stayed as late as possible at the school, in the dance studio, practicing until she was too sore to even stand. Her parents didn't like her dancing all the time— they wanted her to focus on her academics more. But Téa had big dreams for herself.

Unfortunately, her parent's dreams didn't seem to include what Téa REALLY wanted. They didn't want their daughter "cavorting off in New York," or anything of the sort. In fact, they squashed Téa's every hope and dream of becoming a dancer every time she mentioned it.

So most days she tried to avoid going home.

Oddly enough, today was one of those days, despite having her mother's special meal to look forward to. But it was only 5:30 and Téa's parents weren't supposed to be home for another hour or so— especially since her parents said they had to go to the supermarket.

Téa sighed deeply and mulled over all these jumbled thoughts in her head as she wandered toward Domino Park.

The park was a small area in the center of the prefecture (despite the name 'Domino City,' it wasn't really a city in and of itself; it was just a ward of Tokyo) with benches scattered underneath trees, surrounded by bushes, and all of that framing a small lake. The lake had a single fountain that splashed up at odd intervals, never really following any schedule. Ducks quacked in their usual way in the lake, occasionally flapping up towards the brilliant orange and red sky.

_'Just another sunset in Domino City…'_

It all seemed very tiresome, all very repetitive.

Téa longed for something to change her life: something that would get her out of her little sheltered home so she could be free to realize her dreams and become a dancer.

_'Fat chance.'_ Téa sighed as she leaned back on a bench. She stared up, watching the sun bleed into the horizon. She wasn't even aware of how much time passed— even as the sun finished its trek across the sky, and the sky turned from orange and red to red-violet and finally a darker blue…

"Oh my gosh!" Téa bolted upright, fumbling in her purse for her cell phone to check the time. Her fingers just brushed the plastic when it rang.

Téa grabbed it immediately, thinking it was her mother, ready to lecture her about being out so late, and not being home in time to set up for dinner.

"Hello? Mo—"

"Is this Téa Gardner?"

The voice was unfamiliar. Téa swallowed.

"Y-Yes. Who is this?"

"I'm Sergeant Konami from the Domino City Police… Miss Gardner, what is your current location?"

Well, he certainly sounded like a cop, but after all Téa had been through, she wasn't one to trust someone based on their words.

"I'm not going to tell you where I am— H-How do I even know you're a cop? You could be some random w-weirdo who got my cell phone number, and, and—" Téa kept babbling even as she stumbled to sit up and collect herself. She had to get home.

On the other end of the line, Sergeant Konami smiled.

"Wise choice not to trust people over the phone. But we've managed to trace your line anyway… I'll be over in a squad car in a moment, Miss Gardner. Please stay where you are."

And then he hung up.

_'If he really WAS a cop, then he could find me… how would anyone else have tracing stuff to find me with? Should I stay here, or…?'_

Téa was confused, worried, and almost sick to her stomach. She didn't like these experiences where she was unsure— after all, she was supposed to be the confident, brave one in her group of friends, always cheering everyone on, reminding them of their goals, hopes, and dreams…

_'At least, with the guys, I can encourage them as much as they want and then some… their dreams, at least are reachable…'_ The thought made Téa rather forlorn, but she wasn't about to forget her current predicament.

_'If someone other than the cops really **does **have tracing technology, then I'd better hide somewhere. And if it IS a cop, I'll see him first, and I can come out.'_

Téa decided that was a reasonable course of action, so she carefully wedged herself between a tree and a bush and waited for the familiar red and blue lights of the Domino City Police to appear.

And appear they did— sirens wailing. A squad car stopped a mere block from where Téa had been sitting minutes before, and a police officer got out and started to look around. It wasn't long before he neared where she was— but Téa was too frightened to stand.

"Miss Gardner? I'm Sergeant Konami… if you're around here, I ask that you come out. I'm in need of your assistance.'

_'My assistance?'_ Téa thought. _'Well, if he's a fake cop, he's a damn good one. But wh-what could the police want with me?'_

Téa rose to her feet on shaky legs, her presence now revealed to the Sergeant.

The cop smiled crookedly when he spotted her.

"Hiding? Probably a wise choice. I'm sorry for the odd phone call, Miss Gardner— you ARE Miss Gardner, right?"

Téa nodded slowly, "Yeah, I am… but, what's going on? What is this all about?"

"Come with me." The Sergeant motioned to his squad car, and Téa obediently followed. It wasn't until she was halfway to the car that her stomach started churning bile, and a familiar feeling arose in her stomach— fear.

It was the same churning feeling that had overwhelmed her when Malik had taken control of her mind, the same fear that had flowed through her like lifeblood when her life had been at stake in that duel between Yugi and Joey…

She hardly registered getting into the car and buckling up, but when the car turned on its lights and sirens again, Téa started to wonder.

"A-Are you going to explain to me what's going on? I think I have a right to know. I feel like I'm being kidnapped by a cop here."

Konami chuckled, but it was a humorless laugh.

"Miss Gardner, I have some unfortunate news for you. At approximately 6:00pm on the Domino Expressway, there was a car accident." The car pulled up to a stoplight, at which point Konami looked at Téa dead on in the eyes, not a trace of humor or sarcasm in their brown depths.

"Miss Gardner, I'm afraid your parents are dead."

* * *

The world was a spinning, whirling mass of blue, red, white, and black. It would have been almost patriotic— if Téa had been American. But she wasn't, and none of that mattered or even made any sense now, because what had this crazy guy just said…? Everything had become some sort of illusion, some sort of sick joke— a trick! The guy couldn't be a cop after all, but he'd had the squad car and the tracer, and the gun…

Téa felt herself get dizzy when her eyes caught on the firearm strapped to the Sergeant's holster. She lifted a shaking hand to her head and closed her eyes to ward out the blur.

"You're joking, right?"

Konami was silent. He pursed his lips as he continued to drive.

"God… where are we going? If you're some kidnapper out to get me or the puzzle or something…"

"Miss Gardner, I have to ask you to identify your parent's bodies."

Téa fell silent.

This was **real**. _ **Too**_ **real**. _Surreal_, almost…

And the world became a silent blank for the rest of the ride.

* * *

The remainder of the night was spent wandering through a cavalcade of sensations— primarily pain. When Konami asked Téa to step out of the car, she did— awed and in fear of everything around her.

The Domino Expressway had been backed up for almost ten kilometers. And at the front of the blockage was a fire truck, an ambulance, a tow truck— so many flashing lights and signs— flares being placed on the ground by police, men wearing neon jackets directing the sluggish traffic…

But in the midst of the mess, and what everyone in their cars was staring out at, was the remnants of the Gardner family vehicle. It was just an old Honda Accord, really, nothing special… but now the entire front of the car was smashed into the guardrail— it was as if the engine block had never been there.

The windshield was smashed, cracked in a million different ways, zigzagging and crisscrossing like spider webs. The inside of the car was black— the driver's side door having been blown off by what had likely been an explosion.

On sight of the catastrophe, Téa's mind went into panic, her stomach went reeling, and her mind followed soon after.

_'No no no no nononononono… this can't be happening, this isn't happening, I'm dreaming, I havetobedreaming…'_

It wasn't a sick joke anymore. It never had been.

"Miss Gardner?" Konami's voice brought Téa back to the reality at hand— and her role there. She wasn't there to stare, she was there to… to…

_'To confirm that those bodies are **my** parents.'_

* * *

Téa Gardner had always been a strong person. Loyal to her friends, encouraging and bright-eyed, she rarely let even the worst of situations get her down. Many people considered her too optimistic, like some bubbly cheerleader who didn't really understand how the world worked.

And maybe, in part, they were right.

But she had seen hurt, she had seen pain— and she'd felt it firsthand. This wasn't the first time, either.

But on the night Téa Gardner's parents died, Téa couldn't cry. She tried, she really did, but she couldn't. All those years of believing that being strong would make you better, faster, wiser, ahead of the game — put a brick wall around her so impregnable that even her own tears couldn't slide down her face.

With a sharp gasp and a slow nod, she confirmed to three paramedics that the bodies —the somewhat charred, very bloody and scarred, and still sprinkled with glass bodies— were indeed her parents.

Various policemen saw her nod, turn around, run to the guardrail, and throw up.

Konami shook his head out of a mix of emotions: disappointment, anger, and frustration.

_'No one this young should have to go through this kind of pain, this kind of tragic loss, this kind of sadness.'_

But it happened everyday.

And it never made Konami feel more useless.

* * *

Téa spent the duration of the night answering questions at the Domino City police station. As the hours wore on, her expression became tired and haggard, but her eyes still wouldn't relax. She couldn't sleep, and she couldn't cry.

She answered all the questions without emotion or expression, in a monotone, barely even looking up as she did so.

As it turned out, her parents had life insurance, but had no godparents or any other relatives that could possibly care for Téa in the absence of their death. Even in getting life insurance, it wasn't as if they'd actually CONSIDERED the possibility of anything happening to them — so suddenly, so soon.

The money the life insurance would provide would cover for the funeral, but not much more after that, hence Téa's newfound problem: the police officers didn't exactly know what to do with her. They couldn't exactly send her home, especially given that Téa didn't HAVE the keys to her own house. It was only after she'd returned to Domino with Sergeant Konami that she'd numbly realized that she'd left them at home earlier in the morning.

The DCPD's accident unit was still getting rid of the mess on the expressway, even though the traffic had been cleared hours ago. If they found house keys amongst the rubble, it wouldn't reach them at the police station for a while now.

So the hours wore on, most of them filled with questions and forms being filled out… but little else. Téa went through everything methodically, almost as if it were school work… and before anyone realized it, it was 7:45 in the morning.

Téa hadn't slept a wink, but she didn't really FEEL the tiredness in her bones like she used to. If she were asked if she felt **anything**, she would have responded that she felt numb, closed off to the world and unable to really sense anything— anything at all.

Even her thoughts were sparks, bright and quick, dying as quickly as they came.

"Uhm, hungry?" Téa peered up, her blue eyes having lost their shine. They'd long ago dulled to a worn blue color.

Konami stood in front of her, looking a little less formal than when she'd first encountered him. He smiled hesitantly as he offered her a filled donut.

Téa tried to smile, but it came out as an almost sad sort of quirking of her lips. She gratefully accepted the raspberry-filled pastry and finished it off within moments.

She glanced sideways at the clock. "I— I should go. To school."

Konami looked at her dubiously. "You don't have to go if you don't want to, you know."

Téa only stared back at him.

"I have to."

She got up and grabbed the purse and satchel that had been with her for the past 22 hours, stumbled out of the police station, and headed to school.

* * *

Yugi was the first to notice that Téa wasn't herself in class— but the bell rang before he could approach her and say anything. The class periods wore on, and Téa didn't seem to show any sign of— well, anything. Not life, not tiredness. She simply sat in her seat, somewhat slumped over, her eyes glued on the chalkboard.

But her eyes, normally bright blue and full of life and attentiveness never moved, and never seemed to read what was written on the board. Yugi watched her for a while, and it seemed as though she didn't even blink. She didn't even move her head to look at him, though usually she could sense it when someone was staring at her.

Joey sat closest to her, so he flicked a paper football at her head. But Téa didn't even twitch. Joey turned and shrugged at Yugi and Tristan, across the room, but neither of them knew what was going on.

The lunch bell was about to ring, and students twitched nervously in their seats. Joey and Tristan were two of the guys that often made the race to the sandwich stand within the school, always fighting over the best rolls and buns.

But Téa hadn't moved. Not so much as a centimeter.

Yugi, Joey, and Tristan weren't the only ones that had noticed Téa's odd behavior, either. Their other common classmate, Seto Kaiba, noticed it too. But he didn't give it much of a thought, even when he walked out of the classroom to get some paperwork from the office for the teacher.

"Miss Gardner, would you step outside, please?" the teacher called, motioning towards Téa.

Téa stood up and moved so mechanically that Yugi was startled. His eyes followed her progress as his best friend walked stiffly to the front of the classroom. Once she got to the front, she wheeled on the ball of her foot and headed toward the right side of the class, where the teacher stood near the door. The teacher motioned for Téa to step outside, and he slid the door shut as he did so.

"Miss Gardner…" the teacher began in an uncomfortable tone, "I was informed by a Sergeant Konami this morning in the office about what… happened last night. To your parents. I'm sorry."

Téa's mouth was dry when she spoke, almost like the entire roof of her mouth was covered in cobwebs.

"It's not your fault. You didn't do anything." Her voice was hoarse and soft, coming out as a raspy whisper.

"That's not the point of condolences, Miss Gardner. I am not apologizing to accept blame, I'm apologizing for your loss. No one should have to experience that kind of loss."

Téa's eyes were dark as she stared at the teacher. "Everyone dies."

"But not everyone dies so young, leaving someone even younger behind to fend for themselves."

Téa was silent in response to this. The teacher continued to speak without prompting.

"Miss Gardner, in all my years of teaching here at Domino High, I have had great pleasure in watching you grow and change. Albeit you have only been here for a little over two years, I have gotten to know you, and I have seen what an incredible person you are. You are strong, enthusiastic, optimistic, and loyal. You have turned two slackers," the teacher thumbed inside, referring to Joey and Tristan, "into actual students. While I rarely ever saw them in my classes before, somehow I believe it is your encouragement that gets them to sit down, and, for the most part, pay attention. Don't think I don't notice when you tell them to listen, or when at lunch, I hear you talking about the curriculum. You've always encouraged those with potential, nurturing them."

The teacher took a breath, pausing to see if Téa was reacting at all— but she barely was. At the first compliment, her brows had raised and her eyes lowered some, but barely else could qualify as a 'reaction.'

"You are a strong young woman, Miss Gardner. You always have been, and I hope, you always will be. While it's difficult to see a bright future in the wake of your parents' death… you have some very loyal friends to help you through, Téa. You are not alone. You are never alone."

With that, the teacher stepped aside. The bell rang right on cue, and students suddenly tumbled out of the classroom in the race to get their lunches.

* * *

Seto Kaiba didn't care much for Trigonometry— the class was boring, since it was so easy, but it wasn't as if he could just drop the class. And he wasn't low enough to pay his way out of the class either. So he just sat there, did his work, and waited for time to pass him by.

Every day he hoped that his vision would selectively erase Joey, Tristan, Yugi, and Téa from his sight. He'd had more than enough of them in Duelist Kingdom, an unhealthy overdose of them during Battle City, and now, during this lull, he had to sit through _every single class _with them.

It was bad enough that Tristan sat only three seats behind him, but he had a perfect view of Yugi's erratic hairstyle from his place on the farthest right row, a mere six seats from the door of the class.

Back from his errand for the teacher, he approached the front door of the class. When he heard the teacher speaking to someone, Kaiba slowed down out of curiosity and respect, but the voice that responded to the teacher's muffled inquiries startled Kaiba.

_'Gardner…?' _

It wasn't as if he was the eavesdropping type, but Kaiba couldn't exactly barge between them and go into the classroom, now could he? And he knew that the rear entrance to the classroom was blocked by a filing cabinet, so he had to wait, or…

"… in all my years of teaching here at Domino High, I have had great pleasure in watching you grow and change. Albeit you have only been here for a little over two years, I have gotten to know you, and I have seen what an incredible person you are. You are strong, enthusiastic, optimistic, and loyal. You have turned two slackers," Kaiba saw the teacher thumb inside, "Into actual students."

Kaiba scoffed to himself— the teacher was probably referring to Joey and Tristan. _Them_, "actual students"? Well then, the teacher's definition of 'students' was a little skewed. While Kaiba consistently got 100 percents on all of his schoolwork, 'students' like Joey and Tristan seemed ecstatic whenever they landed an 80 percent, or even a 70! Téa and Yugi, of course, were better— but barely. Téa and Yugi typically got 80s, though it was something to be celebrated when either of them got an 90s and above. Seto Kaiba never missed their excited shouts and squeals when their tests were returned to them— they were, after all, the loudest group in the class.

"While I rarely ever saw them in my classes before," the teacher said, "somehow I believe it is your encouragement that gets them to sit down, and, for the most part, pay attention. Don't think I don't notice when you tell them to listen, or when at lunch, I hear you talking about the curriculum. You've always encouraged those with potential, nurturing them."

_'What is this all about, anyway? The teacher's not one to pull students out of class to give them a pep talk. Still, something **has** been odd about Gardner today…'_

Not that it bothered Kaiba. No, not in the slightest. He just didn't have anything else to occupy his mind in this boring place, that was all.

"You are a strong young woman, Miss Gardner. Always have been, and I hope, you always will be. While it's difficult to see a bright future in the midst of your parents' death… you have some very loyal friends to help you through, Téa. You are not alone. You are never alone."

The teacher stepped away from Téa and the classroom door, and in that moment, his gaze rose to meet Kaiba's.

Kaiba's involuntary response was to suck in a sharp breath, but he didn't know why. The teacher's words sunk in at last, their meaning hitting him full force— no one had ever said such words to him, but they might as well have.

_'Gardner's parents… dead?'_

In all the time he'd known the girl, she had always been incredibly chipper and optimistic, even going as far to lecture him about the value of life back at Duelist Kingdom. He'd no mind to listen to her then, and didn't think that would change anytime soon.

Students suddenly piled out of the class, rushing past Téa and Kaiba as if they weren't even there. The teacher simply glanced at Kaiba, then walked down the hall in the opposite direction of the student traffic as he headed to the teacher's lounge.

Kaiba had completely forgotten about the papers he'd brought for the teacher. What he'd heard about Téa startled him that much.

_'Someone like me…'_ was the first thought in his head, but Kaiba quickly dismissed such an idea. No, Téa had at least enjoyed a healthy, nice, childhood. He hadn't even had that.

But then… she was an only child, wasn't she? And the teacher's words came back and echoed, resounding loudly in Kaiba's mind— "You are never alone."

Kaiba **hadn't** been alone. Unlike Téa, his brother had always been there, been a part of his life, been a reason to keep going, keep living. Mokuba was the reason for a lot of things in his life, but…

_'Gardner doesn't have anyone like that.'_

True, the teacher was right: Téa had her friends, but Seto Kaiba only knew too well how far a "friend's" condolences could go.

* * *

Téa walked back into the classroom on shaky legs. She just wanted to head back to her desk and get her satchel— she couldn't think of anything beyond the immediate. When she got closer to her desk and looked up, she saw Tristan and Yugi in the seats surrounding her desk, while Joey sat in her chair. Each of them wore a concerned expression on his face.

"H-Hi guys…" Téa mumbled out softly, as she forced a smile. Joey promptly hopped out of Téa's seat and allowed her to sit down. Téa plucked her satchel off the side of her desk and rifled through the pockets, looking for money to get something to eat.

"You been out of it all day," Joey began, his brows knit together as he eyed Téa up and down, "And you look like you haven't slept in days!"

"Day, actually," Téa murmured. She stopped going through her bag and dropped it to the floor. She looked up at her friends, her blue eyes watering for the first time in over a day.

She looked from Yugi to Joey to Tristan and realized that the concern and worry on her friends' faces was sincere. Yugi, her childhood friend, Joey, and Tristan… all of them were people she had grown to love very dearly, and they'd come to mean the world to her.

_'And right now, they're the only people I've got left…!'_

The thought shot through Téa like a knife, no longer numbing her to reality.

"Guys, l-last night," she hiccupped, tears forming on her lash line. "Last night, my parents… an accident… they… they died. I…" The tears began their steady trek down her face, and she squeezed her eyes shut, knowing that she'd never be considered 'the strong one' again, not after this. But did that even matter anymore? She'd been their cheerleader for so long… the voice of reason, optimism, and hope… but not anymore.

Now it was their turn.

"I could really use an ice cream, and I'm kind of broke right now, so if you wouldn't mind treating me after school, I'd really appreciate it!" And even though her voice was steadily growing in volume as she spoke, her words broken by hiccups, Téa stopped caring. She cried freely now, leaning willingly into Yugi's arms when he moved to hug her. Joey and Tristan weren't slow to do so either, wrapping their arms around Téa in some semblance of consolation.

If any of them had noticed Seto Kaiba staring at them, none made any move to say or do anything to him.

* * *

"Aw, man, THAT was delicious." Téa leaned back into the booth with a contented sigh. A plate that had once held a cheeseburger and fries, a glass that had once contained a vanilla milkshake, and a parfait cup that was clean of its contents -even the maraschino cherry- were stacked in front of Téa, who looked as stuffed as a bear.

Beside her, Yugi smiled awkwardly.

"We're glad you liked it."

"Oh yeah, and it's not like we didn't get to enjoy some good eats, either," Tristan piped up as he rubbed his stomach. Of course, he, Joey, and Yugi had all eaten their fill as well. "We should totally do this more often, eating out together, I mean," Tristan finished, leaning back with a sigh.

No one really knew what to say, even though the singular topic resting on all their minds was the same — what to say to Téa? What **could** you say, to someone that had just lost their only family? In the span of a day, her life had changed so drastically— could any of them really claim that, the same way Téa could?

In order to fill the empty silence, Joey called out to the waitress.

"Hey, can we get the check here?" His wallet was protesting already, knowing what a huge chunk this would take out of his already meager funds, but Téa deserved it. More than anything, more than anyone, especially now.

He pursed his lips, glancing over at Téa's relaxed form— she was leaning back in the booth, staring up at the ceiling fan with an almost glazed look in her eyes. No one could possibly tell what she'd been through just by looking at her. She looked like your ordinary, gorgeous girl…

_'Yeah, but she's one of them that's pretty on the outside, and now scarred in the inside.'_

"Uhm, I'm sorry…" The waitress returned from the register and held a yellow receipt.

"What now? Are we gettin' charged for somethin' we didn't even eat?" Tristan and Yugi glanced nervously at the waitress, knowing that Téa had eaten more than normal, and that would probably cost them more money than they had.

"Actually," the waitress raised her eyes and grinned oddly, "You're already paid for. The lady at the cash register said some guy paid for everything."

Joey and Tristan's eyes were as wide as saucers, "WHAAAAT!?"

"Don't ask me, I didn't see the guy. Lizzie said the guy already split, so…"

Téa glanced down from her position in the booth, "Some guy… paid for us?"

"Looks dat way! Hey, I'm never one to complain about a free meal! So since we all saved all that money, what say we go see a movie, huh?" Joey grinned and hoisted Téa out of her seat.

"Whoa!" She lurched forward, nearly tipping into Joey's arms, giggling and smiling for the first time that day.

* * *

"THAT was so fake! You could tell when he was swinging with wires! Heck, they didn't even edit them out!"

"You gotta be kiddin' me! That was da best action sequence in history! When he went whoosh, and then fwoosh," Joey demonstrated with his hands, nearly taking out Yugi's eye in the process, "And he was jumpin' all over da place!"

"If they'd cut anything out, you would have seen that little black dot at the top of the screen," Téa deadpanned, "And they didn't! That was such shoddy wire-fu!"

"You're not dissin' my WIRE-FU!" Joey exclaimed, taking on an offensive stance in front of Téa. She smirked and whacked Joey a few times on the arm, finally catching an opening and poking him in the chest over his heart, laughing as he dramatically -and exaggeratedly- fell to the ground, with the cry "She got me! She got me!"

Téa rolled her eyes and helped him up. They all stopped walking as they neared her house. Téa realized she hadn't even been anywhere **near**home since yesterday morning, when she'd left the house for school…

"Well yeah, it's getting late…" Yugi glanced up at Téa nervously, but he suddenly sprang forward and gave Téa a hug. She returned the hug slowly, but sincerely, realizing that despite their having fun, none of them had forgotten why they were all together that day.

It seemed as though tragedy threw them together, even when they were close to going their separate ways. So it had been with the kidnapping of Yugi's grandfather, and so it had been with the controlling of Joey and Téa by Malik.

They were a most motley crew, of unlikely proportions -both physical and otherwise- but they were friends— steadfast, true, and strong.

'_I might not be as strong as I used to be anymore… but I think between the three guys, I can more than make up for it.'_ She offered a timid smile to her friends and waved them off as they started to head their separate ways for home.

She waited until they were all out of sight before walking up to her house. All the lights were out, and the place seemed to radiate cold. And she still didn't have the keys.

"Augh, this is useless. I'm going to end up breaking into my own damn house…" Téa grumbled to herself. And it wasn't as if the police were just going to hand the keys back to her, anyway. They'd said that she had to stay with someone "legally classified as a guardian," whatever that meant, and she couldn't live on her own, not if she wasn't employed.

And the keys? Well, they'd probably melted. Or been blown to bits. Or maybe the police HAD found them, and maybe even tried to call Téa— but she'd turned her phone off, wanting to ignore everything that had to do with the previous night. She had the odd disillusion running in her head that if she found a way to get a good night's sleep, she could wake up and everything would be over— a horrible nightmare.

She'd be back at home, in her own bed, and her mother would cheerily wake her up and inform her that breakfast was ready… her father would be downstairs, sipping his coffee and reading the newspaper…

It was the way it had always been, and never had Téa bothered to think that it could ever be otherwise. Yes, she'd always had dreams of escaping Domino, of living out her dreams and being a dancer in New York— but that's all they were— dreams. She'd never imagined being so alone…

Téa fumbled with the door for a minute, giving up on her "luck and a rusty doorknob" scheme. She didn't have anything slender enough to be used as a lock-pick, so she settled for the next best thing she found— a rock. She intended to smash through the living room window and crawl through that way— but before she even could bring the stone against the glass, a voice interrupted her.

"Breaking and entering is a crime, you know." Téa put the rock down slowly, knowing that voice too well.

"It's my house," she began. She turned and caught sight of the speaker. "Kaiba."

"Then why don't you have a key?" Kaiba shot back. He raised an eyebrow, but his expression wasn't inquiring at all. He **_knew_**. Téa swallowed the lump in her throat, not wanting to justify ANYTHING to Seto Kaiba.

He stepped aside from where he'd been standing at the sidewalk's edge. The sleek, black limo behind him was undoubtedly his, and the passenger door behind him stood ajar.

"Get in."

Téa stared at Kaiba as if he'd turned into a Blue Eyes Ultimate Dragon, complete with three heads.

"It's a place to stay for the night, Gardner. I wouldn't turn it down if I were you." Téa walked towards him, pausing before her classmate and giving him a cool once-over before replying, "You're **not** me." And with that, she got into the limo.

* * *

Téa's jaw nearly hit the floor when she arrived at the Kaiba mansion. The limo had been impressive enough, seeming longer INSIDE than it was outside. With tinted windows and a roll-down separator between the driver's section and the passenger section, the vehicle was equipped with a miniature refrigerator, a small coffeepot, several magazine and book racks and pockets, a television, and a satellite linkup for Kaiba's laptop computer.

But the mansion…

_'If you stacked twenty of me from my head to my feet, I STILL don't think I'd be able to reach the ceiling!'_ Téa thought to herself, staring up— and up, and up. As soon as she entered, a maid took her school jacket as well as Kaiba's. The CEO promptly rounded the corner behind the staircase and disappeared into a room beyond Téa's sight, but she was too awed and perhaps too afraid to move. Kaiba reappeared a moment later and tossed something at Téa.

"Whfthf?" she mumbled amongst the bundle of clothes. They were soft -silk?!- and, when Téa unfolded them, she recognized them as pajamas.

Kaiba shot her an 'it should be obvious' look, and then gestured up the huge marble staircase.

"The bathroom's the first door on the left upstairs," he said, and then he walked around the corner again.

"Just what are you implying, Seto Kaiba?" Téa demanded huffily as she tossed the pajamas over her arms. She quickly adopted a cocky stance and waited for Kaiba to respond. Kaiba leaned back from the corner, a smirk curling his lips.

"You stink," he said plainly, and then he disappeared behind the corner.

Téa stood there for a minute, digesting Kaiba's words— all TWO of them.

_'The nerve of that guy! Him and that ego of his, thinking he's all that… even though he's got all this money and that company of his, and that limo… and this huge, huge, huge house… oh geez, this place is— this place is giganimous!'_

Téa finally made it upstairs, almost huffing as she reached the platform, glancing left and right. The first door on the left, he'd said, right?

The bathroom was huge as well— in fact, Téa's entire house probably could have fit in there. She swallowed hard, and then realized what a blessing all this was.

Not only was the reticent Seto Kaiba being **nice**, but he was being nice to **her**. And not just to her, but when she needed it the most.

_'I… guess I can cut his attitude some slack.'_ Téa thought to herself. While she'd never been particularly enamored of the elder Kaiba brother (Mokuba was cuter, at any rate), he'd just scored a few points by doing her this favor.

And while his honesty tended to be brutal, at least he WAS honest— candid, to the point…

Téa sniffed her underarm slightly and reeled backward.

"Well, he was right."

Not five minutes later, Téa stripped herself of her dirty clothes and piled them off to the side. She intended to find a washing machine or something later on, but for now, she just wanted to settle into the large tub filled with warm, scented water and topped with mounds and mounds of bubbles. Warm jets massaged Téa's tired muscles into relaxation as she leaned back, arms splayed out to the sides of the porcelain.

_'This… this I could get used to. But something tells me this is going to be a long night.'_

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Can you believe I originally got this done in one sitting? Thank goddess for plot bunnies. Azurite, 10/27/05


	2. Moving On, Moving Out?

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> "It's time," he said, and she knew. It was time for her to lay her parents to rest, once and forever.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> **What Doesn't Kill You  
> Chapter 2: **Moving On, Moving Out…?   
> Version 5.5  
> **A Yu-Gi-Oh Fanfiction**  
> **By:** Azurite - azurite AT seventh-star DOT net  
> **Site:** seventh-star DOT net  
> **Conceptualized/First Written:** 10/06/03  
> **Completed/Posted:** 10/11/03 (ver. 2), 12/11/03 (ver. 3), 8/15/04 (ver. 4), 3/25/05 (ver. 5)
> 
> _ **This chapter is rated PG13/T+ for angsty situations** _
> 
> **Disclaimer:** ME, own Yu-Gi-Oh? I wish! (I can't believe I forgot a disclaimer before… someone smack me) Anyway, if I were Kazuki Takahashi or the people at Shounen Jump or Viz or 4Kids or wherever, I'd not only be rich, but I'd make a REAL life Seto Kaiba for me to hold prisoner or something… So yeah. This is for fun, not profit.

Téa was more than reluctant to step out of the warm water that had been relaxing her muscles -and her mind- for the past 45 minutes. It had been a nice, luxurious bath, and Téa had needed it— badly.

But then, the water **was** getting cold, and the bubbles were disappearing, and her skin was getting all raisin-like…

_'And I do eventually have to face Kaiba.'_

That was probably the primary reason why Téa wanted to hop right back into the water and wait until it froze over and her skin turned the color of prunes.

Why Seto Kaiba had been at her house in the first place was a mystery. Why he'd even bothered to speak to her— let alone offer his house for the night, was a bewilderment. Téa half-expected to wake up soon, lying across a park bench with a massive headache.

Or maybe back at home -in her own bed- with all this being a crazy nightmare.

After all, how much more horrific and strange could your day get, with your parents dying in a sudden car crash, getting treated to a huge meal by a mysterious someone, and then being offered a place to stay for the night, at the "giganimous" Kaiba Mansion?

"One. Big. Nightmare," Téa murmured, wrapping the first towel she found -a large navy blue one- around her body. She glanced sideways at the pile of shining, silky pajamas Kaiba had thrown at her.

She couldn't exactly change into her old, dirty, smelly clothes, but…

She held them out to the light, the bright florescent of the heating lamp reflecting off the dark fabric. After careful inspection of the tag, Téa confirmed that yes, the pajamas were indeed made of silk.

'_Would Seto Kaiba ever settle for anything less than the best?'_

Probably not, Téa thought to herself. But she didn't exactly get opportunities like this everyday —especially not from people like Kaiba. She'd be a fool to turn it down.

Téa fumbled a moment, buttoning up the top of the shirt, which hung nearly to her knees.

_'I thought this had to be his mom's or something… but unless he gets his height from her, then whose shirt **is** this?'_

The thought caused a whole new stream of questions to spring forth in Téa's mind— like where WAS the Kaiba matriarch, anyway? She suspected the two Kaiba boys didn't have a father— judging by the way that Seto ran Kaiba Corporation, and Mokuba often clung onto him like a second skin.

_'Unless he's like **my** Dad… er… like my Dad **was**…' _Téa's thoughts took a nose-dive as she realized that she would have to refer to her parents in the past-tense now— and for the rest of her life. They were gone.

_'They're really gone…'_

Téa's knees went weak and she crumbled to the floor in tears, the only thing separating her warm body from cold tile a dark blue, fuzzy floor mat.

* * *

Mokuba Kaiba wasn't one to stay up late. At least— not often. But on some nights, sleep simply didn't come easily to the younger Kaiba.

He had the mind to go downstairs and hassle his brother —who was never asleep before Mokuba— or at the least, sleep in his office. Somehow, Seto's presence nearby relaxed the small boy and tended to lull him into a sleep.

The boy was on his way downstairs to his older brother's office when he saw it— light coming from underneath the hallway bathroom door— and the sound of soft sobs coming from underneath. And **that** voice was decidedly NOT Seto Kaiba's.

Hesitantly, Mokuba pushed open the door, his eyes widening to the size of sand-dollars when he saw a familiar form hunched over the bathroom counter, crying her eyes out— and wearing his older brother's pajama top!

"B-Big Sister Téa?" Mokuba murmured, stepping into the room, wincing from the change of light levels.

Téa looked up, auburn hair clinging to the sides of her face, as she hadn't yet bothered to dry it from when she'd gotten out of the bath.

"M-Mokuba? What are you doing awake?"

For whatever reason, the smaller boy's presence —maybe it was the concern in his eyes— caused Téa to break out into a fresh set of tears.

Maybe it was just instinct, or perhaps something hereditary, but Mokuba Kaiba did **not** like to see girls cry. So he rushed forward and hugged Téa as tightly as his small arms could manage, up until her sobs subsided somewhat.

"I couldn't sleep. Sometimes I sleep in Big Brother's office. Being around him helps me sleep sometimes. But what— what's wrong, Téa? What are you doing here?" Mokuba asked a few moments later.

"I… Oh geez, look at me, I'm dripping all over your shirt and this nice…" Téa stood up, fingering the silk nightshirt, and Mokuba blushed, realizing how incredibly LONG Téa's legs were— and, given that she'd just emerged from the bath, how the wetness only defined her form under the baggy silk top further.

"Hang on, let me dry off some more…" Téa snatched the towel she'd been clinging to —one Mokuba recognized as being his brother's— and proceeded to towel-dry her hair as if she had a lion's mane. When she was done, her hair went out every which-way, and Mokuba couldn't contain his giggles.

Téa glanced in the mirror and smiled. It felt **nice** to smile… even knowing there was still a lot of hardship and pain ahead of her.

"I suppose I'm dry enough now…" Téa murmured, picking up the pajama pants that were part of the set. She didn't feel entirely comfortable wearing someone else's clothes —especially without her own undergarments— but she wasn't about to wear her dirty ones, either.

She hesitated as she picked them up— they were HUGE.

_'I take it back, these **can't** be a woman's…'_ Téa thought to herself. Far too big for her dancer's waist, at any rate. And they didn't even have an elastic waistband.

"I'll have to do without these…" Téa murmured, grinning. Mokuba stared at Téa as she tossed the pajama pants over her arm and proceeded to stride out of the still-steaming bathroom.

"Uhm, B-Big Sister Téa… if you don't mind me asking… uhm… why are you here…?" Mokuba looked up at Téa even as she paused in the doorway of the bathroom, halfway turning to face him. Mokuba glanced off to the side, adding in a mumble, "And wearing Big Brother's pajamas…?"

Téa's eyes widened and she looked utterly shocked— "Y-Y… Your Big BROTHER'S pajamas?"

Mokuba nodded slowly, wondering why Téa would have thought they belonged to anyone else. They certainly weren't HIS.

"Eh… I thought maybe… maybe they were your mother's or something…" Téa adjusted the hair behind her ear nervously, suddenly finding her messy hair fascinating as she tried to straighten it out, strand by strand.

Mokuba was silent a moment, looking down.

"Mokuba?"

"Mom… Mom died when I was born," Mokuba whispered, desperately trying to hold back tears. He'd never even had the chance to know his mom, but he promised her every night, every time before he went to sleep, that he'd be strong, and he'd be a good brother. And he didn't intend to break that promise by crying in front of a girl he liked.

"Oh, Mokuba… I— I didn't know…" Téa murmured, kneeling down. She opened her arms to the small boy, who stumbled into them, and the two sat there for a few minutes, just hugging. Téa had stopped crying now, but the ache in her chest —an almost constant, throbbing pain— refused to cease.

_'Maybe… maybe that's why Seto Kaiba was being so nice to me. Because… because we've been through the same thing? Losing our parents…'_

"I guess I know how you and your brother feel now, Mokuba," Téa whispered, forcing a smile for the smaller boy's sake, "My— my parents died… the other day…"

Mokuba's eyes widened in surprise, and he launched himself into her arms again, hugging her more fiercely than he had before.

"I— I'm sorry, Big sister Téa…" Téa smiled slightly, even as she held Mokuba. Mokuba understood, at least on some level… and he really DID like her as an older sister.

_'That's a nice feeling… to think that I could be someone's big sister. I mean… I never will… really…'_ Now that her parents were really, truly gone, Téa would never HAVE a younger brother or sister to care for.

_'I think I was jealous of Kaiba… for a while. He had someone that adored him unconditionally, someone who he had real drive and determination for,'_ Téa smiled wryly, remembering how Kaiba had threatened suicide if he didn't get into the Duelist Kingdom castle to rescue his brother. And she'd chewed him out about the value of life for a good five minutes, and he'd responded in that cool, usual manner of his —"At the end of the day, I have all I need."

And that had shut Téa up right away. In retrospect to then, Kaiba hadn't changed much… but now, Téa felt that she'd become an entirely different person. How could she go on lecturing about the value of life when it tended to end so suddenly, so abruptly, so… painfully?

* * *

Mokuba and Téa were walking downstairs slowly, not speaking so as to interrupt the solemnity of the moment. After so much talk about death and loved ones dying, it would have been awkward to suddenly interject any other subject into the brief conversation.

Rather, Téa followed Mokuba obediently to his older brother's office. She intended to thank Kaiba for his kindness (unprecedented as it was) and give his pants back to him, given that they were too big for her to wear.

What she didn't expect was to be the first thing Kaiba's eyes landed on when Mokuba opened the door, announcing himself with a loud "Big BROOOOOTHER…!"

Seto Kaiba HAD been working on perfecting the designs of the Duel Disk III, idly sipping from his ever-present Kaiba Corp. logo-emblazoned coffee mug as he typed.

He glanced at Mokuba as he entered the room, about to swallow his coffee and lecture his younger brother about getting to sleep on time.

Of course, he wasn't exactly doing his job as role-model, staying up till all hours of the night, a coffee-addict, supposedly 'perfecting' designs. But sleep didn't come easy to the elder Kaiba brother most nights, and when it did, dreams he rather would **not** recall tended to haunt him.

What he _didn't_ expect was for a scantily-clad Téa Gardner to be marching right behind Mokuba, wearing _only_ his nightshirt, with the silk pants tossed over her left arm like a towel.

So instead of swallowing his hot coffee, he _choked_ it down, suddenly having a coughing fit as he averted his startled gaze from Téa's form. She stared at him a moment and then rushed forward with Mokuba, who started slapping his brother on the back to rid him of the coughs.

"I'm— I'm fine." Seto Kaiba rasped, glancing up slowly, meeting Mokuba's concerned gaze first, and then Téa's. Of course, he didn't expect to see concern for HIM —of all people— in her eyes, but maybe it was because he'd offered her a place to stay the night while she sorted things out.

_'That has to be it.'_

Kaiba immediately turned his gaze back to the computer screen, intending not to glance one way or another.

"Uhm… listen, Kaiba… uh…" Téa began, her left leg moving behind her right one, a movement Téa didn't even think about as she made— lifting the silk hem of the shirt nearly up to her thigh. Kaiba, with his gaze fixed on the rotating plans for the Duel Disk III, didn't even see, but Mokuba, across the room and shamelessly staring at Téa, turned red.

Téa and Seto, of course, didn't even notice.

"I want to thank you… for this. For tonight. Uhm…" Téa couldn't seem to find the right words, the right way to express her condolences for_ his _ loss, knowing that he too, had suffered the same. Doubtless his own experiences prompted him to offer his home as a place for her to stay for the night.

"Do you think, er, maybe you could lend me some shorts or anything? These pants… don't exactly fit…"

Kaiba wanted to keep his gaze glued to the monitor, but with Téa making a request of him, he couldn't exactly keep his eyes on the screen forever. He stood up jerkily, keeping his eyes on the floor as he walked over to the closet in his office, where he kept an extra set of most clothes in case he ended up pulling all-nighters— as usual.

He disappeared into the darkness of the walk-in closet a moment, trying to come up with something that she could wear. It was bad enough his imagination was supplying him with images of what she'd look like in each item his fingers brushed upon, but…

Finally he found some clean blue boxers, and tossed them over his shoulder to her, hoping NOT to meet her gaze so he could get back to work— distraction-free.

Téa stared at the boxers a moment, and unfolded them in her hands. Her eyes widened and her cheeks colored a brilliant red, but Kaiba didn't notice. She cast a look at him, one eyebrow raised in mute amusement, but his eyes didn't reach hers. So she smirked at Mokuba instead, and strode out of the room, gently closing the door as she left.

Mokuba shook his head, almost in comic resignation, at his brother, who continued to keep his eyes fixed on the computer screen for the rest of the night. Mokuba simply curled up on the couch in the office, fluffing up the right arm pillow and tossing the fuzzy blue blanket over himself before he drifted off to sleep.

* * *

Téa wasn't sure of anything at this point— but Kaiba certainly wasn't about to LOOK at her, let alone speak to her.

_'I suppose his generosity has its limits,'_ Téa thought, her eyes alighting on a comfortable looking couch in the living room area. A knit blue-and-white blanket was folded over the back of the couch, which sealed the deal for the girl, and she crawled on it, hoping to get a good night's sleep.

She sucked in a breath, grateful for all everyone had done for her today. Her eyes wandered over shadowed picture frames lining the mantle over the fireplace, and Téa wondered for a brief moment if Kaiba actually smiled in any pictures he was in.

_'I bet he has a nice smile…' _Téa thought to herself, slipping off into dreamland.

* * *

Two mornings later, Téa awoke unusually early, as the sun was just coming over the horizon and filtering into the tall living room windows. She was warm, despite being in one of the bigger rooms in the house, and with only one blanket covering her.

But she'd had a comfortable and full night's sleep— that left her somewhat more rested and sane.

One day away from everything wasn't enough. She'd spent all of Sunday locked in Kaiba's mansion, not doing anything but wallowing in her thoughts. But she'd have to face the real world eventually…

She reached over to her small satchel and fumbled around for her cell phone, drawing out the pink flip-phone with some distaste.

_'Stupid little phone. You ruined my life.'_

Well, it wasn't really the _phone's_ fault, and neither was it the fault of Sergeant Konami, who'd called her and told her —well, not on the phone, exactly— that Téa's parents were dead.

Waking up on the couch in the Kaiba mansion only slammed the truth deeper into Téa's mind— yesterday HADN'T been a nightmare. Her parents were **really** gone, and she was **really** alone, and she didn't know what was going to happen— not an hour from now, not a day, not a week— her whole life had suddenly been pitched into a seemingly endless, thick, gray fog…

You have 1 New Message

The display on Téa's phone read as she turned it on. She groaned, wondering who could have called her. Maybe it had been one of the guys, who had tried to reach her at home, and wondered why she didn't pick up?

_'Yeah right, I'm sure they'd be thrilled to learn I spent the night at Kaiba's. Joey would blow a gasket.'_

She still wasn't sure just why there was such a heated rivalry -well, at least from Joey's point of view- between the two boys. It wasn't as if they were even EXTREME opposites…

_'No, Joey's just a reformed bully and partial slacker, while Kaiba has the highest IQ in the school. That's all. Oh yeah, and Kaiba's an orphan, Joey's not… well, at least they both have younger siblings.'_ But that was the extent of the similarities Téa could find between the two boys.

_'Why did I even **think** of that, anyway?'_ Téa wondered, waiting for her voicemail to activate.

"Miss Gardner, this is Sergeant Konami from the Domino City Police Department. It seems as though you've turned off your cell phone, so I hope you get this message before Monday evening… There are still some things we need cleared, so at your convenience today, please come in. Thank you."

Téa groaned to herself. She didn't particularly feel up to going back to the police station, given that her most recent experiences there included a lot of heartache, more bad news than she could handle in a night, and a stupid donut that didn't taste ALL that great.

But she had to go.

Even if it meant her whole life would change in the course of yet another day? But she couldn't sit through school, wondering what had to be done, what had to be said, what would happen to her.

_'I'm only 17… They'll say that I can't live alone… that I have to live with someone classified as a legal guardian, or else get a job. But the last time I was employed, I got in that stupid situation… and I came too close to blowing it. I can't juggle school and work again…' _

So the future really was one great big unknown to Téa.

It was a frightening thought, having a life one moment, and the next, having it pulled out from under you like the veritable rug it was.

And so Téa woke that day, dark thoughts clouding her mind, even as she retrieved her once-dirty clothes from the washer where she'd tossed them last night on the way to the couch.

By the time she was dressed, she wandered to the kitchen— Seto Kaiba already sitting at the large round table, sipping some coffee while he perused the business section of the Domino City News.

His gaze met Téa's as she entered the room, the swinging door from the dining room and living area thumping closed as she stood, almost riveted in place.

"Uhm…" Téa began, not sure what to say. She'd never gotten around to expressing her condolences for Kaiba's own loss the other night, but after more careful thought, she decided he probably wouldn't **want** it, maybe even going as far to interpret her apology as pity.

_'Which isn't the case at all! It's not like **he** pities **me** for what I've been through, right?'_

"Sleep well?" Kaiba said, sipping from his mug. His eyes went back to the paper, though it wasn't as if his mind was actually absorbing the words. Suddenly, Téa's presence —in his house, his sacred space away from the rest of the crazy world— distracted him more than ever before.

Kaiba had seen Téa curled up on the couch as he emerged from his office earlier that morning. And he'd found himself staring, if just for a minute. Questions had burbled forth in his mind, wondering what she was thinking, what she was feeling, and if she dreamt while she slept.

She'd been through hell, and hadn't even started the trip back up to the normal world. Time would tell if she'd ever make it back to the world of the sane, though Kaiba couldn't exactly be a judge of whether he was part of that world himself.

"Y-Yeah, thanks. I mean really, thanks. You didn't… you didn't have to do this, Kaiba…" Téa trailed off anxiously, and a heavy silence settled between them. Moments later, said silence was interrupted by a grumble in Téa's stomach.

Kaiba glanced up at her, an eyebrow raised in amusement, a smile just barely tugging at the corners of his lips. But Téa didn't notice; her face had flamed red and she looked down at her feet.

"I'll uhm… grab myself something to eat, if you don't mind…"

Kaiba smirked as Téa marched stiffly to the fridge, pulling out a carton of milk and rummaging through the nearby cabinets for a bowl, a spoon, and a box of cereal. When she found what she'd been looking for, she made it a point to sit at the kitchen counter, her back to Kaiba's unwavering gaze— just so he couldn't look at her and see how red her face was.

_'Damn fine time for my stomach to growl like that!' _Téa thought, her cheeks burning still. When she'd finally finished her breakfast, thoughts of earlier —namely, of Konami's message, and the promise of an unsure future that it carried— claimed Téa's mind once more.

"You can come to school with me, if you want," Kaiba spoke up, though he didn't raise his eyes from his paper. Behind the newsprint, his eyes almost twinkled with amusement, wondering if behind the paper Téa was still blushing as red as a tomato.

When he didn't get a reply from the other side of the paper, he pushed the pages down to check if Téa hadn't suddenly disappeared on him. She was, in fact, still sitting there, but one couldn't deny the obviously sad expression on her face, as she stared at the tiled floor to her side and played with her fingers.

"I— I uhm, don't think I'll be going to school, today, Kaiba… if you wouldn't mind telling the teachers, I have some things… I need to take care of at the police station."

"What things?" Kaiba asked abruptly, catching Téa's attention. She hadn't expected a verbal reply from him— only a slight nod of his head or something. But his words struck a chord inside Téa, and she couldn't decide whether she wanted to throttle Seto Kaiba at that precise moment or not.

_'Things! You know, dealing with my late parents! Things like what I'm going to do with myself, where I'm going to go! What's going to **become** of me, THOSE things! What an obnoxious idiot!'_

But then, Téa's thoughts took a turn, and she realized that Kaiba wasn't **trying** to be obnoxious. If anything, he was curious. For whatever reason, Téa couldn't fathom, but he _had_ given her shelter for the night, when otherwise she would have ended up spending a cold, lonely night in her own small home— after breaking into it illegally, of course.

She sighed deeply, and replied, "Well… papers, mostly I guess. I have to figure out where I'm going to live… what I'm going to do with myself, really. I can't exactly live alone without a job, but you know school rules about employment… It's either that or go into a foster home or something, I really— I really don't know…" Téa was on the verge of crying, but of all people she didn't want to see her tears, it was Seto Kaiba.

Always the epitome of silent, steadfast strength, Seto Kaiba rarely ever showed weakness. True, he had lost a few battles, lost duels, but he never flinched when he had a goal in mind. And back in Duelist Kingdom, it had seemed as though he'd arisen from the dead— and triumphed, up until the very end.

_'I really am jealous of him. Not only has he overcome the incredible pain of losing his parents, but he's become the best brother —and father— a kid could ask for. And while he might not be a socialite, he seems to have the world in his hands…'_ It only took one look around the expansive Kaiba mansion to realize that. And Téa hadn't even seen the whole place yet.

To Kaiba's surprise, Téa's tone was unsure— utterly so. He'd never heard her sound so— so…

_'Scared,' _his mind supplied for him. He knew what fear sounded like —he knew ever facet of the sensation, from what fear tasted like to how it looked. Fear could be different things to different people, but the way Téa had spoken gave it all away…

"I'll— I'll tell the teachers," Kaiba finally said, at a loss for any other words.

* * *

Seto Kaiba couldn't concentrate. It wasn't the first time —at least, not the first time in the recent past. It seemed that his attention span snapped whenever Téa Gardner was the subject at hand.

Why it was she that haunted his thoughts, Seto Kaiba couldn't begin to fathom.

She'd left early that morning, declining his offer for a ride to the police station. She'd taken what few belongings she'd had on her from Saturday —from Friday night, actually— and left for the station.

Glancing over to what was her empty seat, Kaiba felt a strange emptiness settle in the pit of his stomach. Why was it that she was on his mind in this way? It wasn't as if they really knew each other, let alone had anything in common, aside from the loss of both their parents.

Before, he thought he'd found someone who could understand his situation— his feelings and reactions towards the world— but it was one thing to _think_ about such things, and another entirely to _act_ on them. Seto Kaiba didn't reveal weakness to anyone, especially a girl that was the best friend of his two worst enemies. And he wasn't about to start thinking of Téa as any sort of kindred spirit.

_'It's possible… that I'll never see her again.'_ Kaiba suddenly thought. Her seat might remain empty for the rest of the year. Her friends would never see her again, either.

It wasn't as if Yugi, Joey, and Tristan hadn't noticed Téa's absence, either. Seto had seen them exchange worried glances at the beginning of class. And the first teacher to call morning roll had asked them if they knew where Téa was. True, it seemed as though the faculty knew what had happened to Téa's parents, but without a proper excuse, she still had to be marked absent.

Of course, Kaiba knew exactly where she was and what she was doing. But he didn't speak up —not when everyone would hear him. He knew just what would happen, too. Stares would come his way, people would whisper, wonder, _'How does **HE** know where Téa is?_'

It wasn't as if petty high school gossip bothered Kaiba much, but he knew that Téa was going through enough, and didn't need a sorry reputation tacked onto her name.

_'Funny, it's not like I care about her or anything. But… I don't want her to go through what I did.'_

That seemed to be the sole motivation and reasoning behind all that Kaiba had done thus far for Téa. But still, it didn't seem enough. Her sad, frightened voice from earlier that morning came back to him.

Against his will, his eyes wandered back to that same empty seat. The thought of never seeing her again suddenly was a very unpleasant thought. It wasn't as if HE needed her —not the way her friends did— but…

Suddenly, in the middle of a math test —which Kaiba had already finished twenty minutes ago— he stood up, catching stares from almost everyone in the classroom, including the teacher.

"Mister Kaiba, where are you going?" the teacher interjected as Seto grabbed his satchel and walked towards the door.

"I have something to take care of." And with that, Kaiba brushed past the bewildered teacher, throwing his finished test at him, and left the school.

* * *

"So you see, Miss Gardner, we can't possibly let you return alone to your home… you're sure your parents have no siblings, no relatives that could possibly take you in?"

"No," Téa shook her head mournfully, "Mom was an only child like me, and Dad's brother died two years ago." Her father's brother had never married or had any children. And her grandparents had passed away when Téa was still young.

She had no one.

"Well, I'll have to contact Social Services and arrange to have you placed in a foster home… of course, you'll have time to arrange for your parent's funeral, and possibly stay with a friend…"

"But—" Téa interrupted, her one hopeful thought suddenly burbling forth, "What about employment? If I get a job, couldn't I just stay at the old house? I mean, my parents owned it and everything, shouldn't the deed pass onto me?"

"I'm afraid not, Miss Gardner," Sergeant Konami shook his head regretfully, hating having to explain all these little potholes in her plan for restoring her life to some semblance of normal.

"Since you are not yet of a legal age to hold property, the bank will likely retain the deed and rent it out. Once you reach the legal age, you could gain control of the property and live in it, sell it… whatever you wish. Or you could take the bank's offer for the property, and live off the results."

It did sound somewhat tempting to Téa —to take money for her old home— but then, she'd grown up there —spent her entire LIFE there. Memories that went back seventeen years were in the rooms of that house, she couldn't just give it up— and, the way things were, that was her only choice.

She didn't even have rights to the house— not for another four months.

"You really don't have all that much time though, if you were to find employment. And I'm aware that Domino High has some restrictions regarding employment…" Konami trailed off, knowing that all this was a lot to take for a 17-year-old who had just lost both her parents.

"What about working for me?" a voice interrupted. Téa spun around in her chair, her eyeballs almost falling out of her sockets as her jaw dropped in much the same manner—

"Kaiba? What are **you **doing here?"

Kaiba glanced down at her, not taking the seat beside Téa, but instead striding forward, a mere meter from Konami's desk, staring at the police officer dead on in the eyes.

"Kaiba? As in Seto Kaiba, of Kaiba Corp.?" Konami confirmed, his eyebrow raised. He was surprised to learn of this young girl's connections, but it WAS possible…

"That's right. And I need someone to look after my little brother when I'm not around," Kaiba turned to face Téa, "What do you say? You can stay in the mansion."

Téa's eyes, had they been considered wide before, now increased in size, if that was at all possible.

"A-Are you… are you serious?" she asked, her voice a near whisper. She couldn't believe that this was Seto Kaiba, standing before her. A million questions erupted in her head, all at once—

_'Why is he here? Why isn't he at school? Why is he doing this for me, anyway? He barely even spoke to me this weekend, but now he's here not just offering me a job, but a place to live! Who the heck **is** this guy, and what has he done with the REAL Seto Kaiba?'_

It was all too good to be true, and Téa couldn't help but be a little bit suspicious when he nodded his confirmation.

"Why do you suddenly need someone to take care of Mokuba, anyway? Aren't you always at home in the office?"

"I can't always be," Kaiba responded immediately, staring at Téa. His gaze might as well have penetrated her very soul, the way he was looking at her so seriously. This was indeed Seto Kaiba, and his words were sincere. But it still baffled Téa beyond all words.

"And Mokuba's grades have been slipping as of late. With school back in session, I don't have time to watch over him all the time. I have to run the company somehow, and I can't do it when I have to worry about Mokuba all the time."

His words shook Téa— he who had been so determined, so faithful to his brother, suddenly wanted someone ELSE to be Mokuba's keeper? Somehow, it didn't boil down so simply for Téa, but she wasn't a fool. She would have been stupid to turn down Kaiba's offer last night to stay at the mansion, and if she turned down the opportunity to live in the mansion —AND get paid to watch over Mokuba— she'd have to have been brain-dead.

"Deal." Téa finally agreed, with a brisk nod of her head.

* * *

A good hour later, she and Kaiba finally left the Domino City Police Department, hopefully never to return there. Both she and the elder boy were silent as they walked down the stone steps, intending to return back to school.

"Kaiba," Téa finally blurted, her brows furrowed together. He stopped walking, but didn't turn and face the girl who had spoken.

"What?"

"Why?" Téa responded back, just as promptly.

"Why… what?" Kaiba asked, his eyebrow raised as he turned to face her.

"Why— why are you doing this? Why me?"

Seto Kaiba pursed his lips, racking his mind for a decent explanation. Truth be told, there was none. Was it because he didn't want Téa to suffer the way he had, being stuck in an orphanage? Was it because he didn't want her to have to deal with an abusive adoptive parent, or five months of agony of not being in a familiar place, seeing familiar faces? Perhaps he wanted to save her the heartache of being separated from all her friends that she held so dear.

"Because," he finally said.

Téa was about to protest to this non-answer, but it suddenly occurred to her that his answer was enough. Kaiba didn't really have to give REASONS for his random acts of kindness, did he? Why should he?

_'I shouldn't look a gift horse in the mouth, I guess,'_ Téa mused. So she smiled faintly, and continued walking, soon catching up to Kaiba and walking beside him back to school.

"I can have your stuff moved from your old house today, if you want," Kaiba finally said, as they were a block from the school.

Téa stopped dead in her tracks, looking at him, bewildered.

"No! I mean… thanks, but no… I don't think— I don't think I'm ready to leave the house just yet."

Kaiba looked at her oddly, "Konami back there said you couldn't stay more than a day there, given that the property's going to be transferred to the bank."

"I— I know. But maybe… maybe I could stay at the mansion— another week? And Friday night, I'll stay at my old place, and…"

The funeral was Saturday morning. The closure Téa was hoping would never come would be upon her, and she would bury her own parents.

"And Saturday, I'll move out." She looked up at Kaiba, her eyes not tearing or watering as he would have expected — but they had a fierce, determined gleam to them. He smiled slightly himself, ever so much, but not enough to be noticed by Téa, realizing that the strength she'd always passed onto her friends was still inside her.

"Deal." Kaiba nodded his assent, and was rewarded with a timid smile from Téa.

* * *

The days went by sluggishly for Téa. She spent her days at the Kaiba mansion, this time with her own clothes to wear. The police had brought a locksmith to the old house and allowed her to get some of her belongings while she stayed the week at Kaiba's. She informed them of her plan to stay at the house Friday night, a plan which the police and the bank representative agreed to— including the part about Téa moving everything out by Saturday. Whatever she couldn't or didn't want to bring with her could either become property of the bank, along with the house, or would go up for sale in an estate auction.

Téa's friends, meanwhile, came up to her during school and offered their condolences, encouragement, and questions regarding the funeral. Yugi, Joey, and Tristan all promised they would be there at the funeral, and did Téa need help with anything else? Anything at all?

"Thanks guys… but I think, somehow I'll make it through." She glanced sideways out of the corner of her eye, watching Seto Kaiba read a thick hardcover novel. She wasn't about to tell her friends of Kaiba's sudden generosity, lest she jinx her luck, but she was grateful to the young man.

_'Thank you… Seto Kaiba. Thank you.'_ Téa thought to herself.

* * *

Friday evening had fallen upon Téa Gardner sooner than she desired. But she was no Time Wizard; she didn't control the flow of time.

_'Come what may… what happens, happens, and anything that can happen, will happen.' _Téa recited to herself mentally.

She was clutching the duffle bag she'd brought with a few changes of clothes while she'd stayed at the Kaiba mansion the past week. Everything else she owned was still at home, and now, tonight, she was finally going back— to stay.

True, it was only a night, but…

_'I'm finally home… Sorry I'm so late, Mom… Dad…'_

Téa wanted to burst into tears right then and there, but she was well aware of Kaiba's presence behind her. He'd given her a ride to her place, and stood behind her even as she trembled in place, one hand holding her duffle bag, the others clutching the keys the police recovered from the scene of the accident.

Suddenly Kaiba spoke up, his words cutting through the tension, the fear, and the thick night like a knife.

"Do you want me to stay?"

Téa was silent a moment. _'Yes, Yes, Yes, I want you to stay, I need you to stay. Because Mokuba's right, somehow your presence brings comfort to me… to others. I don't know how it is you do it… with that attitude, that chill you always keep wrapped around you, but…'_

"No… Mokuba's waiting for you at home. Thanks, though. Besides, you'll be seeing enough of me the next few months." Téa managed a wry chuckle, but Kaiba didn't laugh or even quirk a smile.

Half of him demanded he go up to the girl and comfort her properly, the way her _real_ friends did, but the other half reasonably pointed out that he **wasn't** her real friend, despite the past week, despite his offers, despite everything.

As everything stood right now, they were mere acquaintances, classmates… and now, she was his employee. Not friend. Never friend…

The thought hurt.

* * *

Téa stared up at the plain white ceiling, her arms crossed behind her head, pressing against the cool fabric of her pillow.

This would have been normal, been an easy night's sleep— before. Any time before this.

But now, Téa was painfully aware that her parents were NOT sleeping in the next room, that the smell of coffee brewing wouldn't awaken her the next morning, and her father wouldn't be sitting at the small kitchen table, reading his paper.

_'What was once…'_ Téa thought absently to herself.

_'Things change. Times change. People change. People are born, and people die.'_

This was the way of things. It was more a Destiny than anything the Millennium Necklace could have predicted. It was life, as it always had been, for millennia before Téa's time.

_'And people back then died a lot sooner, of a lot worse things… and the people got up off the ground, wiped their eyes, and kept living. They did it. Seto Kaiba did it. Mokuba did it. And so will I.'_

* * *

Sleep didn't come easy to Téa, and it didn't seem as though more than five minutes had passed before her alarm clock was buzzing shrilly, informing her that it was 9:00 a.m. already, and she had to start getting her things together, get dressed and… and go.

Go to her own parents' funeral.

At age seventeen, Téa had never felt more alone.

_'I took them for granted. I never… I never even said "I love you" when I left that day…'_

Téa didn't care about what she looked like, or what anyone would think of her when they saw her. Red eyes, droopy hair, none of it mattered today.

She wasn't representing anyone. She didn't have a reputation to uphold anymore— or if she did, she didn't care. She could be herself, be sad, be lonely, today. Even if she was surrounded by friends…

If she thought back long enough, really remembered that painful day over a week ago now, she'd remember that the last things she'd said to her parents were angry words— filled with pain and rage.

_"You never try to understand anything from my point of view! Why is it that I can't at least **try** to live my dream? What is so wrong about wanting to be a dancer?'"_

_"A DANCER? Téa, you're **still** on this! We're not telling you that you can't dance, but it's not something you should call your future! You can dance your heart out for one show, one person, one place, but then what? Wander from job to job? It's not like they have constant casting calls for dancers! And how reliable are those jobs? What happens if you slip, if you fall, if you hurt your leg? What then? What will you do with yourself then? No, Téa, this isn't right, it isn't reasonable! You need a job that will support you, support a **future**!"_

_"I know what I want in my future, and you guys never support that! Not once! All you want is for me to be some stupid office lady who sits at a desk and types all day! I won't stand for it, I won't become like YOU!"_

Such were memories that Téa would rather forget. But regret is a constant companion to hurting souls, and Téa could feel the burning sting of those memories… that her last words to her parents, before she'd slammed the door and gone running out of her house that day, had been filled with such hate, anger, and tears.

* * *

Téa spent the remainder of the morning gather things. She'd brought out all the cardboard boxes she could find, taking all her personal possessions and arranging them as neatly as possible, finally sealing the majority of them in boxes and labeling them as she placed them by the door.

What was left… was the past seventeen years of her life. Stored away in the closet, boxes of holiday decorations, for Christmas and Valentine's Day. Old curtains and smelly sheets. Broken do-it-yourself shelves, and dowels meant to hold clothing, but missing a bolt or a screw.

Her Dad's old shoes. Mom's old coats.

Téa systematically went though everything, crying when she found something memorable, occasionally grumbling about what a packrat her mother had been —even up until the end— and sometimes smiling, halfheartedly, when she came upon the remnants of happier times with her parents.

It was still hard to believe -almost impossible to really absorb- that they were really gone. Forever. It wasn't as if they were on a vacation. They were gone— to a place Téa couldn't see, couldn't imagine, or even begin to dream of. And they'd never come back.

The brunette started hiccupping between her soft sobs, assembling a pile of shoe boxes. She glanced sideways between her veil of tears, at the room her parents once occupied. The door was slightly ajar, morning light streaming in through the windows.

Hesitantly, and sniffling away the last of her tears, Téa walked into the room on shaky feet. Lining her parents' bureau was a series of pictures of Téa— the first when she was a small girl, sitting on her father's shoulders and holding her mother's hand.

The second photo was of her and Yugi back in junior high, giving a "V is for Victory" sign— it had been their first day of school, and they were both happy they'd gotten in the same class.

The final photo was of Téa by herself, smiling as if on the verge of laughter.

Seeing these pictures only gave Téa cause to burst into a fresh set of new tears.

_'They're gone, really gone, and maybe they were mad at me too, maybe they weren't even thinking of me, maybe they died instantly, but maybe they sat there, trapped in the car, thinking what a screw-up I've been, how I've wrecked their lives by wanting to be something so unreasonable like a dancer…'_

For the first time in her life, Téa wasn't just unsure of herself, she was backtracking and questioning herself. Being a dancer had been her dream for so long now, and while it seemed as though everyone BUT those who mattered most had cheered her on… now she was starting to agree with her late parents, even if they weren't around to chastise her dreams anymore.

_'I'm sorry Mom, I'm so sorry Dad… I was always so stubborn and I didn't seem to care… I didn't spend enough time at home, I wasn't with you enough, I went off with my friends all the time, I came home late because I was always at school, staying as late as I could to practice for something that… that you were right about all along! Being a dancer… what was I thinking? If I never become a dancer, if I get a good job, would you come back? Could you? I don't think I can do this, I don't think I can survive without you… I've only pretended to be strong…'_

The doorbell interrupted Téa's downwards-spiraling train of thought, shocking her to her feet. With red, watering eyes, Téa shifted to get up, dusting off her black skirt as she rose. She stumbled towards the door, eyes widening marginally as she came face to face with Seto Kaiba.

He wore a deep gray suit —as formal as Téa had ever seen him— and his usual stoic expression. He needed no invitation to Téa to come in, and he shut the door behind him.

"It's time."

Téa looked at him, the bright blue of her eyes contrasting sharply to the red of her bloodshot eyes, and the redness of the surrounding skin.

She wasn't really thinking straight at the moment, realizing with a sharp pain that it was "time" for her to lay her parents to rest. But she needed to feel comforted, needed to feel that she could get that from someone —anyone— at all. And so Téa launched herself into Seto Kaiba's arms, startling the young man even as he glanced down at her, shaking almost violently against his chest. And without really knowing what compelled him to do so, he wrapped his arms around Téa, giving her the comfort that she so desperately needed at that moment.

* * *

Yugi, Tristan, Serenity, and Joey were already at the graveyard when Téa arrived— in a black limousine. She emerged from the vehicle, her head bowed to the ground even as she stepped forward, dressed entirely in black.

The color didn't suit her; Téa always represented optimism and hope, and wearing the darkest, most foreboding color possible only seemed to highlight (in an ironic manner) the fact that the Téa they all knew and loved so dearly wasn't ever going to be the same.

Mai, too, was there, also wearing a formal black outfit, presenting a very different woman than the one that usually wore violet garb. She stood a slight distance from Joey and the others, watching with a sad expression as Téa walked forward, keeping her eyes on the grass. As their eyes all followed Téa as she walked to the fore of the memorial, few saw both Seto Kaiba and his younger brother Mokuba emerge from the same limo that Téa had.

Most of the company present were friends of the Gardner parents from work— several of Mrs. Gardner's fellow office ladies, a few with their husbands, and several men from Mr. Gardner's own law firm, lawyers or paralegals with their wives.

It wasn't as if the Gardners had been a very social couple, but they had always been kind— it was their teaching that had caused Téa to be the upbeat dreamer her friends had always known her as. While her pushy, stubborn streak seemed to be a product of her teenage years, much of what Téa's parents had taught her stayed with her even in her "rebellious teenage years." What they taught, they had lived— that to give kindness is to receive kindness. And so many adults were there to mourn the loss of a wonderful couple, and to give their condolences to the Gardner's now orphaned daughter.

Téa occupied the first seat in the first row of chairs lining the area before her parent's gravestones, and her friends were quick to seat themselves beside her, with Yugi on Téa's immediate right, followed by Joey, Mai, Serenity, and then Tristan at the end of the row. Kaiba sat on the first seat on the second row, but Mokuba refused to be seated.

Instead, he wandered directly to Téa and stared up at her. She faked a smile, her lips trembling as she did so. Mokuba took this as a good sign, and promptly climbed onto Téa's lap, hugging her for all she was worth. Téa hugged the small boy back, softly crying into his shoulder even as adults and her own friends looked on.

Seto Kaiba, for his part, tried not to look in that direction, not knowing how he'd react if he did. Besides, as far as he knew, Yugi, Wheeler, and their other odd band of friends didn't even know he was there. And, for whatever reason, Kaiba wanted to keep it that way.

* * *

The service dragged on slowly, especially for Téa, who couldn't take her eyes off the coffins. She hadn't chosen them, nor had she had anything to do with the flower arrangements. She wasn't sure who had, or if it even mattered— maybe Konami had taken care of everything himself, since he **was** the one who said something about her parents' term life insurance paying for the funeral.

The smell of the flowers, even in the cool, damp morning, was sickening, almost choking Téa. She tried to avert her eyes from them —and the coffins— and glanced around at those present. Many of the faces were unfamiliar adults, coworkers to either Téa's late mother or father. But, to her surprise, in the back, there were a few faces she knew well.

_'Weevil Underwood? And… Rex Raptor?'_ The two younger boys had both been beaten soundly by Yugi and Joey a number of times, and Téa didn't understand why they were there— let alone dressed just as formally as anyone else present.

Curiosity sparking her, Téa glanced around further, allowing Mokuba, who now sat in her lap, to shift. In the rear, she caught sight of Duke Devlin and Mako Tsunami, recent additions to the small group of friends Téa hung around with. She wondered why they weren't up front, but it was possible that they didn't like funerals very much either.

_'Who would? Probably only that Bonz kid…'_ Téa thought to herself. She swallowed, trying to focus on the sermon that the priest was giving, and after that, the words of several coworkers.

She was dazed and cold, not realizing until the priest kneeled before her.

"Miss Gardner, do you have any last words for your parents?"

Somehow the priest's words made it sound like she was about to get executed, and her parents were there to watch. But such wasn't the case at all.

_'No. I was the one that executed THEM! It… somehow, it's all my fault… If I hadn't… If I hadn't stayed out late, if I'd told Mom I'd be home early to help her with the shopping…' _

But none of Téa's "what ifs" could bring her parents back. She knew that. And it stung. It stung, and it was bitter. It was bright, and it was sharp. So many sensations for a single word —loss. Utter, total, and complete.

Téa rose on shaky feet, depositing Mokuba on the chair that she'd once sat. She walked hesitantly up to the coffins, swallowing the rising bile in her throat a she glanced into the casket.

Heavy makeup covered the scars the couple acquired in what had been a fatal car crash. And while glass no longer littered their skin, the paleness that came with death was painfully obvious. Mrs. Gardner didn't look like the woman Téa had recognized as 'Mother' for seventeen years. She wanted to scream and shout that this was wrong, that this had to be a mistake, that this WASN'T her mother.

But in Téa's heart of hearts, she knew it was. Morticians weren't gods, they couldn't make the dead look alive again. Téa knew, just as well as anyone else, that they weren't simply "sleeping." She reached out a trembling hand and grasped her mother's hand— it was cold. Heavy. Lifeless.

With a gasp, Téa let her mother's hand go, watching in acute horror as it flopped back down to her body with a soft thud. Téa's own hand flew up to her mouth as tears welled in her eyes.

"T-They… they will be missed," Téa mumbled out to the crowd. Whether or not they'd all heard her, it didn't matter, for Téa collapsed to the soft, moist dirt in front of the coffins, crying her heart and eyes out.

Yugi was the first to rise to his feet, but not the first to arrive at Téa's side— rather, Seto Kaiba was there first, kneeling beside Téa, much to Yugi's surprise. Violet eyes met with dark blue ones, reassuring one another that they both only had Téa's best interests in mind— and it was in Téa's best interest at the moment to get away from the cemetery.

Yugi shifted away from Téa, giving her a brief and slight reassuring hug, even as Kaiba helped her to her feet, wiping her eyes with his own handkerchief, and leading her out of the cemetery. Adults followed behind Téa, the service having reached its end.

When all was said and done, Yugi, Serenity, Joey, Tristan and Mai were the last ones left amongst the damp metal seats, staring at the place where Téa had been. She'd clutched a single red rose in her hands until the moment she'd crumbled, and now it lay on the grass, a perfect, still bloom.

Yugi moved towards it, making sure the stem was free of thorns, and slid it gently into the clasping hands of Mrs. Gardner.

"Rest in peace, Mrs. Gardner," he whispered.

And he too left the graveyard, followed shortly thereafter by the rest of his friends.

* * *

"That's the last of it, right?"

Téa nodded slowly, watching as the movers took the last box of clothes Téa had. Almost everything else —furniture, food, and her parents' belongings— would either be thrown out, given to the bank with the property, or sold.

The money from the estate sale would go to Téa's property holdings, and when she turned 18, she could do what she wanted— with the house, the furniture, and the money earned from the sales.

None of that was on Téa's mind though.

After the funeral, Kaiba had led Téa back to the limousine, and immediately driven her back to the mansion. He hadn't wasted a moment making sure the movers were on their way to Téa's old house, and barely twenty minutes later, Téa, now in black jeans and a baggy, long-sleeved shirt, nodded her assent to the final move.

She stumbled towards the door, offering a timid smile to Kaiba, who reached out to catch if she were to pitch forward into the ground. And she walked up to the house, walked around it once, and brushed her fingers against every surface, even that of the mailbox, damp with morning mist.

"Good-bye…" she whispered, "Good-bye." And with lowered eyes, Téa Gardner locked the door to the past seventeen years of her life.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> AAAAAAAAAAANYWAY…let me know what you think. If you think…anything. :) Yeah.


	3. Call It A Personal Favor

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Slowly but surely, the members of the Kaiba household are getting used to Téa's presence. But can Téa ever get used to living with them?

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> **What Doesn't Kill You  
> Chapter 3: Call It A Personal Favor  
> Version 4.5 - **Deprecated tags removed**  
> ****A Yu-Gi-Oh Fanfiction**  
> **By:** Azurite - azurite AT seventh-star DOT net  
> **Site:** seventh-star DOT net  
> **Conceptualized/First Written:** 10/15/03  
> **Completed/Posted:** 10/16/03
> 
> **Edits:** 8/15/04, 11/23/04, 12/4/05
> 
> _**Rated PG13 for angst and such…**_
> 
> **Disclaimer:** ME, own Yu-Gi-Oh? I wish! (I can't believe I forgot a disclaimer before… someone smack me) Anyway, if I were Kazuki Takahashi or the people at Shounen Jump or Viz or 4Kids or wherever, I'd not only be rich, but I'd make a REAL life Seto Kaiba for me to hold prisoner or something… So yeah. This is for fun, not profit.
> 
> **RECAP:** Téa's parents died. She didn't have a place to call home— until Seto Kaiba, of all people, offered her a job. Too good to be true? Maybe. She's just moved in, and her job's just getting started…

"Miss Gardner? May I speak to you outside for a moment?"

Téa glanced up at her third period teacher, tired blue eyes gazing wonderingly at her teacher's brown ones. She rose slowly to her feet, not noticing the curious gazes of Yugi, Joey, Tristan— and Seto Kaiba.

Outside the classroom, Téa was surprised to see not one, but all seven of her teachers out there, each of them wearing a mask of concern on their normally expressionless faces.

"Miss Gardner," Ms. Ninomiya, Téa's Japanese Literature teacher began, twisting the ring on the forefinger of her right hand, "We hate to bring this up, but…" She trailed off, catching the eye of Mr. Kinomoto, Téa's World History teacher.

"Well, Miss Gardner, we've noticed a severe drop in the quality of your work since… since, well, your parents passed away." He too, looked uncomfortable discussing such a sensitive topic, especially with the way it appeared that he and six other teachers were ganging up on a defenseless student.

Téa's science teacher, Mr. Takahashi, took the reigns now, speaking, "And it's not as if that's not a plausible excuse… I think most of us can understand the grief of losing loved ones…" The teacher glanced at his fellow teachers, who all nodded solemnly. Téa's eyes were downcast, but her lips moved slightly, though no words passed through them.

"What we're suggesting," Mr. Eba, Téa's English teacher took over, "Is that you perhaps take a week off or so from school… maybe to just let things sink in."

"Yes, there's no reason why you should over-stress yourself by having to focus on school every single day, when you obviously still need time to mourn, to heal," Ms. Misao, Téa's gym teacher, added in, nodding as she spoke.

Mrs. Higurashi, Téa's Home Economics teacher, smiled at Téa, even though the girl's eyes were lowered to the floor as if she were being reprimanded.

"This is not a suspension, Téa. It's something your other teachers and I have discussed at great length with one another, and with the deans. And we ARE going to give you your work for the next two weeks right now. But we want you to take it at your own pace, and to call one of your classmates if you need to. But rest." Téa's math teacher, Mr. Furuhata added.

"Yes, stay at home." The teachers all nodded in agreement, "Heal."

* * *

"I am SO bored." Téa flopped backwards on the couch, staring up, up, up— and, no matter how hard Téa squinted, she couldn't tell if there were tiles on the ceiling or not.

She didn't want to focus on two weeks' worth of schoolwork at the moment —she had left school shortly before the lunch period, hardly offering an explanation to her friends other than that she was going home and resting for a while.

But she wasn't much in the mood for questions, either. And she was getting tired of everyone's apologies. Perhaps being alone was the best thing.

_'Who knows, maybe Kaiba's got something going on with that solitude-policy of his.'_

Funny that she would ever find something GOOD about Kaiba's voluntary-isolationist attitude.

It wasn't long before Téa grew bored even with resting, and so she sprung to her feet.

In the past week or so since she'd been staying at the Kaiba mansion -including the week when she hadn't been allowed to stay in her own house- she'd slept on the couch, and barely explored the place.

Kaiba wasn't supposed to be home until after 5:30, and Mokuba… well, being in elementary school, he'd probably get off around 2:30, and be home shortly thereafter.

But there were HOURS until then. It was only 12:26.

_'Okay then, time to explore.'_

Téa sprung to her feet and started to look around. She was in the vast Kaiba mansion, on an enormous estate, property of the youngest and richest young man in Domino City —maybe even all of Tokyo?— and she hadn't even begun to explore.

* * *

Téa already knew about the living area— the place she'd made her own room of sorts for the past several days. She kept her satchel by the couch, but left her duffle bag with her extra changes of clothing in the ground floor bathroom closet— a bathroom that Mokuba had been courteous enough to show her, after he saw Téa make yet another trip all the way upstairs just to use the bathroom.

_'What else is on the ground level that I don't even know about?'_ Téa wondered to herself, stepping into the kitchen. The fridge was on her right upon entering through the swinging door, while a series of cabinets lined the wall, and a small countertop underneath the far right counters held a toaster and a shiny waffle iron.

_'Somehow Kaiba doesn't strike me as much of a cook though… Huh. For all I know he's an Iron Chef in disguise.'_

The kitchen was large, but there wasn't anything of particular interest to Téa there— even the refrigerator, with its built-in ice maker —and was that a TV?— was bare of any magnets or decorations.

_'Back at my old house, the fridge was always covered in stuff— appointment notices, pictures, drawings, and even my high school entrance exams— even though they were two years old!'_ The thought saddened Téa some, remembering her old house and how sentimental her parents could be —**were**, Téa corrected herself— but now…

There was no wall separating the tiled kitchen from the carpeted room with two couches, a large bookshelf, and a large television, surrounded by all the latest gaming consoles, and even a Duel Disk II, though there was no deck inside.

_'An entertainment room, I guess, for lack of a better name.'_ Téa thought to herself, shifting her gaze to the opening in the wall. There was a short hallway with the entrance to the laundry room and the garage (Téa assumed) to her right, with a doorway to the ground floor bathroom just before that. Kaiba's office was connected to the bathroom, as it lay on the opposite side of the wall, with its door on Téa's right, as she approached the front door.

She stood, looking all around her, taking in the huge space and the decorations— which Kaiba and Mokuba probably didn't think twice about, as they saw them every day.

_'I bet this mirror here costs more than a year's worth of school lunches,'_ Téa thought, facing a four-foot tall mirror hung high above Téa's head— all the way down to her knees. It was decorated with decorative moldings— robed women, flowers, and vases, all painted a rich gold color, so as not to detract from the simplicity the mirror brought to the marble entryway.

_'That's funny. Something seems… off…'_ Téa ran her fingers over the mirror, brushing the tips against a carved woman and the water vase she was holding at an angle, letting the carved stream of water pour down half the length of the mirror.

The base of the carved base protruded out, and when Téa's finger ran over the bottom, she felt a strange bump. Without realizing, she'd pushed the bump —a button!— in, and there was a sudden clicking sound.

_'Uh oh… what have I done now?'_ Téa took a step backwards— nothing seemed to be happening, and nothing seemed out of place about the mirror— it was still in one piece and still reflected Téa's form.

# Ah, Miss Gardner, # an unfamiliar voice, tinged with a British accent, spoke, seemingly out of nowhere.

"Huh… what…? Who's there? What's going on!" Téa demanded, looking around her in fear. Still, no one was there.

Suddenly the clicking sound from behind the mirror stopped, and there was silence for a brief second— before the mirror slid UP on the wall, revealing a dark, stone staircase going up— to places unknown.

# If you'll just come up the stairs, Miss Gardner, I'll be glad to explain everything. #

Téa wasn't so quick to trust an unfamiliar voice —but then again, she WAS in Kaiba's mansion, and wasn't this place one of the most secure homes in the country?

_'Short of living in a bank vault, I mean…'_ Téa glanced up at the stairs hesitantly, the only light defining one step from another a dim bluish-white light from the walls.

Swallowing her doubts and fears, Téa stepped forward into the darkness, and up the stairs.

* * *

"Uh… hello?" Téa had reached the platform at the top of the stairs— which was just more stone lit by thin rows of bluish-white light lining the walls.

# Third door on your right, Miss Gardner. #

Téa glanced up towards the ceiling and saw the dark outline of a speaker. It only made sense— there was no way someone could have projected their voice that far. But downstairs, Téa hadn't seen any speakers…

_'I think Kaiba's hiding a lot more than I thought, if he's got himself a secret floor!'_ Téa thought to herself.

Téa reached the third room, and opened the heavy steel door with some trepidation.

"Ah, Miss Gardner, you've arrived." The same voice that had spoken to her over the speakers was now right in front of her— and belonging to a thin, older gentleman with a ring of white hair around his head. He had a bushy mustache of the same color, beneath which was a sincere smile.

"I am Charles, head of security here at the Kaiba estate. Welcome."

"Ah… thanks," Téa sweatdropped, surprised by the massive amount of technology she was surrounded by. Charles sat in a black leather chair with wheels, so he could spin around and look at any of the monitors on the other three walls of the small room. Panels in front of Charles were lined with various buttons and switches, some of them labeled. But Téa had no idea what any of them did.

All she knew was that each monitor showed a place in the house— some of them rooms Téa hadn't even seen.

"I'd introduce myself," Téa began, looking somewhat sheepish, especially in awe of all the technology this 'Charles' had at his fingertips. "But you already seem to know my name, so…"

"Ah yes. Well, Master Kaiba informed me of your arrival to the household, and suggested I put you at ease by familiarizing you with the security of the estate."

"Oh…" Téa's attention was captured by one of the monitors, displaying what looked like… _'That can't be a dance studio…'_ Téa squinted to get a closer look, but the screen flickered for a moment and showed a different room.

"Here's a map of the estate," Charles spoke up, handing Téa what looked like a Palm Pilot.

"Wow, what is this thing?"

"One of Kaiba Corp's latest products— the KC100, a versatile, mobile, personal information storage system. These particular models are used for security, but this model you have only contains the house mapping programming."

"I see…" Téa stared at the device a moment, and pushed the tiny gray button beside the silver Kaiba Corp Logo. Instantly, a three dimensional model of the house appeared, turning and zooming in until it showed the hallway in which the security room was positioned.

"Those two dots are us. The device functions as a sort of Global Positioning System, even though no maps besides those of the Kaiba Mansion have been downloaded. All the same, the KC100 is linked to the Kaiba Corp network, and can interface with any compatible products, be they entertainment players, gaming consoles, or even the grocery ordering system on the kitchen refrigerator."

Téa's eyes went wide, "Grocery ordering system? That's what the TV on the fridge is for?"

"Well," Charles chuckled slightly at how wide Téa's sky blue eyes were, "It's not as if Master Kaiba has time to buy his own food."

"No…" Téa quieted, staring at the model once more, using the directional keypad to rotate and find out what the other rooms in the mysterious mezzanine hallway were. "I guess not."

_'Kaiba's not like other guys… not like **any** other people. I mean, besides all the riches and technology separating him from your average Joey, he's also got his own company to run. And he's the only one looking after his brother… well, until now. Until me.'_

"Feel free to tour the house, Miss Gardner. At 4:00, I retire to my own household around the opposite side of the estate, with the rest of the servants. If you have any questions, just find the white intercom panels placed throughout the house, and enter code '541.' You can reach me immediately that way."

"Oh… okay… Uhm, hey, can I ask you something, Mr… Charles?"

"Charles will be fine, Miss Gardner. What do you want to know?"

"Uhm… well, I was wondering… what happened to Kaiba's dad? I mean, that is, uh…" Téa was well aware that Mokuba and Seto Kaiba's mother had died —that was what Mokuba had told her, anyway— but she didn't know anything about their father. Only that he didn't appear to be around anymore. Still, the curiosity was burning her from the inside out, and she wondered just what other dark secrets Seto Kaiba was hiding behind his complacent mask.

The gentlemanly smile that had been on Charles' face faded. "While I have been in the employ of the Kaiba family for many years, it is not my place to discuss such matters. Such questions are best left to Master Kaiba himself."

"Oh… sorry…" Téa began, turning. She felt somewhat guilty for having asked such a question when really it wasn't any of her business, but she couldn't shake the strange feeling that she knew less about Seto Kaiba than she should— for someone who was not only in his employ, but also considered him a friend…

"Miss Gardner?" Charles spoke up, even as Téa's hand was on the doorknob. The young brunette turned to face the elderly security chief once more.

"Master Kaiba is a very, shall we say, personal young man. Perhaps questions regarding his past are best left between those… **not **in his employ."

With that, Charles left Téa to her own thoughts, turning back to the security monitors.

* * *

_'Just what was he implying, anyway? Not only did he say that Kaiba's dad was in his **past**, so I guess he really did die… Or something. But then, Charles said something about asking Kaiba himself… only… "questions regarding his past are best left between those… **not** in his employ"…? Was he referring to ME?'_

There wasn't any other explanation, really. Surely Charles knew that Kaiba had employed her— why else would he have felt it necessary to know all about the security of the house? Ordinary guests probably didn't get such briefings…

Téa glanced down at the KC100 in her hand, wondering where to go.

On her way back to the mirror-door, she passed by a strange room with a steel door much like that of the security room— only, the window was much smaller. Standing up on her tiptoes, she glanced inside, but couldn't make anything out, as the entire room was dark.

However, to her left was one of the white intercoms Charles had spoken about. Though she wasn't all that far from the security room, for some reason, Téa didn't feel up to seeing Charles again— and the silent reprimand in his eyes.

_'After all, who am **I** to pry into Kaiba's personal life? I'm not family, and I guess I can't really consider him a friend, not if he doesn't feel the same way about me… all I am to him is an employee.'_

Or so Téa's train of thought insisted. She DID remember Kaiba's recent strain of unusually kind gestures, including the very generous gesture of allowing an orphaned Téa Gardner to move into his home. And Téa still didn't know, even a week later, just why he'd been so nice, but she hoped it was because he was starting to open up to her, and starting to think of HER as a friend.

_'We might have been through hell and back with all the duels and battles we've seen, and Joey and Tristan might hate him… but I… I can't. Especially after what he's done for me lately.'_

Téa rid her mind of such thoughts of Seto Kaiba by quickly keying in the code Charles had told her. 5-4-1.

# Yes, Miss Gardner? #

"Uhm…" Téa started, hesitantly, pressing her finger to the TALK button, "I'm standing in front of this room, but it's not displaying on the map. I'm just curious as to what's going on. Maybe the map isn't downloaded right or something?" Téa was no technological genius, but she knew some terminology, especially after all this time watching Kaiba come up with new Duel systems every other month, it seemed.

There was a moment of silence as Charles, on the other end of the line and not far down the hall, clicked a few buttons on his panel to bring up a camera view of where Téa was standing.

# You are in front of the panic room, Miss Gardner. #

"The pa— WHAT?"

# It is purposely left unmarked on the map for security reasons. In case of an emergency, the panic room is a place for residents and guests of the household to take shelter. #

"Sounds like something out of a movie, if you ask me…" Téa mumbled under her breath.

# I'm sorry, Miss Gardner? #

Téa looked at the intercom, startled, realizing she'd kept her finger on the button while she'd muttered.

"Uhm, nothing! Thanks… for clearing that up for me! I'll be uh, going now…!"

Téa broke into a veritable run, taking the steps back downstairs two at a time, barely waiting for the mirror mechanism to complete its cycle before she dashed out of the darkened mezzanine passageway.

* * *

Téa looked around the ground floor once more, finding everything quiet. She glanced down at the map, staring at the key.

"'Press up and the button to see second floor.'" Téa read, doing just that. The house rotated as Téa moved towards the staircase and upstairs.

_'Didn't Kaiba say something this morning about picking a room? Maybe I'll do that now.'_

It **would** be nice not to have to sleep on the couch anymore. And as for all her boxes of things? Who knew where Kaiba had the movers stash them? He hadn't said much to her about rooms or her things otherwise, so Téa had to take it upon herself to find out everything— on her own.

But no problem — she was more than willing at that moment.

Téa climbed the marble staircase slowly, staring around her in awe as her perspective changed. The plush, white carpeted living area and its furniture seemed to shrink, as the overhead chandeliers grew in size, sparkling with the afternoon sun streaming through the ceiling-to-floor windows.

When she reached the top floor, it branched out in two directions — left and right, though to her left, there was only one door, leading to the pristine white room Téa knew as the bathroom. Cattycorner to that room, a door leading to what Téa suspected was a closet.

But the rest of the length of the place was a mystery.

_'I suppose one of those rooms is Mokuba's, since there don't appear to be any bedrooms on the ground floor,'_ Téa chuckled to herself, remembering how Kaiba never seemed to sleep, _'Though maybe Kaiba's office doubles as a bedroom? I never **do **see him go up to bed…'_

Of course, a just a likely explanation could have been that Kaiba went to bed long after Téa fell asleep on the couch. Though Téa didn't fall asleep too easily those past few days…

Oddly enough, none of the rooms seemed to be marked— not like the other rooms on the ground floor. Before, when Téa had been within a few meters of the entrance of a room, a small box appeared on the display, informing the girl of what the room was. Nothing had appeared while Téa had been in the dark mezzanine, and nothing appeared now.

_'I guess it only makes sense, though… you can't exactly PROGRAM a bedroom, now can you? That IS what all of these rooms are… I think.'_

The young brunette pushed open the door to the room on the farthest end of the hall, making to start there and work her way across and down back to the stairs. She supposed she would find a suitable room soon enough, especially since the hall was so wide, and the rooms so large.

The first one was dark, heavy drapery preventing any sunlight from peeking into the wood-furnished room. A king-sized bed was covered in plastic tarps, allowing the burgundy comforter to show through. A mahogany desk with nothing on its polished surface gleamed in the dim hall light, in the right corner of the room near the tall window.

The room had a rather foreboding feeling about it, one that Téa didn't like at all. She glanced around, realizing that, while the room was furnished, it didn't appear to have been recently **lived** in. She closed the door on the cold, dark place, and moved on.

* * *

Two rooms later, Téa found herself in a room that, unlike the other two, wasn't covered in plastic tarps, or blocking every ray of sunlight coming from the windows.

Rather, this one had pumpkin orange curtains parted as far as they could go, letting every ray of sunshine stream into the room. The wooden floor was polished, shining in the sunlight, as was the desk and the bed frame— which was noticeably smaller.

_'Reminds me of that last room I was in…'_ Téa thought to herself, recalling the aquamarine-themed room that, like the first burgundy room, was old, dusty, and chilling to the soul.

Only, this room seemed to have a much warmer, friendlier atmosphere about it.

When Téa spied some Duel Monsters figurines spread out on the floor, she immediately realized whose room she was in.

_'Mokuba's! Who knew the kid was THIS neat?'_ Then Téa decided to walk around the room a little, and caught sight of the other side of the bed.

She gulped reflexively when she saw the mound of toys, papers, and stuffed animals almost bursting from underneath the opposite side of Mokuba's bed. No wonder he had it looking so neat— when anyone entered, they wouldn't think that such a mess was awaiting them on the other side of the bed.

Téa chuckled and smiled, bathing in the warm sunlight for a while, and then exited the room.

The next room seemed to be a polar opposite of Mokuba's room, however— instead of orange curtains and a warm atmosphere, the room was accented in a royal navy blue, and with the heavy curtains closed all the way, all was dark.

Téa brushed her hands along the wooden wall until she found a light switch, flicking it on, and inhaling sharply when she saw the room in its entirety.

Larger than Mokuba's, of course, it had a king-sized bed, — not covered in dusty plastic tarps — along with a large desk, an armoire, and a door leading to what had to be a walk-in closet.

_'This is SO my room.' _Téa smiled to herself, promptly flopping down on the bed, tossing the KC100 on a nearby end-table. She got up a moment later and flicked out the light, exhaustion creeping through her bones as she crawled back to the bed.

Sure, the room was cold and dark— but that could be easily remedied if need be. But right now… sleep was… so inviting…

* * *

Seto Kaiba was **not **happy.

Of course, school had gone as routinely as possible— everything so simple and mundane it didn't even matter anymore. But of course, Téa had to be haunting his thoughts, what with her sudden disappearance.

He'd overheard Yugi and his friends chattering away about it at lunch. No doubt, she would be at home —his home!— resting, but for how long? When would she return to school?

_'And why does that even matter to me?'_ Kaiba had wondered to himself, picking at his lunch. He suddenly wasn't very hungry anymore, and tossed the sandwich into the trash, later returning to yet another set of boring classes.

Of course, none of that was what made Seto Kaiba unhappy.

No, it was something else entirely.

He'd gotten an 'emergency call' from work —that is to say, the Kaiba Corp offices— shortly after leaving school. He'd planned to go into the offices to begin with, just to check up on things and make sure everything was running smoothly— but he hadn't expected to get confronted by a whole slew of angry-looking women from the public relations department.

"Mr. Kaiba," one of them, Ms. Kodaku began, her arms crossed over her chest, "Are you aware of what today's date is?"

Kaiba stared at the woman blandly, and sighed, "August 19th."

"And do you know what happens at the END of the week?" Another woman, this one Kaiba's own secretary, chimed in, tapping her heel on the floor.

"…" He was silent a moment, trying to come up with whatever event or appointment held such great importance on the 24th of August.

"MR. KAIBA!" they all chorused together impatiently, causing the young CEO to get even **more **irritated, this time because a headache was coming on.

"WHAT? What is so important about the 24th! It's a Saturday! It's not anyone's birthday, it's not a national holiday, I'm not meeting with the CEOs or delegates of any companies or countries, so WHAT IS IT!"

The group of women seemed slightly taken aback that the normally calm and collected Seto Kaiba snapping at them, but they didn't seem too upset about it. Seto Kaiba wouldn't stand for having such weak-minded individuals in his company if that were the case.

"The 50th Anniversary of this company, Mr. Kaiba. And this is a VERY big event. Unlike our previous Anniversary Balls, we celebrate your latest product design, the success of the Battle City tournament, and a complete turnaround of the company's image in the public eye."

_'Success? They weren't AT the Battle City tournament,'_ Kaiba thought to himself, irked at the older woman's words. Still, he continued to listen.

_'Complete turnaround? It's not like I hear people on the street praising Kaiba Corp. In fact, the few people that know I run the company don't seem to like me very much…'_

Unbidden, an image of Yugi, Joey, and Tristan came to mind. Kaiba grimaced mentally, and then realized that, set apart from his mental vision of his not-quite-friends was none other than Téa Gardner.

She had never outwardly expressed a **dislike** for him, and now… and now…?

_'I don't even have a clue as to what she thinks of me…' _Kaiba mused to himself.

"Mr. Kaiba, are you LISTENING?"

"Yes? What? What now?" Kaiba suddenly looked up at the women, who, to his surprise, appeared to be smirking.

"So then, you have agreed?"

Kaiba's eyes narrowed. "To what…?"

The women sighed in exasperation, "The 50th Anniversary Ball, Mr. Kaiba! It is a VERY important event, and not only will your attendance be expected -no, assumed- but you MUST be accompanied by a female escort!"

"A WHAT?"

* * *

Seto Kaiba sighed. So, he was pretty much FORCED to come to what was going to be another stupid Anniversary Ball. Since he'd taken over the company when he turned 16, he'd gone to every one of them— of course the 48th and 49th Anniversaries weren't ever such a big deal.

And no one had ever REQUIRED him to have a date before.

Not like now. Now he couldn't just come with Mokuba, as he always had before, representing the Kaiba family as the heir and CEO. No, now he needed to have a "female escort."

His secretary's words had dripped with the venom of promise— if Seto Kaiba didn't find himself a suitable date before the Ball the coming Saturday, then they would rope him with a REAL female escort.

And while Kaiba had never actually exploited the services of such women, he knew well enough that he had no mind to spend an entire evening -sure to be publicized in every major Japanese newspaper and on every television program- with a stranger.

_'But what other choice do I have? It's not like I know any girls well enough to…'_ Kaiba's thoughts stopped in their tracks.

_'Well, I do know **one**…'_

* * *

Seto Kaiba made his way through his house, wondering where Téa and Mokuba were. It was after 5:30, and he didn't see either of them on the ground floor.

Hopefully, Téa was doing her job, and Mokuba was getting help on his homework. At that particular moment, Kaiba wanted nothing more than to tromp upstairs and take a long nap. Sleep would undoubtedly clear his head— especially of those ridiculous thoughts he'd had a short time ago—

_'Bah! Me take Téa to the Ball? She'd probably laugh in my face if I even asked.'_

Well, he doubted she'd really do **that**, but still… something inside him wasn't too keen on asking her. Maybe it was his gut instinct insisting she still needed time to herself… or maybe it was something else telling him he'd better NOT cross the line between employer and employee— or at best, two friends on rocky ground.

So sleep sounded like a very good idea— to clear these muddled thoughts from his head, and to get some rest— after all, he hadn't slept much in the past couple of days…

Seto Kaiba was already beginning to yawn when he reached the second floor, pushing open the door. He blinked, awakening a fraction when he realized the door had been ajar.

The lights weren't on, but someone —one of the maids?— had opened the window, and the last rays of sunshine were shining in, revealing a lump on the bed.

_'I know the maids always make my bed,'_ Kaiba thought to himself. But he hadn't even **slept** in it the past few days, and it had been made the last time he checked— so what…?

_'Huh. Maybe Mokuba snuck in here? But why not sleep in his own room?'_

Kaiba didn't bother to turn on the lights as he approached his bed, brushing aside the blankets.

His eyes went wide when he realized the form was not that of his little brother —or even a boy!— but that of Téa Gardner!

She was sound asleep, and when Kaiba moved the blanket aside, she murmured in her sleep.

"So cold…"

The young CEO stepped backwards a moment, wondering what to do. Téa had certainly made herself at home— in his own bed, no less— but she sure couldn't stay there. Still, she was sound asleep, and a little voice in Kaiba's mind insisted that he be a gentleman and let her stay that way, until she awoke of her own accord.

He stared at Téa's form for a moment, contemplating a course of action, watching as she curled up and snuggled deeper into HIS sheets.

_'Well I can't let her sleep here **all** night…'_

And so, Seto Kaiba made up his mind. After a few quick moments to come up with a plan, he leaned towards Téa and carefully -and swiftly- scooped her into his arms, intending to take her to one of the vacant rooms nearby so she could get some sleep.

What he didn't expect was for Téa, in the midst of her sleep, to confuse HIM with his bed, and snuggle closer to him.

"Mm, this bed is nice…" she murmured, clutching Seto's white school shirt.

Seto Kaiba froze in place, glad that his arms didn't suddenly slack from the surprise. He'd had Mokuba cuddle up to him before, but that was distinctly different from THIS. He didn't exactly know how or why, it just WAS.

"So warm…" Téa murmured.

Seto Kaiba, having never experienced a girl snuggling up to him in such a manner, didn't know how to react. So his mind froze, and his body acted involuntarily— quickly heating up a few degrees and sending all the blood in his head right to his cheeks.

Luckily, Téa wasn't awake to see his face redden so— and no one else was around.

He quickly made his way out of his room, glancing down the hall to see which room would be the most appropriate. The one diagonal to his own— two doors down on the opposite side of the hall— would do.

It was one of the three vacant guest rooms that Kaiba allowed for use— while his own and Mokuba's rooms, of course, were restricted, as were the two rooms at the end of the hall. Few knew just why the burgundy and aquamarine rooms were off-limits, but most knew better than to ask.

Kaiba was about to walk to the room and deposit Téa quickly on the bed— when he nearly tripped into someone.

"Big Brother…?"

Mokuba realized who he'd bumped into in the darkness, and looked up— and realized that his brother's arms were full— of Téa!

Eyes wide and mouth hanging open in mute astonishment, Mokuba continued to block Seto's way into the vacant room.

"Oh, stop looking at me like that, Mokuba," Seto finally murmured quietly, so as not to wake the sleeping girl in his arms. "She must have wanted a room to take a nap in, and decided to pick mine." His tone was exasperated, even as he stared at his younger sibling— as if there could have been any OTHER explanation for why he was leaving his room with Téa in his arms!

"Riiiiight," Mokuba nodded, his voice thick with sarcasm. He plastered a grin on his face as he moved out of the way, opening the door to the guest room Seto was heading towards.

"So this is going to be Big Sister Téa's room?" Mokuba asked, once Seto had Téa placed comfortably on the bed— and no longer affixed to his shirt.

"I guess so. I hope she doesn't mind. If she likes it, we'll help her move her things in tomorrow, okay?"

"Sounds good… but Big Brother?"

"What?" Seto Kaiba was more than tired now, and he had the feeling that Mokuba wasn't done teasing him yet.

"Next time Big Sister Téa's sleeping in your bed, I wouldn't complain."

* * *

When Téa awoke, it was after 8:30— or so read the digital clock on the end-table beside her bed.

"Huh? That isn't mine…" Téa murmured sleepily, rubbing the tiredness out of her eyes. She rolled to one side, suddenly realizing that she was no longer on the couch downstairs— in fact, wasn't in the room she had been before, as the room was on the other side of the wall!

"Wha…?" She got up and stretched some, feeling a little bit more rested, but having no more peace of mind than she had last week.

The room was dark, the curtains closed, but Téa could make out the silhouette of her end-table, on which a clock was perched, along with a clean wooden desk, a wardrobe, and two posts protruding from the foot of her bed, holding up a rolled-up bed curtain.

_'A four-post bed? Have I suddenly turned into a princess and arrived in a castle?'_

No, not a castle, Téa reminded herself, but the Kaiba mansion. She remembered her teachers telling her to take some time off, and with a brief explanation to her friends, Téa had left school and promptly returned "home" — to the Kaiba place.

But she didn't remember falling asleep in that room.

_'Oh well… I guess it doesn't matter much…'_

On cue, Téa's stomach grumbled.

_'That matters. Time to get food.'_

* * *

"Hey, you're awake." A voice greeted Téa as she stumbled into the kitchen, nearly knocking her head on an open kitchen cabinet.

The girl rubbed her eyes, and saw Seto Kaiba and Mokuba both seated at the kitchen table, boxes of Chinese food surrounding them. Mokuba held up a box of what appeared to be beef with snow peas, and grinned in his usual impish manner.

"Takeout?"

Téa settled herself down at the table a moment later, grabbing one of the paper plates in the middle of the table, along with some chopsticks and a can of cola.

"We always order takeout," Mokuba explained, noticing Téa's curious gaze as she looked at the slew of boxes.

"It's either that or microwave dinners," Mokuba grimaced as he said this, expressing his extreme dislike of the frozen foods.

"Not a fan of the frozen chicken, are you?" Téa asked, taking a bite of her beef.

"YUCK! I've had so much frozen food, macaroni, and JELL-O in the past month, I'm going to turn INTO a frozen dinner!"

Seto smirked, finishing the last of his own plate, started a good twenty minutes before Téa had arrived, still looking sleepy.

"That'd be a transformation I'd pay to see."

Mokuba stuck his tongue out at his older brother, who only kept eating, the smirk staying put on his face. Téa was tempted to smile at herself, especially at the uncharacteristic display of sibling antics between Mokuba and Seto —when normally both boys acted much older than their age.

"It's all your fault, Big Brother! You never make dinner!" At this, Téa raised her eyes to Seto, who shrugged.

"You suck at cooking though, so I guess I'd better not jinx myself into getting food poisoning…" Mokuba added slyly, grinning as he stuffed a fortune cookie into his mouth.

"Hey!" Seto frowned, his expression indignant, "I can make breakfast…"

Mokuba only stared back at his brother blandly. "Cereal doesn't count."

At this, Téa burst into laughter, catching the attention of the two boys.

"Takeout's a nice treat every now and then, Kaiba, but come on! Mokuba's a growing boy, and takeout and frozen dinner will only get him so far."

"Yeah Seto!" Mokuba chimed in, "You're going to stunt my growth!"

"Your growth is already stunted, midget."

"Hey!" The banter between the two boys continued, and Téa couldn't help but smile. Seto Kaiba, in his own home, was vastly different from the young man she'd first encountered when Yugi had dueled him prior to Duelist Kingdom. And even throughout then… and even Battle City… he always appeared to be cold, unfeeling, humorless…

_'I guess you never **can** judge a book by its cover. Seto Kaiba sure isn't who he seems.'_ Téa remembered the secret passageway —and Charles' words about the late Kaiba patriarch— but wisely refrained from bringing the subject up.

"Well," Téa interrupted what had evolved into a staring contest between the two brothers, "unlike someone else here," she smirked, nudging Seto in the arm, "I **can** cook. So how about next week I start some lessons for you?"

Seto Kaiba raised an eyebrow, not expecting this.

"I thought Mokuba was the only one supposed to be getting lessons around here," he quipped, resting his chin in the palm of his left hand.

"Isn't one of your policies to learn everything about your opponent?" Téa smiled, remembering how Kaiba had analyzed every entrant in the Battle City tournament to determine their capability of dueling.

"Aaand, before you say I'm not an opponent or a duelist or whatever, you better watch our, or I might challenge you to an Iron Chef Duel!" Téa grinned, proud of her word selection— she knew Kaiba would respond with at least a LITTLE enthusiasm— at least, where the words 'challenge' and 'duel' were involved.

"You're on," Kaiba shot back. "Next week."

Téa laughed, as did Mokuba. "This oughta be fun."

* * *

"Are you sure you're going to be all right… alone, I mean?" Kaiba asked for the umpteenth time before he left the house the following morning for school.

Téa had informed him shortly before returning to bed of what her teachers had told her. She didn't ask Kaiba to tell her friends, knowing what an awkward situation that could become, and hoped Kaiba would know not to say anything to them regardless.

_'The last thing I need right now is Joey finding out I'm living with Kaiba.' _Téa grimaced.

"I'll be fine, Kaiba. Thanks… for asking." Maybe it was too much to hope that he actually **cared**— but what other reason could he be asking for? Seto Kaiba turned in the doorway, almost hesitating, before walking down the stone pathway to where the limo waited, just outside the front gate.

"Don't forget to eat right, Mokuba!" Téa called. The young boy turned and smiled, waving enthusiastically back at Téa.

"I will! And you'll help me with my homework when I get home, right?"

"You got it!"

"And we'll move your stuff into the room." Kaiba added, waving to Kaiba as well— though his wave was rather stiff and jerky. An odd smile quirked the corners of his lips, which made Téa smile even wider herself.

"Have a good day at school, guys!"

Téa watched the two Kaiba brothers get into the limo, waiting until the sleek black vehicle was out of sight before turning around and heading into the house.

"_**Now**_ what am I going to do?"

* * *

Téa wiped the thin sheen of sweat that had formed on her brow with her sleeve, rising to her feet. Her knees and elbows ached, but that was to be expected after moving boxes and boxes of stuff.

Kaiba had told her the previous night where her stuff was stashed— and just as immediately had told her not to do any of the moving herself, that he and Mokuba would take care of it as soon as they got home.

And while Téa appreciated their kindness, in her eyes, Kaiba had already done so much for her… the least she could do was move her own stuff. It was embarrassing enough when Mokuba had reminded Téa that she hadn't woken up in the room she'd fallen asleep in.

_"Yeah, that's because you were sleeping in Big Brother's room!" _

_Téa stared at Seto, who nodded slowly, though he kept his eyes fixated on whatever was on the fortune from his cookie. Téa thought she was imagining things —sleepiness was probably still clouding her vision— but was Seto Kaiba BLUSHING?_

_'No way, he can't be,' Téa thought to herself, snatching her own fortune cookie. _

_"Ehhe… sorry about that.." Téa muttered, averting her own eyes from Kaiba's. How **embarrassing**!_

_She quickly broke open her cookie and read the fortune inside: "You will experience an unexpected loss, but will recover in due time."_

_'Well isn't that the truth.' Téa thought to herself. 'Unexpected loss all right… I lost my parents…!' Téa stifled a sniffle, and crunched the rest of her fortune cookie away, shoving the fortune into her pocket before Mokuba or Seto could ask about it._

So now Téa had moved as much as she could carry into her new room, a purple-themed room Téa had dubbed 'The Violet Room.' It was beautiful, with its deep, cherry wood accents and mahogany flooring, along with lavender-colored, filmy bed curtains stretching from each of the four posts making up Téa's new canopy bed.

Like the other rooms, Téa's room had a wardrobe, a desk, and two endtables, along with a huge, empty walk-in closet. She wasn't that far from the second floor hallway bathroom, though the bedroom she'd initially hoped for —Seto Kaiba's, Téa remembered with a blush— had its own bathroom. Well of course it did, it was the master bedroom!

Still, it wasn't as if Téa was complaining. No, that much luxury was rather hard to complain about…

Still, now Téa wasn't in the mood for any more heavy lifting.

_'Rather, I'm in the mood for some heavy eating. All this food has got me starved!'_

Téa remembered her first experience in the kitchen— getting lost looking in all the cabinets, and finally finding a bowl of cereal to tide her over. But Téa's hunger at that particular moment wasn't about to be quelled with a mere bowl of Lucky Charms.

No, she needed to MAKE something.

Hunger pulled Téa to the door of the high-tech refrigerator, but it was curiosity that caused her to press the screen on its door.

Suddenly, the LCD screen flared to life, displaying a menu of various options— "Inventory," "Order More," "Recipes," "Food TV," "Settings…"

"Recipes? Hey…!" With all the unused foodstuffs Kaiba undoubtedly had at his fingertips, Téa could surely whip up something delicious in no time.

After a few moments of figuring out how to work the touch-screen, Téa successfully navigated to a virtual COMPENDIUM of delicious recipes, one of which on the list practically SANG out to Téa.

"'Chicken Scallopini Al Pomodoro!'" Téa read off the display, grinning —and almost **drooling**, too— as she eyed the display.

"If that doesn't sound elegant, I don't know what does."

Téa stared at the screen a minute longer, trying to figure out how to scroll down the page so she might see the list of ingredients.

In the corner, she saw a blinking speaker icon, with a tiny microphone next to it. A small line of text below the icon read 'Voice Recognition Active.'

_'Voice- wha? Huh… I know Kaiba's high tech, but does that mean he has a talking fridge, too…?'_

Feeling foolish, but not knowing what else to do, Téa stood up and addressed the fridge.

"Uhm… list of ingredients? Please?"

# Chicken Scallopini Al Pomodoro. Ingredients List. #

The voice was pleasant and not at all computerized, sounding rather like those hostesses of the cooking shows on TV. Téa smiled as she headed towards the counter, carefully listening to the ingredients the computer-fridge listed.

# 3 pounds frying chicken pieces, skinned and boned

1/3 cup plus 2 tablespoons Teriyaki Marinade &amp; Sauce, divided

1/2 cup all-purpose flour … #

Téa had no idea whether Kaiba had any chicken, but was too afraid to open the fridge and possibly interrupt the list, and maybe even lose the recipe before she even got started.

# 4 tablespoons vegetable oil, divided

1/2 cup chopped green onions

1 pound fresh tomatoes, chopped

2 tablespoons burgundy wine

1/2 teaspoon sugar

List complete. Read inventory of needed items? #

Téa blinked at the fridge in wonder. _'So it's psychic, too! Cool! I could **definitely** get used to this!' _

Like Mokuba, Téa wasn't too fond of frozen dinners and the like, and cooking just happened to be one of her past-times. It wasn't something she'd gotten from either of her parents, either— both of them were usually too busy to work. There had been the rare occasion when Mrs. Gardner found time to make a special dinner, but that was only once a month— so it wasn't as if Téa could vouch for her mother's "world-class" cooking.

As for herself, Téa had always scored the highest marks in her Home Economics class, and, back when she'd been working at Burger World, she'd always been praised as the best dessert chef…

_'Ugh, never mind, I'd rather not remember what happened **there**. And I don't think making cookies qualifies me as any sort of a 'dessert chef,' as everyone back there said… Then again, if you live and work for diner food, it's not as if you know the difference.'_

"Uh, yes. I mean affirmative… er, okay?" Téa mu

mbled, looking sheepish. She was just grateful the fridge didn't have eyes. Or a real brain, for that matter.

# Missing ingredients - chicken. Marinade Sauce. Flour. Green Onions. List Complete. Place order to Domino Market? #

"Yes… but let me modify the quantity of the items first…" Téa walked up to the fridge and read the list of needed items over.

_'Waitasec, that Burgundy wine isn't on here. You mean to tell me Kaiba's got a wine stash somewhere around here?'_ Of course, such a thing wouldn't surprise Téa— much. While Seto Kaiba didn't strike her as much of a wine connoisseur as Pegasus, he was, of course, rich, and probably entertained a decent amount of important business-people. And didn't rich business-people always drink wine?

_'Like I would know.'_

Téa made a mental note to look for that later on, and continued to modify the order.

"I can't believe Kaiba doesn't have flour! What kind of a house is he running here?"

# Query not recognized. Please restate. #

Téa blinked and smiled at the fridge, tapping buttons on the touch-screen to increase the quantities of the ingredients to what she would need, based on the amount of servings she planned.

"Not talking to you, Fridge, but thanks for asking."

After increasing the amount of flour to ten pounds, and the amount of chicken and tomatoes to 5 pounds each, Téa grinned and placed the order.

# Thank You. Your order will arrive within 2 hours. #

"Perfect. Now all I need is to figure out how the rest of this kitchen works." Téa glanced around, searching for the basic utensils any cook would need in her kitchen.

"Of course Kaiba wouldn't have a KISS THE COOK apron around here anywhere…"

Téa dashed upstairs, smiling to herself all the while. This was the best plan she'd ever had— EVER.

* * *

Mokuba Kaiba hadn't had a good day at school. For starters, he'd been teased again, and Mokuba's threats that his big brother wouldn't stand for it were slowly wearing thin— he couldn't hide behind his brother forever, especially when he didn't even GO to Mokuba's school.

_'I'm supposed to be able to stand up for myself anyway, like a real man!'_ Sadness showed on the young Kaiba boy's face, even as he dropped his backpack at his feet and took off his shoes in the entryway.

_'And Big Sister Téa sure wouldn't like it if I kept on letting those dumb guys bully me… She wouldn't like it if she saw this, either.' _Mokuba stared regretfully at his crumpled math test in his left hand —marked at the top with a large 20 in red marker.

Glaring angrily at the test as if the paper were responsible for his failure, Mokuba stuffed the offending sheet into his pocket, balling it up and stuffing it down as far as it would go.

He could just forget about it for now… he was sure that if he just saw Big Sister Téa's face, he could be happy about that day.

Mokuba heard some clattering in the kitchen, and before long, a delicious smell wafted his way…

* * *

"Hey, what's that smell?" Téa turned to the source of the voice, smiling as she spotted Mokuba rounding the corner between Kaiba's office and the ground floor bathroom.

"Hey Mokuba! How was school today?" Téa smiled, wiping the flour from her apron. She still had some smudged along her face —along with some marinade sauce, though she couldn't begin to fathom how it had gotten there in the first place.

She immediately noticed Mokuba's pasted-on smile drop to the floor and vanish entirely— the boy looked crestfallen. Just as quickly, he covered it up, wearing a sheepish smile and scratching behind his head, "Oh, you know, boring as usual…"

Téa made a 'tsching' sound with her tongue in cheek, walking towards the kitchen table and beckoning Mokuba to sit down.

"Come on… if something's happened, I want you to tell me, okay? I mean, what else am I here for, anyway? Aren't I supposed to be 'Big Sister Téa?'" She smiled at the younger boy, who, after a moment's hesitation, pulled his crumpled test from his pocket.

Téa's eyes went wide as she spotted the low mark— poor Mokuba. And being the younger brother of the wealthiest, most intelligent young man in the country had to put a lot of pressure on you. Mokuba was probably always expected to perform like his brother.

Well, Téa was no stranger to low grades or tutoring— after all, Joey, Yugi, and Tristan had ALL come to her for help when their midterms had come close earlier in the year, and together, they'd all passed— with Cs or better! Téa, of course, knew better than to gloat about her A-, but she was glad her friends wouldn't get held back and have to pay an extra year's tuition.

_'That's right. Joey and I have always worked hard for our tuition money… Joey for his high school tuition, and me for my dream of dance school. If either of us failed, it would set us back by a lot. Since I haven't been working lately, it's been a worry of mine… but I never put much thought into it, since Mom and Dad always paid my way through school. I knew they wouldn't agree to me dancing, but I'd always hoped I'd convince them somehow. Now I'll have to depend on myself!' _

Then again, the feeling of independence was no stranger to Téa either. She was used to having to look for part-time jobs in secret— secret from her parents, from her friends, from school… all so she could one day fund her dream of becoming a dancer.

_'I— I won't put that on hold. I'll still find a way… to pay for everything. To pay Kaiba back for all he's done, and… somehow…'_ Somehow, someway, Téa still hoped to go to New York…

_'To Juilliard.'_

"Well, yeah… I guess…" Mokuba trailed off, reluctantly meeting Téa's gaze. Despite everything —everything that had happened to her— she still managed to smile. Liking what he saw, Mokuba timidly smiled back.

"Okay Teach, what do I need to know to bring this lousy score up?"

"All right, so we're looking at long division here…"

* * *

DING!

"Hey, that's the timer, I have to get dinner prepped and ready, okay?"

Mokuba slowly got up from the table, his mind muddled with math problems, but his senses were close to overload from the delicious smell.

"Can I help?" he asked, almost shyly, approaching Téa. She smiled down at him in an apologetic manner.

"Well you still have homework to finish, so why don't you work on the rest of it and…" Téa thought for a moment, tapping her finger to her chin, "Why don't you and I make cookies this weekend?"

"All right!" Mokuba cheered and snatched his homework, practically running out of the room. "Cookies and dinner, cookies and dinner!"

Téa chuckled to herself and went back to cooking, putting on her apron and taking out her oven mitts.

After she'd gotten everything prepared —'everything' being the chicken, a salad, and a special dessert she was keeping frozen— Téa took a second to dash into the bathroom nearby.

_'Ugh, I look like someone marinated ME!'_ She quickly washed her hands and straightened out her hair, but the mirror didn't lie— she looked like a mess.

Téa eyed her nearly prepared dinner— all she had to do was get some chilled bottles of cider from the fridge, finish setting the table…

It was 5:18.

_'I can do all that and get dressed before Kaiba comes home.'_

And so, Téa rushed upstairs, taking the steps two at a time, hurrying into her bedroom to find something clean and appropriate to wear for dinner. She still hadn't sorted any of her clothes into the wardrobe, let alone the 'giganimous' walk-in closet, but she would— soon.

_'But right now I'm a little rushed, and— and…'_ Téa wormed her way through a French-cuffed red blouse that had the appearance of silk, but the cost of cotton.

_'Of course,'_ Téa thought to herself proudly. Ever the thrifty shopper, when she spotted a nice knockoff, she went for it. And this mock-silk blouse was just the ticket she needed to look nice on short notice— especially since it didn't wrinkle.

Téa struggled into a slimming black skirt, and then darted back downstairs, finishing up the table settings just as the front door opened and she disappeared into the kitchen again.

Mokuba appeared from the stairway just as Seto Kaiba walked in, the younger boy grinning as he displayed his completed homework. It had taken him a while, but he'd done it! All by himself!

"Look Big Brother! I finished my really hard long division homework! All by myself! See?" Seto smirked as he glanced over the paper in his younger brother's scrawl.

"Good job, Mokuba. You got them all right."

"I did? I mean, of course I DID! YESS! THAAAANK YOOOOOU Big Sister Téa!" Mokuba crowed, springing back upstairs to return his homework to his desk before dinner.

_'Téa. Where is she— no, more importantly, WHAT is that smell?' _It smelled absolutely delicious, tantalizing even, and the smell was wafting from—

"OUT!" Téa's sharp voice reprimanded Seto before he could even set one foot into the kitchen completely. The swinging door snubbed him on the nose before he could blink, and he rubbed it, glaring at the wooden door accusingly.

"Well sorry for wanting to go into my OWN kitchen, Miss Iron Chef," he mumbled in a nasally voice. Through the door, Téa giggled, then called out in a singsong voice, "Dinner will be served in a moment…" she paused, "Master Kaiba!"

Seto did a double-take towards the door, and even though Téa couldn't see him through it, he rolled his eyes.

* * *

Only a few moments later, Mokuba urged Seto to simply take a seat outside at the dining room table, instead of pacing back and forth near the swinging door— which was just asking for said door to hit him again.

All the waiting was making Seto more than edgy— or maybe it was just the scent of the food. Had Téa really gone all out and made THEM dinner?

Seto Kaiba pulled at the collar of his school shirt —a nervous gesture?

_'Not so sure I deserve this… exactly…'_

But before his guilty train of thought could continue, it was promptly derailed by the dining car. Téa pushed her way through the door into the dining area, bearing a pair of large, covered platters on each hand. She set them down on the table, warning each of the boys not to open them before she returned with the glasses and the cider.

When she finally sat down, she nodded to both of the boys— Mokuba, who was practically drooling on his seat, plucked the cover off the plates first, and almost cried out of sheer happiness.

"REAL CHICKEN!"

"Chicken Scallopini Al Pomodoro, if you want to be picky about it," Téa grinned, unfolding her napkin and lying it across her lap in a triangle.

"Wow… this is… wow." Seto was impressed —and he'd seen many finely prepared dinners before, having been to countless business dinners, and witnessing all the exaggerated finery of the Kaiba Corp balls. But no one —NO ONE— had ever cooked HIM dinner personally before.

And he hadn't even **asked** her to.

"What's all this for, anyway?" he asked, lifting his utensils before moving to serve Téa.

"Hey hey, don't serve me first…"

"But you're the lady…" Seto protested, manners demanding that he be courteous. He would never admit it out loud, but some of the things that the Unnamed Tyrant taught him was actually GOOD for something— and the manners were among said 'things.'

"I'm also the cook. Now serve your little brother." Mokuba's mouth was close to hanging open as he watched 'Big Sister Téa' practically ORDER his big brother around— and Seto **do** just what she said! He was more than a little amazed, but wisely kept his mouth shut.

"My mom," Téa began, referring back to Kaiba's question of 'what all this is for,' "used to go all out and make one, big, special dinner each month. She wasn't a fantastic cook or anything, since she was always working and all… but Dad and I always looked forward to that one day." Téa looked regretfully at her plate, hiding the tears that threatened to fall, "The day they died… was supposed to be the big dinner day. But I didn't go home on time, and… well, never mind."

Téa swallowed, quickly wiping her tears, and pasted on a smile. Seto and Mokuba glanced at her, unsure, but continued to eat.

Dinner was delicious, though quiet, except for the brief bursts of conversation during which Téa mentioned meeting Charles, Kaiba skimmed the details of that day's classes for Téa, and Mokuba talked about how Téa had made long division "as easy as pie."

"Speaking of pie," Téa rose to her feet, a smile playing on her lips, "Well, dessert, anyway, I have a surprise for you two."

She disappeared into the kitchen a moment, and Mokuba looked to his elder brother with stars in his eyes.

"REAL DESSERT!" He whispered, "NOT JELLO!"

Indeed it was real dessert— and coincidentally, Mokuba's favorite.

"CHOCOLATE PARFAIT!"

"Are you sure you want to give this to him? I think something in the marinade made him hyper enough." Seto remarked, thumbing towards his overexcited little brother.

"Hah, and here I thought it was the cider. Well, one little bit won't hurt him, right? Besides, we get our fair share too." She grinned at Mokuba and passed Seto a custard cup first, and then the smaller boy, before carefully scooping the confection into each.

"DEEEELICIOUS!"

* * *

Téa had finished clearing the table and rinsing the plates, loading them into the dishwasher, before heading out to the kitchen and the living area again.

Kaiba, for some odd reason, was still seated where he'd eaten dinner, at the head of the polished —and now clean— wooden table. He glanced towards Téa when she walked in, dusting off her skirt and smiling.

"Well, I'm full. How about you?"

"…Yeah. Dinner was delicious, Téa. Thank you."

Téa blinked. _'He— he called me Téa. Not "Gardner" or even "Miss Gardner…"'_

"Listen, uhm, there was… something I kind of wanted to ask," Kaiba quickly averted his eyes from Téa, not sure that he'd be able to look her in the eye. But this was important— VERY IMPORTANT, the women at work had stressed— and the week was quickly getting shorter…

"Yeah? What about? Oh, about the groceries, I had to order some from the Market… I hope you don't mind…" Téa glanced nervously back towards the closed kitchen door, her stare penetrating the wood so she could glare at the fridge.

_'Stupid Fridge, tempting me with all its high tech goodness!'_

Still, she smiled, knowing that both Kaiba and Mokuba had enjoyed her from-scratch dinner. Even if it had been a quiet dinner, it was still… fun.

_'And for a while there, it felt like I had a family.'_

"T-That's all right… we probably needed a lot, anyway…" Kaiba trailed off. How was he supposed to do this, anyway? It wasn't as if he'd asked girls OUT before! And for some reason, this wasn't like… like a one-night business arrangement. It wasn't like dealing with girls from school, female teachers, or even the rare female duelist!

Somehow— somehow Téa changed _everything_.

"Listen," he just charged straight on, "Kaiba Corp's having its big 50th Anniversary Ball this Saturday, and while Mokuba and I always go, this year it's supposed to be a bigger deal than ever, and the people in PR really think I should come with a date, so I'm wondering, if maybe you wouldn't mind coming with me this Saturday night?"

He swallowed, taking a deep breath before he turned to face Téa.

She looked more than a little bewildered, but then her startled expression melted into a smile— one which only served to befuddle Seto Kaiba even more.

"Well, that's not really in my job description, is it?"

"Uhm… call it a personal favor?" Seto Kaiba was not one to be easily swayed by emotions —his or anyone else's, for that matter— nor was he the type to prattle on endlessly, babbling off run-on sentences. Yet he had just done both of those things in the course of five minutes. In other words, he was acting **very** unlike himself.

"Hah, that's a good one. Seto Kaiba owing ME one." Téa smirked, but she could see in Seto's eyes that he was serious.

_'A ball, huh? I guess it can't be all that bad. And it's not like he really WOULD owe me one… not after all he's done for me…' _Téa couldn't begin to fathom how she would pay Kaiba back for all he'd done for her. And she hadn't even gotten a real paycheck yet! As if living in the Kaiba mansion wasn't compensation enough…!

"No problem," She smiled, snapping Kaiba —who thought Téa's remark meant a negative— back to reality.

"Really? I mean, you'll go?"

"Yeah sure. I'm not sure I have anything to wear to such a formal event," She grinned, motioning to her current state of dress, "But I'm sure I can figure something out between now and Saturday night."

And, in an odd role-reversal, Téa was the one rewarded with a rare Seto Kaiba smile— a truly genuine one, that few people, if any, were ever allowed to see.

"Great."

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This part was intended to cover the ball too… but it got too long. So there's going to be a sort of Chapter 3A, but not really, because I'm going to call it Chapter 4… Anyway, my whole system is all screwy now.
> 
> But on the bright side, it looks like I have this plot almost entirely figured out! Almost! Hopefully I'll continue to get encouraging feedback from all you fantastic readers so I'll keep writing and entertaining you!
> 
> **THANK YOU!**
> 
> * * *
> 
>   
> **CONTEST 1: ** In the first scene, the seven teachers' names I used were made up— but were references to OTHER characters from OTHER series— or a series manga-ka. Can you name them? If someone gets all seven, er, I'll… uh, come up with some sorta prize? ;;
> 
> **CONTEST 2:** Okay this isn't so much a contest as a question from me to you. What other male anime or manga characters (namely leads) does Seto Kaiba remind you of? I've already got a few in mind, but I want to know what -or more accurately, _who_— you think, and why. So tell me why
> 
> Character A is like Seto Kaiba because … D And tell me what anime or manga they're from, because if they're at all as bishounen as Seto, I want to know!
> 
> Azurite


	4. Carry On Dancing

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> The night of the big Kaiba Corp. ball draws nearer... but so is the time when Téa will have to face her friends. What will she tell them?

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> **What Doesn't Kill You  
> Chapter 4: Carry On Dancing  
> Version 3.6 -** Grammar, formatting fixes**  
> A Yu-Gi-Oh Fanfiction**  
> **By:** Azurite - azurite AT seventh-star DOT net  
> **Site: **seventh-star DOT net  
> **Conceptualized/First Written:** 10/18/03  
> **Completed/Posted:** 10/21/03
> 
> **Edits:** 12/4/05, 1/2/10
> 
> _ **Rated PG13/For Teens…** _
> 
> **Disclaimer:**   
>  ME, own Yu-Gi-Oh!? I wish! (I can't believe I forgot a disclaimer before…) Anyway, if I were Kazuki Takahashi or the people at Shounen Jump or Viz or 4Kids or wherever, I'd not only be rich, but I'd make a REAL life Seto Kaiba for me to hold prisoner or something…So yeah. This is for fun, not profit.
> 
> Also, the text from Téa's "textbook" in this chapter comes from the Reader's Digest Lost Civilization series, "Egypt: Land of the Pharaohs" book. No infringement is intended, as this work is for entertainment, nonprofit purposes only. DO NOT SUE!
> 
> Toy Story is also copyright the Disney channel, and all respective producers, directors, writers, actors, etc. The Disney channel is copyright Disney…and all them folks.
> 
> * * *
> 
> **RECAP:** Téa's parents died. She didn't have a place to call home—until Seto Kaiba, of all people, offered her a job. Too good to be true? Maybe. She's just moved in, and her job's just getting started—but going to a 50th Anniversary Ball isn't exactly in her job description…

"Gah…I knew I should have looked at this stuff sooner." Téa groaned as she eyed the mound of paperwork her teachers had passed onto her earlier in the week. Today was Wednesday, and with Seto and Mokuba about to leave for school, Téa wanted to get a head start on her schoolwork—before it piled up and became a burden.

She was glad the teachers had given her the week off—it was a rare opportunity, considering how important high school was. And she WAS doing what they had suggested—taking time for herself, allowing herself to mourn, adjust, and heal. At least, she was trying.

Maybe distracting herself with cooking and thoughts of an upcoming formal Ball weren't the dictionary-definition ways to "heal," but it seemed to be working for Téa…at least, a little.

But she HAD to focus on her schoolwork now, lest she lose track and let her grades slide. Her parents had always been strict when it came to Téa's grades; they never settled for anything below the best. And in all honesty, Téa hadn't REALLY minded it. It was better than having no one at all to encourage you. She knew that the guys had a hard time finding encouragement to do well in school—after all, Joey's father was a drunk, Yugi's parents weren't around (and his grandfather was awfully absorbed in running the Turtle Game Shop), and Tristan…well, maybe he just didn't care one way or another.

_'But I _do_ care. And even if my parents aren't around anymore…' _Téa swallowed hard, _'I still want to do my best. No matter what. If not for them, then for me.'_

And so Téa looked at the first assignment on the paper her history teacher had given her.

"World History, Unit 15," Téa read aloud, sliding her textbook towards her, "Ancient…Egypt!?"

_'This is too weird. I bet Yugi's having a field day with this,' _Téa thought. Remembering her long time friend, Téa frowned. She had disappeared from school without much of an explanation, and midway into the week, she still hadn't contacted them. Of course, they hadn't called her either—but that was to be expected.

_'After all my old house phone's been disconnected, and my cell phone's in the process of getting changed, now that I'm on a plan just for myself, and my address has changed…' _Probably, they had **tried** to contact her, but couldn't.

Which made Téa feel all the worse.

_'Maybe once I've finished some homework, I'll call Yugi…well, when he gets home from school.' _

Téa rose from her seat to say good-bye to Seto and Mokuba, at the front door and getting ready to leave. She gave the younger boy a quick hug, and wished him luck on his long division test that day.

"I just know you'll ace it!"

"I hope so," Mokuba replied, "But you didn't have to remind me so early in the morning!" Téa laughed, while Seto quirked a smile.

"Have fun at school," Téa remarked to Seto, her voice laced with humor and sarcasm, "As much fun as can be had studying Egypt."

"That? I finished my report already…" Téa stared at him with wide eyes, "What? If you want research materials, go into my office. There's a database in there that connects to the National Library, along with the American Library of Congress, and other places. I always use it for reports."

"Uh…wow. Thanks." Téa sweatdropped. She had to remember that her new house mate was the class genius—not just a world famous duelist, wealthy CEO, and dedicated brother.

_'Just what he needs, another something to over-inflate his ego…' _Téa grinned, but didn't voice her thoughts.

"If we get anything new, I'll let you know," Seto told Téa, raising his hand in a quick good-bye. Téa smiled, once again waiting for the boys to get into the car and be out of sight before she closed the door.

And once they had gone, Téa turned back into the house, groaning.

"Stupid school…"

* * *

"'One of the best-kept secrets of the ancient world came to light in 1926 at the great religious complex of Karnak at Luxor, part of the long-vanished city of Thebes. For thousands of years, explorers and tourists had poked among the ruins, vibrant with ghostly stories of the remote past. But unknown to them, something was missing—intentionally so. A temple built by the pharaoh Amenhotep IV during the early years of his reign, from 1353 to 1335 BC, had been dismantled, piece by piece, and concealed within the walls of later structures. The eradication of the temple was part of a campaign to eliminate every trace of the hated king—to reject all that he stood for, denying his very existence. In a society obsessed with immortality, his was the worst of all fates: In effect, he had never existed.'"

_'Wow,'_ Téa thought, glancing up from her textbook, _'That's pretty harsh.' _The story sounded pretty interesting though, and since Téa needed a topic for her essay, which had to be argumentative, she kept reading.

The story went that Amenhotep IV was a young 18th Dynasty pharaoh, descended from a line of warrior kings. His forefathers had been responsible for the removal of a tribe of Asiatic invaders, and had started the 500-year-long era known as the New Kingdom. Amenhotep's ancestors had turned Egypt into an empire spanning many current African countries, including what is presently Sudan and eastward to Western Asia.

_'Whoa, that far, huh?' _Téa glanced at the map in her textbook—there was a reddish blob that took up the majority of the Northeastern part of the African continent, which showed the borders and names of the present African nations.

_'So if that Empire were still around today, there'd be millions of people under the pharaoh's control…They must have had a really good reason to want to destroy everything he stood for and erase him from history.' _

Téa thought back to the first time she'd been to an Egyptian exhibit—and it hadn't been fun. Well, at first, it had been very interesting—up until the curator of the museum, Mr. Kanekura, had died mysteriously. Rumors had circulated for weeks that he hadn't died of natural causes, that he had been cursed by the spirit of the mummy.

It wasn't until later that Téa and the others found out how true those rumors were—and even though Kanekura hadn't died of a mummy's curse, getting scared to death by an Egyptian monster had to come close enough.

Shadi, the ever-mysterious wielder of the Millennium Scales and the Millennium Key, had been behind Kanekura's death. And maybe on some level, Kanekura HAD deserved it—for his crimes, his selfishness…

_'He was a little greedy…okay, a _lot_ greedy,' _Téa thought, remembering how the man had hoped to sell Yugi's prized Millennium Puzzle, _'But did he really deserve to die for it?'_

There was nothing that could be done about it now, though. It seemed like so long ago, and yet…and yet, the battle was not over. The true power of the Millennium Items was still a secret. As were the God Cards. Téa was unsure of what would happen—who the spirit of the puzzle even was.

_'I haven't even thought about it much lately…what with everything that's happened…' _

Not that Téa wanted to put more thought into it. Of all things, Yugi's spirit, "Yami," only helped confuse Téa more, and she didn't need that.

_'The Egyptian people didn't have future generations in mind when they built the pyramids, or mummified pharaohs. It was just part of their culture, right? That their artifacts have lasted so long is amazing…but it's no wonder that people like Shadi didn't like seeing ancient relics brought overseas, where any number of things could happen to them.' _

Unbidden, vivid images of the stone tablets from the Domino Museum appeared in Téa's mind. She remembered going there with Yami once, and meeting Isis—and hearing her frightening prophecy. She wasn't sure whether to believe Isis' words, but she hadn't been wrong—up until Battle City.

_'And then she gave the Necklace to Yugi, and…I don't know what's happened to her, the exhibit, or the Necklace since.' _

These thoughts only served to cloud Téa's mind more, and so she returned to her textbook. But between the seemingly endless lines of text, Téa started to see a strangely familiar pattern with Amenhotep IV's story and what Isis had said…

* * *

"ALL RIGHT! Disney channel!" Mokuba practically leaped onto the couch. He'd gotten home some hours ago, and found Téa asleep in her textbook. At her side, her finished essay—about the need to have Egyptian artifacts left where they were found—lay on crisp, white paper.

"Huh? Mokuba, you're home…?" Téa looked around sleepily, and caught sight of the dining room clock, "What!? 5:25!? Ohmygosh, I've slept through the entire day!"

"But you got your homework done, right?" Mokuba glanced up from the couch, pointing at the essay—and the mound of other worksheets that Téa had finished before drifting to sleep.

"Almost all of it. And you?" Téa winked at him. Mokuba grinned widely, "All of it! It was easy, too! And I think I passed the text today!"

"That's great, Mokuba!" Téa rose to her feet, stretching the sleep out of her limbs. She glanced down at the younger boy, "So, how should we celebrate?"

"Celebrate?" Mokuba looked up at Téa, a smile blossoming on his face, "Uhmm…chocolate parfait?"

Téa laughed, "We don't have any ice cream left, hun. Sorry…" Téa wandered towards the kitchen, completely missing Mokuba's blush."But I'm sure I can whip up something…"

"All right, TOY STORY's going to be on at 6!" Mokuba cheered.

Téa reappeared from the kitchen, just as Seto walked through the door. The elder Kaiba cast a questioning glance at Téa and Mokuba, both getting comfortable on the couch, Téa holding a box of Goldfish crackers.

"Movie night, Kaiba!" Téa crowed, "Join us!"

Seto blinked a moment, giving Mokuba the time to turn in his seat and pout adorably, "Pleeeeeeease, Big Brother! It's the original 'Toy Story' movie—and you can sit here and analyze the 3D graphics engine quality if you want—you don't have to care about the story at all, just stay with us, pleeeeeaaaase?"

Never one to deny his little brother anything, Seto put his briefcase down, handing his jacket to one of the maids that so routinely appeared and disappeared throughout the household.

"Half an hour, huh?" he asked, leaning forward on the back of the couch.

"Yeah!" Mokuba yelled happily, his mouth full of crunched-up Goldfish.

"Don't talk with your mouth full, kid. It's gross." Seto pushed Mokuba's jaw up with his left forefinger, and Téa chuckled.

"Straight from Miss Manners herself."

"Hey." Seto pretended to be offended, "Aren't you supposed to be making dinner or something?"

Téa's jaw dropped, and she stood up, hands on her hips, faking a horrified expression, "Why that's some nerve, Master Kaiba. I may be your employee, but I do not make dinner for you every day! However, I am hungry, so I think I'll make some pasta now…"

Mokuba and Seto exchanged a glance and only smiled as Téa disappeared into the kitchen.

* * *

Half an hour later, everyone had finished eating the quick ravioli Téa had prepared, and were ready to start watching Toy Story.

"But it's in English," Téa realized suddenly as the English lettering for the title appeared onscreen.

"Easily remedied." Seto grabbed the remote and pressed a few buttons, skimming through several bright blue and green menus so fast, Téa couldn't keep track of them all.

When he was done, Japanese subtitles were at the bottom of the screen, matching credit for credit what appeared in English.

"Wow…how…I mean, I didn't know you could do that."

"We're Kaibas," Mokuba smiled impishly, "We can do anything."

"I guess so, huh?" Téa smiled, ruffling Mokuba's hair. The smaller boy scooted up on the couch, curling up on Téa's stomach, while she lay on the length of the couch, her feet a good foot from the farthest armrest.

"Big Brother, aren't you going to sit with us?" Mokuba glanced up—his cheeks reddening as he realized he was glancing up at his brother through Téa's breasts. He was young, but he wasn't stupid—and he was learning all that stuff about girls and—what did his teacher call it? Men-struay-shon? Something like that.

"Where do you propose I sit?" Seto asked, rising to his feet from the dining area chair, glancing down at Téa and Mokuba on the couch. Téa bit her lip and moved around, shuffling Mokuba in her arms, and scooting deeper into the cushions of the couch—leaving enough room for Seto to lie right beside her.

Seto raised an eyebrow, but sat down…and eventually raised his legs to rest on the couch cushions as well, though he was so tall that he almost had to prop his feet up on the armrest.

The three kept their eyes glued to the television rather than each other—for all of them were in positions rather intimate considering, and it would be far too embarrassing for any of them, should their couch mates notice.

The movie began shortly, the words of the computer-generated toys interrupted only once in a while by a commercial; and then, Mokuba would excitedly comment on his favorite part, Téa remarking about how she originally **hated **Buzz when she first saw the movie, but now she thought he was funny.

"Those American actors do have a sense of humor," Seto commented. Just then the CEO of Disney appeared, talking about how the role of Woody had actually been designed for Tom Hanks.

"Oh wow, I didn't know that," Téa smiled, watching an old version of Woody act out one of Tom Hanks' lines from an older movie of his, "Turner and Hooch." She shifted slightly, as her leg was falling asleep, and found her side pressed up against Seto's.

Téa glanced at him out of the corner of her eye, her cheeks heating for reasons she couldn't begin to understand, but Seto wasn't looking in her direction. She heaved a silent sigh of relief.

_'Just what I need, to be _more_ embarrassed around this guy.' _

Still, Téa smiled slightly, it wasn't **that** bad. Being like this…

* * *

The movie was coming to a close, with Woody and the other toys from Sid's house standing up against the destructo-kid, even if it meant revealing their secret and "breaking a few rules."

Somewhere during the movie, Mokuba had dozed off, and was quietly sleeping, his chest rising and falling as the movie flickered off the pristine white walls of the room.

"This is my favorite part," Téa said, her voice a whisper for Mokuba's sake. Téa heard Seto chuckle beside her, and turned to face him, and almost squeaked—she didn't realize just how close they were to one another.

During the course of the movie, Seto had wedged his arm out from between their bodies and draped it across his stomach—but it wasn't long before he moved his arm again, finally settling on draping it over the armrest on which he and Téa's heads rested. His fingertips were barely grazing her shoulder, brushing it every now and then, but out of habit more than a purposeful action.

Téa was glad for the dark that permeated the room—her face had continued to redden as she movie wore on, and she became more and more aware of just how close she was lying to Seto Kaiba. She could feel her cheeks heat up every time she felt one of his fingers brush against her shoulder, and even though she knew he didn't mean to do it, the motion was relaxing, and…

_'Nice. Really nice. Augh! What am I thinking!?' _Téa mentally chastised herself. She swallowed hard, feeling the brush of his fingers on her shoulder again. She didn't know why Seto was suddenly making her so uncomfortable -in a good way!- but it probably had something to do with the fact that they had never been this close to one another before. Ever.

When Téa glanced over to Seto to see what he was chuckling over—and maybe catch a glance at a rare Seto smile—she realized that the proximity between her face and Seto's was much less than she thought. Much, much less. Her eyes widened and she swallowed again, this time out of sheer nervousness.

She couldn't blink, not with her eyes interlocked with Seto's impossibly deep blue ones.

_'He has such incredible eyes…' _ Téa found herself thinking, and once she realized whose eyes she'd just admired, she found herself reddening—and not being able to turn away from Seto to hide her blush. Without even realizing it, she craned her neck forward—as did Seto, staring at her in almost the same way—her eyes beginning to drift closed as she thought, _'Is he going to…?' _

When all of a sudden—

**WHACK!**

"Wha? Did I miss the end?" Mokuba had awoken suddenly, throwing his arm up between Seto and Téa's faces, immediately ending the almost-intimate moment before it had really begun. Téa rubbed her nose—where Mokuba's hand had hit—while Mokuba struggled to sit up, wobbling on Téa's legs as she shifted.

"Big Brother, what are you doing on the floor?" Mokuba and Téa both glanced at Seto, who had been so surprised by Mokuba's sudden flailing of his arm that he moved the wrong way and promptly fell off the couch. In the darkness, his cheeks were a slight pink color, but neither Téa nor Mokuba were any the wiser—and Seto was grateful for that.

_'Close. Way. Too. Close.' _

Seto Kaiba's thoughts were rarely ever as clouded as they were at that particular moment, but he did realize with some amount of clarity that wherever Téa Gardner was concerned, things got a little…**complicated**.

Since the movie credits were rolling, Seto took the opportunity to get the hell out of the area before he could get any more embarrassed. He didn't like being humiliated or being made a spectacle of, and as far as he was concerned, embarrassment was too close to being both those things for comfort.

"Well, I have some things I need to take care of…I better be going. Nice dinner again, Téa, thanks. Good night." And with that, Seto Kaiba practically dashed into his office, nearly slamming the door shut as he went.

"Huh. Must have been awfully important for Big Brother to rush off like that," Mokuba commented, grinning at Téa. She was still staring off in the direction Seto had bolted, wondering a million things at once. Distracted, she replied, "Yeah…must be."

And inside Seto's office, the all-important task he had just remembered consisted of the young CEO…

Banging his head against his computer monitor, repeatedly.

* * *

Later that night, Téa was stretched out on her bed, unable to sleep. Half of her wondered if Seto was even **in** his room across the hall, and if he was, was he sleeping?

_'Or is he thinking about what almost happened, too?' _

Téa tapped her hand to her cheek -a gentle slap.

"What am I thinking?" She said aloud, talking to the night, "I don't even know if anything **was** going to happen. And if anything **had** happened, who says it would have been what I thought—what I'm thinking—oh, whatever!"

But Téa couldn't get the thought out of her head.

She remembered it all-too-clearly—she'd said something, and Seto had chuckled. Téa had turned to find out what he thought was so funny about her words—and maybe having an underlying desire to see 'the unfeeling Seto Kaiba' smile—and realized that she was very close to him.

And not just close like, squished up against his shoulder close. But close, like…

_'Like he could have _kissed_ me close.' _Such were the thoughts running rampant in Téa's head, and the sole reason why she couldn't sleep.

A million questions sprang up in her head—

_'Was he going to kiss me? Or was I going to kiss him? And if I had, would he have kissed me back? Or…does it even matter!? Why am I thinking of kissing _him_? This is Seto Kaiba! Before this mess, he was just some classmate, and then Duelist Kingdom happened, and then he was some world-famous duelist with an ego the size of a blimp. And then there was Battle City, and he was—he was…' _

During Battle City, Seto Kaiba had been directly responsible for saving her life. When the Rare Hunters had kidnapped her and held her as hostage—or was it bait?—for an ultimate duel between Joey and Yugi. And at the last minute, when everything could have gone completely and utterly wrong, Seto Kaiba, of all unexpected people, had saved her.

_'And I thanked _Mokuba_!' _Téa remembered with a groan. She grabbed her pillow and promptly smothered it into her face. A moment later, once she'd caught her breath, Téa still lay there, staring up at the dark ceiling.

_'So Seto Kaiba suddenly decides to be nice to me. But maybe it's because he doesn't have a grudge against me like he does with Yugi or Joey. Or maybe it's because he thinks we've been through the same thing, and he just—he just…I don't know what. Seto Kaiba is impossible to analyze, so what am I doing here, thinking about _kissing_ the guy?'_

Téa frowned, flopping on her side. She caught sight of her pink cell phone, resting on top of one of her endtables.

_'Oh no, I forgot to call Yugi! He's probably going to be worried about me…' _ Téa furrowed her eyebrows. She could always ask Kaiba to explain things to Yugi and the others—but somehow she knew that they wouldn't enjoy hearing about where Téa had been these past few days from him.

_'No matter what Yugi says about friendship, I know he doesn't trust Kaiba completely.' _

This thought gave Téa pause—_'Do I?' _So far, Kaiba hadn't given her any reason not to trust him. In her eyes, he was intelligent, determined, loyal…

_'Oh god, I'm starting to list out his good points. Like he's some sort of prize catch!' _Téa smothered her face with the pillow again, this time to try and squish the blush on her cheeks away. Of course, it didn't work.

_'Well, he's also an egomaniac, a showoff, a sore loser, and—and none of that matters, does it? After all he's done for me, I can't think of him the way I used to…'_

And after that night's near-encounter, Téa was sure she would never think of him the same way ever again.

* * *

*DING-DONG*

"Huh? Who could that be…?" Téa wondered, brushing her pants off. She'd been in Kaiba's office, browsing through the endless amounts of books lining the shelves. And it looked as though Kaiba had gone through them in ages, because many of them were covered in dust. She'd only gotten a quarter of the way through the first shelf on the right when the doorbell rang.

"Uhm, hello…" Téa managed, just as she opened the door. But that was all she could get out before she was rushed by a flood of people—none of them familiar to the young brunette.

"Ah, yes, yes, you must be Téa Gardner…" a tall, slender man with slicked-back black hair and a small goatee said, eyeing her from head to toe.

Téa felt immediately uncomfortable, wondering just who this person was—this strange foreigner with a French accent, and who all the people were with him.

There were two young girls, and one young man, who was juggling bolts of fabric and a black leather satchel on top of all that.

"How do you know my name? And who—" Téa stumbled as one of the young women brushed past her and whipped out a measuring tape, lifting Téa's arms and measuring her span.

"Who the heck are you guys!?" Téa demanded, taking a step back, and crossing her arms over her chest defensively.

The elder man looked somewhat surprised, but then stroked his goatee thoughtfully.

"Ah, I suppose Mister Kaiba forgot to tell you. **I** am Jacques," the man intoned, as if Téa were immediately supposed to distinguish him as a man of great importance, "Jacques Mode." Noting that Téa's expression remained the same—defensive and not at all enlightened, he sighed, "I am Mister Kaiba's tailor and fashion designer!"

Immediately, Téa remembered Kaiba's infamous Battle City outfit.

_'This guy was responsible for designing _that_? I should slap him and kick him out right now!'_

"Of course, Mister Kaiba sometimes does **not** consult me, and makes a right fool out of himself, as he did with that **horrible** outfit for his tournament…" Jacques grumbled, crossing his own arms over his chest. Suddenly Téa's lips blossomed into a smile.

"Nice to meet you, Mr. Mode." Surprised, Jacques faced her and smiled back. This girl obviously had the same thoughts about Mister Kaiba's disastrous outfit for Battle City.

* * *

"So you guys are going to design me a dress for the Ball? Isn't a bit short notice?" Téa asked, trying to stay as still as possible while one of the female assistants measured the length from the base of her neck to her ankles.

"Mr. Mode is an expert fashion designer. He has come up with many incredible designs on short notice, and is often well-praised for them," the girl, Marie, responded.

The aforementioned Jacques was currently outside Téa's room, in the hall, going over fabric samples with his male assistant, while the two girls measured Téa in her undergarments. When they finished, Téa was permitted to change into a black leotard, one that hugged Téa's frame, but didn't have any designs on it that would detract from Mr. Mode's on-the-spot designing.

The two female assistants signaled Mr. Mode that it was all right to enter, and as Jacques did so, he motioned to Téa to rise from the bed, where she had been sitting. He circled her a few times, giving Téa the feeling that he was a vulture circling his prey.

"I see…blue! You like blue, yes?"

"Yeah…" Téa responded, "It's one of my favorite colors. And it goes well with my eyes, I guess…" Jacques leaned in and examined Téa's eyes for a moment, pulling back with a pleased smile on his face.

"That it does! You have most beautiful eyes, Miss Téa, and I am glad you do not wear glasses or some such things."

Téa sweatdropped, casting a sympathetic smile towards Elise, the other female assistant who did wear glasses. She smiled back at Téa sincerely, and it was through this gesture that Téa realized that Elise and Marie sought to be designers, not the dummies on which the dresses were designed.

"What do you think of this fabric?" Jacques held out a bolt of shimmering blue fabric. Téa reached out to touch it, finding it silky in texture, while the tiny sparkles embedded in the fabric didn't come off when she brushed her fingers against it.

"It's beautiful…" she breathed. Jacques and all his assistants were smiling broadly—they had a winner. They were all very pleased looking, when Téa bolted upright, her eyes suddenly filled with worry and concern.

"Oh, but this fabric must cost a fortune, and I couldn't possibly afford to—"

"Miss Gardner, Mister Kaiba has already taken care of the cost." Jacques looked at the girl, confused himself. Why would the girl think that they were there if they hadn't already **been** paid?

"W-What?" Téa looked utterly shocked, pale even.

_'What is Kaiba thinking? Giving me room and board because I'm supposedly _working_ for him is one thing, but paying for my dress, too? This is going to cost a fortune, and it's for something _he_ called a "personal favor!" What is going on in the mind of that idiot!?' _Téa thought.

Her thoughts were all a jumble, distracted even as Jacques and his assistant unraveled a couple of yards of the fabric, wrapping it around Téa's form.

"Hmm…hmmm…hmmmmmm…!" Jacques was murmuring, stroking his goatee once again. He had his assistants do all sorts of things with the fabric, from bunching it at the sides and back to sliding it up and down, to imagine a suitable neckline for Téa.

He glanced at the clipboard of measurements Marie and Elise had taken earlier, and smiled up at Téa.

"Well, Miss Gardner, how do you feel about…a strapless neckline?"

Téa blinked, trying to imagine the fabric around her morphing into a dress, one without any straps holding it up.

She had a feeling she knew why Jacques was suggesting such a neckline—because she had a—a rather sizable chest, and such necklines were flattering. Téa had always opted not to wear such clothes, except in the case of the halter tops or tube tops she wore when dancing, since she tended to attract unwanted attention. But…

_'A formal ball…And with everything already said and done, I can look however I want—like a princess, even…'_ Téa thought. She didn't feel all that good about Kaiba having paid for everything already, but she knew that she could live a dream here, if she just brushed aside her guilt and let herself have fun.

_'And after all, aren't I supposed to be thinking of myself lately? And trying to heal, trying to find reasons to smile nowadays?'_ Indeed, a small smile tugged at Téa's lips.

"I would **love **such a neckline."

* * *

It was almost three hours later when Jacques and his assistants finally left, leaving Téa tired. But she was happy. Jacques had drawn up a quick preliminary sketch, even giving the model on the paper Téa's hairstyle—though he'd drawn it pulled back, sketching a circular, rhinestone-studded accessory as a hair clip.

The dress was supposed to be a straight-neckline strapless dress, slightly gathered in the back, and with a low-thigh-length slit in one side. The dress would also come with a wrap made of a filmy, soft material known as chiffon, that would be lined with the dress fabric at the ends, and covered in the same sort of glitter as the dress.

Jacques had asked about what sort of closure Téa would like on the dress, and given that her arms could reach behind her back, he deemed that the dress would be cut low, just below her shoulder blades, where a zipper would start. The dress would rise up from the sides, but would be snug enough so that she wouldn't have to worry about it sliding.

"And with such a neckline, you must want a very nice necklace…Something simple, but elegant would do. Sapphires or diamonds, probably. I'm sure Mister Kaiba would agree to having you arrange with a jeweler some sort of piece…"

"Oh no!" Téa exclaimed, startling the designer, "I mean, that is, I already have something."

"Ah, very good, very good." As Jacques gathered his things and ushered his assistants back into the vehicle in which they'd come, he smiled at Téa.

"Mister Kaiba is a very lucky man, Miss Téa, to have such a beautiful woman as you on his arm at his company's anniversary. I wish the best of luck to you both."

It wasn't until the designer had long left and closed the door behind him that Téa realized the implications of his words.

_'He couldn't think that Kaiba and I are…! No way!' _Téa turned bright red and promptly marched into Kaiba's office, desperate to distract herself for the remainder of the day.

* * *

"Hello, is Yugi home?"

"Ah, Téa, is that you? Yugi and I were beginning to wonder how you were doing," Solomon Moto's voice came over the line. "Yugi's up in his room. Let me get him."

"Thanks." Téa was nervous, playing with the cordless phone she'd found in Kaiba's office. She'd stared at it a moment, guilty of not calling her friends sooner. And, since her new cell phone plan hadn't been finalized yet, she had to use Kaiba's house phone.

She only prayed Yugi didn't have caller ID.

"Hello, Téa? Is that you?" Yugi's voice came on the line, and an overwhelming sense of relief flowed through Téa.

_'Well, he doesn't sound upset with me, so I guess that's a good thing. He _does _sound a little worried, but I guess I deserve it. I must have really concerned him, just leaving school like that, and not showing up the next few days…' _

"Yeah, Yugi, it's me. How've you been?"

"How've I been? Geez Téa," Yugi's voice chided, "You're the one that's disappeared from school for three days without so much of an explanation, and you're asking how **I'm** doing?"

On the other end, Téa sweatdropped. Yugi probably didn't mean to guilt-trip her the way he was, but Téa still believed she deserved it.

_'My friends really care for me,'_ she thought, _'The same way I care about them. The least I could have done was let them know what's up…well, I guess I have to explain some things now…'_

"Well, hehe, about that…" Téa began, not sure whether it was wise to tell Yugi that she was living with Kaiba—especially over the phone. She didn't know how he'd react.

"Hang on a second, Joey and Tristan got here." There was a soft clicking as Yugi put the phone down on the counter and ran to the front door of the Turtle Game Shop, letting his two friends enter.

It was silent a moment before Téa heard Joey's voice exclaiming through the phone, "She's not there, Yug! We went to her house, and it was totally black inside, and there was a sign on the outside sayin' "For Rent!" Somethin' terrible's happened to her, I just know it! We gotta go all out and call the cops, and tell the feds, and…"

Yugi was sweatdropping, as was Téa, though the two couldn't see one another.

"Uhm, Joey…" Yugi tried to pipe up, but was interrupted yet again by Joey's shouting, "I bet some scoundrel kidnapped her again, and he's doin' dirty things to her! Damn Téa, doesn't deserve that kinda crap, Yug, we gotta go find her and save her, and—"

"JOEY!" Yugi finally yelled in exasperation. Joey stopped and looked down at his friend, wondering what had gotten him so worked up. Yugi sighed and ran his fingers through his bangs, shaking his head at Joey's melodrama.

He picked up the phone on the counter and grinned slightly, "Téa, are you still there?"

Laughter greeted Yugi on the other end of the line, and he smiled—while Joey and Tristan both stared, the former boy openmouthed and saucer-eyed.

"Put you on speaker phone? Okay, hang on." Yugi put the phone down on its cradle and pressed a button.

"Hey guys!" Téa called out. The trio of boys faced the speaker, though Joey's head hung down, while he scratched the back of his head in embarrassment.

"Ah, hey Téa…we all thought that you dropped off the face of the Earth or somethin'…"

"Nope, not quite. I'm sorry for not calling you guys sooner, but you know, things have been kinda…" she trailed off, and there was a moment of silence between the friends.

They all knew. They knew that Téa had been through a lot, and it would be a long time before their friend was the same—if she ever **would** be—again.

"Anyway, about the house being for rent," Téa began, remembering Joey's words. She was cut off before she could finish her explanation, this time by Tristan.

"What was up with that, Téa? I mean, we all know…what happened to your parents, but if you're not at your house now, where are you? We all got pretty worried when we saw the place totally abandoned like that."

"'We all?'" Téa repeated, confused. As far as she knew, it had only been Joey and Tristan checking out her old house.

"Uh, yeah…" Joey's voice came, sounding somewhat embarrassed, "We kinda called Mai and Duke—thought maybe they might know where you were, or if you were staying with either of them…"

"Though if you'd been stayin' with that Duke guy I woulda wrung his neck…" Joey grumbled under his breath. He still hadn't completely gotten over the humiliation Duke Devlin had submitted him to—making him wear a dog suit in front of everyone in Domino City, while Yugi had dueled him at his own game—Dungeon Dice Monsters.

Téa laughed, a sound which brought a smile to all three guys' faces.

"Thanks for the thought Joey, but no. Not staying with any of them. Actually, I…"

_'Oh man, what do I say? I didn't expect Joey and Tristan to be there…and there's no way I can tell Yugi and ask him to _lie_ for me! That'd be horrible! Oh no, think fast, Gardner!' _

"Actually I got a job, and my new boss is nice enough to offer me room and board."

"A job?" The boys exchanged a glance, leaning towards the speaker with expectant tones in their voices.

"Doing what?" Yugi voiced the implied question.

"Uhm…Tutoring! A little kid! And baby-sitting him too, sorta."

"Oh good," Yugi breathed a sigh of relief. Joey nodded in agreement, "Yeah, we don't want you workin' at another joint like dat Burger World."

Téa shuddered in memory—no, she no longer cared to work for an establishment where their waitresses could so easily be taken hostage by men with guns.

Especially escaped psychotic felons with guns.

"So when do we get to pay you a visit, anyway? We've been wonderin' how you been doin' and all, since you haven't been showin' up to school lately…" Joey trailed off.

"Uh—visit? Well, uhm, I don't know…exactly if I could. I mean, the teachers, they told me to take a week off to rest and stuff, and that's why I didn't come to school. Sorry for not really explaining things to you guys," Téa said apologetically. She hoped they'd forget all about the possibility of a visit—because that would only complicate matters.

"Uh, anyway look, so I'm busy catching up on schoolwork that the teachers gave me and stuff…But for sure you'll see me in class Monday, I promise!"

"Uh, okay, Téa," the boys chorused, uncertainty plain in their voices. They hadn't missed Téa's deliberate subject-changing, especially with how abrupt her speech had been.

"Well, I hope you guys are doing okay and still keeping up in class! See you guys Monday—bye!" Téa said in one breath before slamming the phone down.

"Whoa."

* * *

It was Friday night, and the week was almost over—and it was almost time for the Ball. Téa was walking on eggshells in nervousness; not only would she be going to the Kaiba Corp. 50th Anniversary on Seto Kaiba's arm, but on Monday she'd have to face all her friends—and likely explain to them just **where** she'd moved.

_'And with _whom_!'_

Téa groaned as she walked into the kitchen. Seto Kaiba was at the table, reading the newspaper.

"Is that **all** you do all day?" Téa grinned, taking a box of cereal out of the cabinets. She'd made dinner for herself earlier, but that was hours ago, and Téa found herself oddly craving something sweet and crunchy.

Seto pushed a corner of the paper down, an eyebrow raised as he glanced at Téa. Then he just as quickly stared back at his paper again, answering with a simple, "No."

Téa chuckled, sitting down at the table after she'd poured herself some milk.

"So," she started after a minute, trying to clear the silence that had settled between them, "tell me about this Ball. What should I know about it?"

Behind the newspaper, Seto privately heaved a sigh of relief.

_'Okay, so she's not thinking about what almost happened last night. If anything was almost going to happen anyway. Doesn't matter, I'm not thinking about it either. Even by thinking I'm not thinking about it, it's still not thinking about it…' _

"Stay away from the press," Seto finally said, swallowing down a glass of coffee beside him, It had been getting cold, and tasted terrible, but it was a way to distract him from his thoughts—and from looking at Téa.

"Oh, I get it. Bad experiences?"

"They're nosy. Too nosy," Seto remarked after a minute, wrinkling his nose in distaste. Though Seto wasn't watching, Téa smiled and laughed, the sound filling the kitchen for a few moments.

"That's right. I keep forgetting just who you are, Seto Kaiba. Not just any guy, but a major CEO! Are you ever **out** of the spotlight?"

"Rarely," Seto practically growled out.

"I take it you don't like the popularity, then? I don't know, something about being front-page news is kind of enticing. I mean, unless you've like, done something horrible or died or something." It was Téa's turn, this time, to wrinkle her nose in distaste.

Seto finally pushed the paper down, setting it on the table with a loud rustling, giving Téa a flat look.

"Trust me, you won't like it when those few seemingly-nice members of the press corps annoy you all night, and the next morning you find yourself pictured in the Tokyo tabloids with the ugliest mug-shot ever, and a headline screaming that you hate your own company."

"Blistering experiences, I take it?" Téa asked, her smile gone.

Seto grunted out a gruff 'yes.'

"Well, you're the boss, Boss. I'll take your word for it." Having finished her cereal, Téa rinsed out the bowl and loaded it into the dishwasher, casting one last glance at Seto, back to reading his paper, before she went back upstairs to her room.

* * *

"Big Sister Téa, can you help me with my bow—wow."

Téa turned from where she was standing in front of the vanity mirror in the upper floor's bathroom, adjusting a pair of silver studs in her ears.

"Your bowwow? I didn't know those were part of formal dress, Mokuba," Téa smiled. Mokuba's bow-tie was a mess, however, and Téa bent down to help him tie it properly.

"You look really pretty, Téa," Mokuba managed, once his bow had been straightened. He looked rather handsome himself, for a twelve-year-old, wearing a fitted tuxedo with black cummerbund, a white silk handkerchief blossoming from his breast pocket.

"Thank you, Mokuba. You don't look so bad yourself." She winked at him and turned back to the mirror to fix her makeup.

Jacques Mode's assistant, Elise, had dropped off the dress the other day. Téa had been worried that it would need adjusting, but it fit her perfectly—and it looked **beautiful**. Téa was stunned once she tried it on—and she couldn't resist from the moment the garment bag was in her hands—she looked just like a princess.

_'Someone pinch me, I must be dreaming…'_ Téa smiled dreamily in the mirror, unaware that Mokuba was still watching her.

When she finally caught his reflection in the mirror, sending quick glances up at her, she turned.

"Is it time to go, already?"

"Yeah," Mokuba twisted his right foot behind his left ankle anxiously. "Big Brother's downstairs waiting."

"Okay, well I'll be done in just a second. Then I'll grab my coat and we can get going!"

Mokuba was silent a moment, then finally said, "Big Brother's jaw is gonna drop to here." The black-haired youth demonstrated by positioning a hand a good decimeter from his chin, "when he sees you in that."

Téa laughed, smiling, "I doubt it, Mokuba, but thanks for the compliment. I think."

Mokuba smiled in return, "Wanna bet?"

Téa cocked an eyebrow at the younger Kaiba brother, moving towards the door, where her blue crushed velvet coat, lined on the collar and cuffs with artificial white fur, was hanging. She hadn't thought the coat was part of the deal, but a note included in her dress from Jacques said that the dress had been amazingly under-budget, and so he'd made the coat for her as well.

"You're on. What're the stakes, kid?"

"Uhm…" Mokuba looked down a moment, then brightened, having an idea, "A chocolate parfait!"

Téa laughed, "You're on. Okay, now go wait downstairs, I'll be down in just a second."

"Okay! But you're going to owe me a parfait!"

Once Téa had finished putting on the last of her makeup, she made sure her hairclip—a plastic and rhinestone clip holding up her slightly-waved hair—was in place. She'd picked the thing up from a local girl's accessory store, glad that it matched the same sort of shimmering silver on the dress.

All that was left was her coat.

Téa swallowed, butterflies fluttering wildly in her stomach.

_'I'm not nervous. I'm calm. Just a dance…I can dance. Dancing is what I do. This is me. Even underneath all this glamour, this is me.' _And she smiled, flicking the bathroom light off as she slipped the last sleeve of her coat on.

She was halfway down the stairs before Seto and Mokuba noticed her, and Mokuba winked, gesturing to his brother and imitating a jaw-drop of his own. Téa smiled, but kept her coat closed. After all, if Seto went to all the trouble of ordering such a high-profile fashion designer just for her, and just for a dress…well, she could afford to keep it a surprise a little bit longer.

_'That and maybe I don't want Mokuba_ _gloating about winning all night.'_ Téa smiled before descending the last step, _'Not that he's right!'_

Seto smiled at Téa, which made the fluttering feeling in her stomach—or was it her heart, now?—increase. Her offered his elbow out to her, and with Mokuba by Seto's side, the three of them exited the mansion, out to the waiting limousine which would take them to the Kaiba Corporation's 50th Anniversary Ball.

* * *

"Nervous?" Téa asked, glancing at Seto beside her in the car. His eyes were riveted straight ahead, and by the looks of things, he still wasn't happy to be going to the ball.

_'That smile from earlier must have just been for my sake. I do wish he'd smile more.' _

It was odd, thinking such things, especially when she was the one who had experienced so much grief and loss. But somehow, she was able to be her usual, cheerful, creative, and enthusiastic self. She wanted Seto to be the same—but she didn't know exactly why.

_'Maybe it's because he's responsible for helping me get back on my feet. If I'd been alone—if I'd had to move into a foster home, or live somewhere else, I'm sure I wouldn't have been as happy as I am now. Kaiba's given me a chance…maybe to start over.' _

"I have to make a speech," Seto finally said. "Not looking forward to it."

"Big Brother has to make a speech every year at these things. He can never get out of it. That's why I'm glad I'm too young to make speeches, even if I technically **am** the Vice President…"

"Not for long, kid," Seto shot back, "The minute you turn thirteen, I'm hauling you in front of a crowd of people and YOU can talk about the past year's developments and successes."

"Haha, still have eleven months to go!" Mokuba stuck his tongue out at his brother, who only shook his head in resignation.

* * *

It wasn't long before the trio arrived at the location of the Ball—Maple Hotel, a towering glass structure that seemed to keep rising, up, up, up into the starry night sky. Téa had rarely ever been so far in Tokyo; while Domino was a prefecture of the vast city, she considered it a sort of separate town almost, like the suburbs. You could hardly tell Domino was only a few kilometers from the towering skyscrapers and glistening lights.

The chauffeur opened the door for Téa, who got out of the vehicle first, followed by Seto, and finally Mokuba. The three headed towards the hotel, where a hotel security guard nodded them inside. A man sitting behind a podium looked up upon Kaiba's entrance, and his eyes widened noticeably when he saw Téa on Kaiba's arm.

"Ah, Mister Kaiba, you have arrived. Very good. The public relations team awaits you upstairs."

Seto Kaiba rolled his eyes and groaned slightly, but continued toward the elevator that would take them upstairs. Silence reigned amongst the small group for the first portion of the ride up, but the moment the elevator surfaced from underground, everyone's eyes turned to the amazing view outside.

It was a perfectly cloudless night, with the Tokyo skyline and the bright stars above glittering together in harmony. And they kept rising, up, up, up into the pitch black, where a ball was about to occur…

"This is amazing…" Téa whispered. She'd been in high places before, but never quite like this.

Almost as if she could feel the cool night air through the elevator glass and her warm coat, Téa shivered slightly—but then, maybe it was because Seto was standing so close to her, just behind her, staring at the skyline in mute silence. Téa glanced up at him, out of the corner of her eye, but saw no appreciation for the view in his eyes.

She frowned slightly, wondering what was on his mind.

_'I hope, no matter what, we all have a good time tonight. No matter what.' _

"Mister Kaiba!" a chorus of voices greeted the young CEO as he arrived with Téa and Mokuba on the top floor. They turned from the curved side of the elevator, stepping out onto the topmost floor of the hotel.

Téa stayed quiet beside Seto, until she caught sight of an incredible panoramic window overlooking the same skyline she'd been staring at moments before. She wandered up the stairs, unaware that the eyes of the entire PR team were following her.

"Mister Kaiba, so you followed our advice," one of them said in an approving tone.

"Good for you," another woman chimed in."She looks like quite a catch."

"Certainly not like any of the girls we would have had to audition from an escorting service or other such agency," Mrs. Kodaku responded, nodding. Her glance strayed back to Téa, who was approached by one of the hotel staff, the coat-check.

"Miss? May I take your coat?"

Téa turned from the amazing view, still enchanted by the seemingly endless expanse of glittering lights, offset by the darkening night.

_'For a moment, I thought I could see Tokyo Tower from here…'_

"Oh yes," Téa turned, smiling absently as she slid her arms through the coat.

"Where did you find her, Mister Kaiba?" one of the ladies was asking. "She certainly is beautiful."

"And your age, too! Thank god, if you'd shown up with someone older than you, it would have been a disaster…"

"She's from my school," Seto explained, furrowing his brows as he glanced from the PR ladies up to where Téa was. "And she's just a…"

Seto was facing the raised portion of the floor where Téa was standing, her head slightly bowed as she drew her coat off. Though the entire PR team stood in front of him, Seto Kaiba, standing tall at 186 centimeters, had a perfect view of his date as her dress was revealed.

"…friend." The word had almost trailed off to a whisper as Téa turned to face him, and suddenly, Seto couldn't find any more words—or the willpower to close his mouth.

Mokuba skittered up the stairs beside Téa and poked her in the side, gesturing slightly at his brother, who was staring quite openly at her.

'You owe me a parfait,' he mouthed, and grinned. Téa rolled her eyes, but glanced up at Seto all the same, her cheeks a slight pink color.

In a few quick strides, he was in front of her on the raised floor. Téa had finished handing off her coat to the coat-check, and stood before Seto, her head somewhat dipped, with her gloved hands clasped in front of her. Two simple, silver bracelets clinked together on her left wrist, while the bright chandelier lights twinkled off her rhinestone hair clip.

Seto finally found words, amazed that he had even been made speechless in the first place -by Téa, no less- and murmured, "You look incredible."

Téa glanced upwards at him, offering him a trembling smile, but blushed and bowed her head again just as quickly. A few seconds passed before she mustered the courage to look Seto in the eye, whispering, "So do you."

Seto smiled slightly—something which the entire PR team noticed, tittering away at this exciting development—and turned, once again offering Téa the crook of his arm. She took it with a smile on her face, and the couple descended the stairs from the viewing platform to the main area, where several white linen-covered tables were positioned, many of them already filled with others in formal wear. Téa did her best to keep her eyes on Seto, rather than the crowd, but she could still feel their gaze on them.

_'But what do I care…? For just this night, I'm living like a princess. A real princess.'_

* * *

"So what happens now?" Téa whispered as she sat down, nodding slightly to Seto as he pulled out her chair and gently pushed it back towards the table.

"Now we get bored out of our skulls," Mokuba replied before Seto had a chance, scooting his chair closer to Téa's.

"Translation: We listen to a few speeches, then I make mine, and then dinner."

"It's probably going to be nasty dinner, too," Mokuba added, sulking, "Like that weird English Pea Rizzo, or whatever it was."

"English Pea Risotto?" Téa asked.

Mokuba nodded. "Don't tell me you like that stuff." He made a face expressing his revulsion for the dish.

Téa shook her head, chuckling, "Not on your life. I **hate** peas. I went to a friend's bridal shower once, and they served that—I ate all the risotto, but none of the peas!"

Mokuba grinned, nodding. "Well if that's what we have again, I'll know what to do."

"It's not," Seto shook his head, rolling his eyes at his brother, who was so picky when it came to food, "I think they decided on something like Chicken Apple Marinade."

"Sounds delish," Téa remarked. But she wasn't hungry yet. Her gaze wandered over the tables, and the platform in front of them all. The table she, Seto, and Mokuba were seated at was the farthest right in the very front, not far from the stage where everyone would be making their speeches. Two Kaiba Corp. logos were emblazoned on a pair of hanging vertical banners on either side of a projection screen, and Téa could only assume there would be some sort of slide-show or movie during one of the speeches.

At all the other tables, various people, all dressed just as formally as Seto and Téa—that is to say, in tuxedos and ball gowns—were talking to one another, making small gestures and nodding at the scenery.

_'I bet some of them are commenting on how they have finer linen in their dining halls, or how So-and-so's dress is _so_ last season. But I can't say anything like that…this is the life Seto Kaiba lives? This is incredible!'_ Téa thought, still in awe.

"There aren't any other…people, our age?" she asked quietly, noticing that almost everyone else present was at least in their forties. A few of the Kaiba Corp. PR team she'd seen surround Seto earlier looked a bit younger, but most appeared to be much older than Téa.

"The owner of this hotel chain has a son our age, but he never comes to these things…hates them just as much as we do. I think he ditches them to hang out with his girlfriend or something."

Téa laughed, "I guess I can understand, then." Seto raised an eyebrow at her comment, but didn't say anything in reply.

Everyone then noticed that a man was approaching the stage, and soon the conversations quieted, all eyes turning to face the stage.

"Test, test…is this thing on?" The smiling man tapped the microphone fixed to the podium on the stage, earning a brief bout of laughter from his peers. Seto didn't look very amused, but Téa grinned, as did Mokuba.

"That's Mr. Kobiyashi," Mokuba explained softly. "He's the Vice President while I'm still underage. He's really funny and nice."

"Hello, and welcome, everyone, to the 50th Anniversary of Kaiba Corporation!" There was a smattering of applause, and most gazes turned towards Seto at the fore, who nodded politely, applauding slightly himself.

"Half a century ago," Kobiyashi continued, smiling, "No one had heard the name 'Kaiba.' Or if they had, they surely didn't associate it with a company as large and successful as ours!" Another round of applause. "We've all come a very long way, over the past fifty years, and even in this past year alone. And we're very lucky to be celebrating yet another successful year with our young and enigmatic CEO, Mr. Seto Kaiba himself!" Louder applause this time, continuing up until the point Seto stood up and nodded slightly, before sitting down again.

'Enigmatic?' Téa mouthed to him once he was seated, her eyebrows raised in curiosity.

"Don't look at me," he whispered."I didn't write his speech." Téa stifled a laugh and continued to listen.

"This evening, we have the pleasure of hearing from some of the technology industry's sharpest minds and strongest business leaders. Many of them work with Kaiba Corp. to help us all keep going strong in this hectic world! We'll hear from Ms. Mariko Toriyama, head of inter-company relations with Sony, Mr. Frederick Janson from the American branch of Industrial Illusions, Mr. Ono Shueisha from Nintendo, and many others…and of course, our company head, Seto Kaiba, himself, on what we can look forward to for next year! Following that, what is sure to be a delicious dinner, some dancing, and drinks! Have a wonderful evening everyone, and thank you again for coming!"

There were several minutes of applause, and then a slightly older woman took the stage, making her speech.

* * *

Forty minutes later, Seto Kaiba couldn't have looked more bored. Of course, no one noticed the expression on his face—no one except Téa, since everyone else was respectfully watching the slide-show that the final presenter was showing.

And it wasn't as if their presentations were all that boring to her, either—she remembered something interesting that the Frederick Janson guy had said—something about Industrial Illusions working with Kaiba Corp. to take one of its shareholder's ideas for an interactive duel-suit and bring it to the gaming market.

Seto's speech would be next, followed by dinner and then dancing, but it didn't look as though Seto were any more enthused about making a speech than he had been when he first told Téa about it during the limo ride there.

When a scattering of applause snapped the young CEO out of his stupor, Téa gently touched his arm, catching his attention.

"Smile," she said in a soft voice, "for me?"

Seto gave her a strange look, but offered a slight smile, curling the corners of his mouth up, as he rose from his chair and headed towards the stage. The applause continued even after he was standing at the podium, to the point where he looked almost unsure what to do to get them to stop.

Finally, he spoke, in a loud, clear voice, his eyes riveted out towards the city skyline, so he wouldn't have to look at any one person—or worse, the whole crowd. It was one thing talking to large groups of people your own age—especially if you had a bone to pick with some of them, as Seto had always had, whenever he dueled, but this was completely different. Téa could see why Seto, though he hadn't said it in so many words, was apprehensive.

"Good evening." More applause, and Mokuba, who was leaning with his head in his arms on the table, glanced up and rolled his eyes, mouthing 'stupid adults.' Téa smiled slightly, but then turned her gaze back up to Kaiba.

"Fifty years seems like a long time. In terms of business, a company that manages to last that long is considered a success. In terms of life, a person that has lived a half-a-century is often considered accomplished. This world has much to see within it, much to be done, and considering the variable years each of us is given on this Earth, many of us see it in our best interests to live in the moment, to live in each day, and experience everything this world has to offer."

Adults in the audience were nodding, even the older ones that were likely over fifty, though there didn't appear to be too many of them.

"But fifty years really isn't that long a time. Few of us here can even begin to fathom what that amount of time is like. While I'm sure many people here can say they've lived a long time, seen a lot of things—good and bad alike. But in fifty years, the name Kaiba has changed from being unknown to being one of the top military-grade weapons producers," Téa's eyebrows shot up in surprise at this; "to becoming what it is today, a technological leader, working with countless other companies," Seto gestured towards the executives from Sony and Nintendo nearby, "to create products for today's ever-changing world. Instead of working to destroy, Kaiba Corp. works with hundreds of firms and thousands of people to create products that don't just entertain, as our Duel Disk Systems do, but help heal, create, and solve today's problems."

Seto swallowed. He was good at memorizing speeches, but he just couldn't focus.

_'Smile. For me?' _Téa's voice rang clearly in his mind. He cast a quick glance at Téa as he took a breath, and she smiled at him, gesturing with her two forefingers at the corners of her mouth that he do the same.

She wasn't sitting there, looking bored out of her skull, as Mokuba had predicted all the speeches would do to a normal person. She was actually watching him, with rapt attention in her bright blue eyes. And she wasn't watching him so attentively because she was a high-level executive out to make a few extra bucks and a good impression, nor was she there because she was a nosy member of the press corps, out to uncover some juicy secret. She was there…just for him. Maybe to improve his image to his peers a little, but she didn't have to say yes to going. It wasn't as if she wasn't getting paid for it.

_"She's from my school," _Seto remembered telling the PR ladies, _"And she's just a…friend." _

_'When did she become my friend? I don't think there was ever a spoken moment, but somehow, I…' _

There she was, looking as beautiful as any girl he'd ever laid eyes on, paying close attention to him **and** his words: silently cheering him on, encouraging him with her smile.

_'How is it that she smiles…that she can manage to be so optimistic and enthusiastic, even after everything that's happened to her recently? How can she smile like that?'_

Téa did a lot of things to Seto—primarily, she confused him. For a while, he thought they had something in common, with how both their parents had died and they felt isolated and alone. But there was some defining difference between what Seto had been when he lost his parents, and what Téa was right then. And he wanted to know what that was.

Slowly, a smile curled at the corners of Seto Kaiba's mouth. His eyes remained fixed on Téa, his sudden source of inspiration and courage. He'd never needed such an avatar before—of course, Mokuba had always been someone he'd do anything for, but the smaller boy, even after everything they'd been through, was still a bit naïve to the world. Seto sought to protect him from the harshest of realities, and hope that he, at least, could live a normal life. A normal childhood.

_'A normal child shouldn't need to be depended on so entirely. I have to—I have to do this myself.'_

True, he was the only one up there. And part of him was afraid—he knew full well that a lot of people in the industry didn't appreciate his point of view, or how he'd completely changed the markets in which Kaiba Corp. was involved. But he'd always told himself that he didn't give a damn what others thought—about him, his brother, his family name, or anything else.

_'But I care what _she_ thinks. Because…she's what I've wanted to be all my life. Stronger. Happier.'_

The press corps in the rear of the dining area started whispering amongst themselves, watching as Seto Kaiba's face suddenly blossomed into a smile. They had never seen him smile. **Never**. And suddenly his gaze, once riveted out the panoramic glass window, was fixed on the young, beautiful woman with him.

And the cameras flashed, the pens scribbled, and everyone was watching, listening, riveted to Seto Kaiba, who had apparently changed his manner in the course of a few minutes.

"The faces of today's Kaiba Corp. consumers aren't just military men in uniform, they're their families—mothers, sons, daughters, grandparents. We seek to entertain the kids, educate them. We look to help the mothers, the fathers, and we hope to help heal the millions of sick people out there in hospitals, in need of ways to keep them alive longer."

"We're no longer a company that can only be seen in the faces of those camouflaged with war-paint, but a company whose consumers' faces can be seen when you walk down the street and when you look at the person next to you. In fifty years, the Kaiba name has changed, and so has the company. It is my hope that we will continue to grow and change and succeed—which we have done before, and will continue to do, with everyone's support. Thank you."

There was silence a moment, and then loud, almost thunderous applause, more camera flashes clicking, even as Seto stepped down the stage, slowly, seating himself again.

"That was incredible," Téa whispered as Seto sat back down again. "And you should smile more often. You'll win whole stadiums over."

At the compliment, Seto **did** smile, a slightly embarrassed quirking of his lips. Téa only grinned back in response, blue eyes twinkling.

* * *

"I can't eat another bite," Téa murmured. She leaned back slightly into her chair, raising her hands to place her fork and knife across from one another on the plate, their points going up, signaling to the waiter that she was finished.

"That **was **good," Mokuba agreed, rubbing his stomach. "I ate it all!"

"I think everyone did. It'll probably be a few minutes before anyone works up the energy to do anything besides stay right where they are," Seto remarked, glancing at everyone trying to make conversation after a huge meal. Waitstaff scurried left and right, taking plates and bussing tables.

It was a mere twenty minutes later when all the tables were cleared, and from the elevator bank, Téa noticed a string quintet, led by a young woman in a red gown, appear. There was already a baby grand piano positioned off to the side of the area reserved for dancing: an open space in the center of all the tables.

Téa also noted the furtive glances shot in her direction, and she realized with some embarrassment that the other guests were waiting for Seto to ask her to dance.

_'It's not like he's royalty or anything, but he _is_ the host of this event, so I suppose they're only trying to be polite…'_

But suddenly, Téa wasn't so sure that she'd be able to keep her dinner down—the nervousness from earlier that evening was back, and she could feel butterflies flapping away in her stomach.

She snuck her own glance at Seto, who remained completely oblivious to everyone else's stares—and the suddenly quieted conversation. In the corner, the string quintet readied their bows, many of the players looking straight at Seto Kaiba and his companions.

"Kaiba," she murmured underneath her breath, reaching out to touch his arm again, "people are staring."

"So?" he mumbled back. Téa was torn between wanting to slap him upside the head and banging her own head on the table—out of embarrassment.

"Seto Kaiba…" she practically growled under her breath. **That** caught his attention. He glanced over to her, and saw what she had—that everyone indeed, was staring right at them.

"Come over here, Seto. Ask me to dance," Téa whispered under her breath.

"I can't," Seto grumbled after a second, shifting his gaze back to the table. Téa narrowed her eyes, and smirked when she came up with the appropriate response.

"'Can't' because you don't know how to dance, or 'can't' because you're afraid?"

Seto shot her a look, but Téa only smiled back in response.

"You can dance?" Seto mumbled, an eyebrow raised in query.

"It's what I do, silly. Now get over here and ask me to dance. You didn't bring me here just to show off the latest Jacques Mode design, did you?"

A brief pause, during which Téa's stare became pointed, "No." Seto Kaiba stiffly rose from his chair and moved toward where Téa sat, her posture almost radiating a natural elegance.

He offered her his hand, and she turned to him, smiling. As she too, rose from her seat, she whispered, "Follow my lead."

The string quintet started to play, and a young woman in red positioned herself in front of a microphone and started to sing.

** _wasurenaide ite [Please don't forget]  
_ ** ** _kiresakareta ame [The flourishing, cutting rain]_ **

Both Seto and Téa moved out to the center of the room, reserved for dancing. Téa quickly positioned her arms, one around Seto's shoulders, the other holding one of his hands; Seto placed his one free arm just above the point where Téa's dress began, his hand suddenly growing warm from touching her smooth, bare skin.

**_akai yume o mita [I saw red dreams]  
ano basho [In that place]  
kaigara no naka ni [Inside a shell]  
kakushita ano KISU [A stolen kiss]  
shizuku no mama nokotte iru yo [A constant dripping—I remain.] _ **

Téa kept her gaze fixed on Seto, even though he kept glancing out at everyone. His dancing was stiff and rigid, and it only made his movements appear more jerky than necessary.

"Relax," Téa whispered, leaning her head on his shoulder. The hand that was wound around Seto's shoulders moved down on his back, beginning to rub in a slow, circular soothing motion.

And soon enough, Seto Kaiba did just that—relax. It almost seemed as if he melted slightly, though if one had been watching his face, they would have seen his eyes close for a brief moment during Téa's ministrations, doing his best to relax despite all eyes being trained on him and Téa.

** _kesanaide hoshii [I don't want to be erased]  
itami ni nita yume [This dream is painful]  
_ ** ** _kotoba ni naranai kinou [I couldn't find these words yesterday]  
kagami o waru you ni [It's like a broken mirror]  
dakishime ni itte [I will embrace it]  
furuete ita sora o miyou [Let us look to the trembling sky]_ **

And suddenly, it seemed as if Seto Kaiba no longer needed Téa to lead—and if anyone had noticed that she had been the one leading in the first place, they didn't indicate it on their faces. As the song sped up, Seto's gaze became fixed on Téa's, who was smiling beautifully.

_ **nakitai koto ga atte mo [Even though I want to cry]  
toke wa shinaide [Don't fade away]  
yawarakasa ni aeru hi e [Until the day we meet tenderness]  
oyogi tsuzukeyou [Let's keep swimming]** _

Other couples slowly filtered out onto the floor at this point, still giving adequate room around Seto and Téa, who appeared to be the most fluid of all the dancers. Seto glanced at some of the dancers for just a moment, and in a surprising motion, let go of one of Téa's arms, using the one he held her hand with to pull her back into him.

** _te o nobashite mite [Reach out your hands and see]  
mou hitotsu no natsu [Another summer]  
shinobu you na netsu [Pain, like endurance]  
kanjite [You feel]  
surechigatte kita [Everything changes]  
hitomitachi no koto [And those many eyes…]  
hitotsu hitotsu omoidashite [One thing, the one thing I remember…]_ **

The song reached an instrumental bridge, during which most people danced from side to side. When the singer began again, the tempo was somewhat slower, indicating an upcoming crescendo as three of the five players didn't play. Seto only smiled at Téa as he abruptly leaned forward, knowing music well enough to predict when the singer would begin again, all while gently forcing Téa to lean backwards.

_ **ikenai koto o shitte mo [Even though I have seen horrible things]  
nige wa shinaide [I do not try to escape]  
itoshisa ni fureru gogo o [Together, let's head towards the afternoon]  
sagashi tsuzukeyou [That we've been searching for]** _

His hand slid from its position between her shoulder blades down to the small of her back, time suddenly seeming to slow with the tempo as Téa arched backwards, and came up just as slowly in Seto's arms.

_ **kanashii koto ga atte mo [Even though I am sad]  
yurenaide ite [I do not sway]  
yasashisa ni aeru hi made [Until the day we meet kindness]  
oyogi tsuzukeyou [Let's keep swimming]** _

"Beautiful necklace," Seto murmured in a somewhat gruff voice.

_'You weren't looking at the necklace, idiot,'_ a voice in his head practically shouted. But it was only half-true. The simple blue pendant had sparkled when Seto had leaned Téa forward—and caught sight of it nestled just above Téa's breasts.

Of course, he hadn't been looking at them. No. He hadn't.

Téa smiled, but her eyes had a sad, faraway look to them. It faded before Seto could really decipher what she was feeling, though she replied in a soft voice, "It was my mother's. Her one precious sapphire necklace, and all I really have left of her."

He was silent a moment before replying, pulling Téa back from a brusque spin, "You have your memories."

Again, Seto spun Téa outwards from his arms, this time drawing her so that his arms were wrapped around her when he pulled her in, so they were both facing the same direction. They took a few steps together, embracing as they were, before he spun her out again gently, resuming their previous face-to-face position.

"'Can't' dance, eh?" Téa smirked, masking her surprise for Seto's sudden adeptness at dancing.

"What can I say?" Seto smirked in kind, "I'm a fast learner."

The singer bowed her head, indicating that her part was over, and slowly the strings faded out, from five to three, to one alone. Téa's eyes had been fixed on Seto's throughout the entire dance, sky blue clashing with midnight blue even as the strings silenced and the song came to an end.

Téa gently pulled away from Seto, still smiling, but more a mysterious smile than before. He couldn't tell what she was thinking or feeling at the moment—

_'Probably no more than she can ever tell with me, at any rate.'_

"I'm going to look for Mokuba," Téa responded, noting the small boy was no longer at the table where they'd left him. The violinists and cellist started up again, beginning a new dance, cuing Seto to leave the dance floor.

While Téa disappeared into a quickly growing crowd of reporters, searching for Mokuba, Seto wandered off to the side of the stage and across from the musicians. A cocktail bar that spanned the length of the lowered area was set up, a variety of colorful drinks gleaming invitingly from the glass countertop.

The young CEO leaned on the counter, looking out at everyone, content to not be noticed for once. His eyes sifted through the crowd, and it wasn't until a moment later that he realized that he had been looking for someone—Téa.

He'd been picking through the red, green, and black dresses, the gray and black suits, and the blonde and black hair, unaware that he was seeking the young woman he'd held in his arms only moments before.

_'It's like I want her back beside me…and she hasn't even been gone for long. What the hell am I thinking?'_

So fine, it had been a good nice. A nice dance, even. Seto had never danced before. Téa was certainly the best partner he could have asked for, with the way her lithe body moved. It didn't take him long to remember the warmth of her body, or the curve of her thigh when it appeared through the slit in her dress.

He'd never known a girl—no, a woman—to be so…

_'Tempting? Inviting?'_ As per the usual, where Téa Gardner was concerned, Seto Kaiba's thoughts remained as clear as mud.

Suddenly finding his mouth dry, Seto reached for a glass of water, downing it in one swallow as his eyes finally caught sight of Téa.

She had apparently found Mokuba, as the small boy stood at her side, clutching one of her arms as she spoke to a small crowd of reporters. She was smiling and nodding, glancing down at Mokuba at one point and ruffling his hair slightly.

_'How can she do it?' _Seto wondered, jealousy flaring up within him.

_'How can she pretend to be so happy when she's lost everything she's known? Her home, her parents—her whole livelihood! And yet she's here, mingling with people she isn't remotely like, doesn't know a shred about, and smiling as if she hasn't a care in the world!'_

A burning sensation was making its way down Seto's throat, and he realized with half a thought that what he had just drunk was not water, but alcohol. But he kept his eyes fixated on Téa, smiling and even laughing at the reporters, speaking candidly and honestly with them—regardless of what Seto had told her about them being nosy pests—as if she weren't worried about what they could say about her, or do to her reputation.

Suddenly, Seto found himself not caring—not about the difference between alcohol and water, nor the difference between his jealousy and his attraction to Téa.

He quickly grabbed another full glass of what he would shortly learn was vodka, again downing it as if it were a mere shot.

Téa's arm shifted around Mokuba, her hand pressing gently against one of his shoulder blades. Mokuba couldn't have looked more comfortable, despite him being surrounded by intimidating, taller reporters—almost all of them women—who usually belittled Mokuba by asking him invasive questions in condescending tones.

_'How does she do it? Mokuba barely knew Téa before this summer, and now—and now he can't seem to get enough of her. She was just one of Yugi's pathetic friends, a cheerleader in her own right. Not even a duelist! When did she become…something else?'_

Even Seto didn't know the answer to that. Was it when he first overheard the teacher speaking to Téa, and he'd realized that someone else was going through what he had—the pain of losing one's parents, of losing life, losing hope, losing so much…

_'Back then, I wanted to cut the whole world off. It wasn't enough that Mom died in childbirth, but three years later…Dad…' _

Seto—before he'd become a Kaiba—had withdrawn into a shell, becoming reclusive and numb to the world, despite his father's best effort. And when he had died—so short a time after Seto's mother—Seto's world, already fragmented, shattered. The brother that he'd originally despised for 'killing his mother' was suddenly all he had left. And he'd refused to let anyone separate them. No matter what.

_'And somehow, I failed—twice. If it hadn't been for Téa back then at Battle City, I might have lost him…for good.' _She'd been the one responsible for Mokuba's escape, and had been the one his brother had insisted on going back for.

But Kaiba hadn't had the mind to listen, being obsessed with the God Cards and having some strange innate desire to have them all, to see their power—to be who he was before—strong. If he was strong, he'd beat Yugi once and for all, and he'd be number one again. Being number one meant you commanded respect, and those who respected you feared you—and didn't try to destroy your life.

_'Things don't work that way, do they? It's not a matter of "God standing in your way," like I told Yugi. Life was never meant to be so clear, so simple. Pain _is_ endurance…Weakness leaving the body…'_

Why then, at that moment, did his chest ache so much, looking at Téa's smile?

* * *

The limo ride home was silent. Mokuba was half-asleep, tired and mostly curled up on Téa's lap. She absently stroked his hair, soothing him into a restful slumber, while Seto remained silent.

When they'd met up to leave after everything ended, Seto had barely said two words to her. She had to dash after him, strappy pumps clacking noisily on the marble floor as she tried to slide her coat on while Seto was already striding into the elevators.

She'd shot him an irritated glare, but she received no response whatsoever, even when her gaze melted into one of concern and worry. No matter what either she or Mokuba said, Seto's eyes never met theirs, and he didn't speak to them at all.

_'What's wrong with him? I thought tonight went well….'_

Téa, in the middle between Mokuba on the left side of the car, and Seto on the right, could only stare straight ahead, at the black glass separating the driver's side from the rear of the limousine. Seto's reflection in the glass was the same as it had been all night—staring away from Mokuba, and away from her.

_'It must have been something I said or did, but the least the idiot could do is tell me what's wrong! At least if I made a mistake, I can apologize. I don't even know what I've done wrong!'_ Téa felt horribly guilty, making excuses in this way, but half of her stubbornly denied that she had said or done anything to deserve such rude and insensitive behavior on Seto's part.

Even when they arrived at the mansion, he hadn't helped her out of the car, and didn't say a word—even thank you—to the driver. Téa was the one who had to awaken Mokuba, the one to thank the chauffeur, and the one to close the front door. She was also the one to usher Mokuba up to bed, watching the smaller boy skitter up the stairs and disappear into his bedroom.

The gentle expression on her face morphed into annoyance and upset; Seto was still ignoring her.

"Seto Kaiba, what is wrong with you? Why are you so grouchy—I thought tonight went well! Everyone liked your speech, and you danced wonderfully, and the press didn't annoy you…" Téa trailed off.

She removed her coat and folded it over one arm. Had both her hands been free, she would have had them on her hips, angled in such a way that Seto would know, without a single doubt in that thick head of his, that his actions were upsetting her. But she was also concerned.

For the first time that night since they'd danced, Téa got a reaction out of Seto. He'd been pacing the hallway just before it broke from the foyer into the living area, darkness filling the wide-open space.

"How can you do it?" he whispered, his voice low and harsh. Accusing.

"What? Do what? What are you talking about?"

_'The first time he says anything since we dance, and it doesn't even make any sense! Is this Seto Kaiba, or some sort of impostor?'_

"How can you…" Seto gestured, his face contorting into a mask of frustration, "**do** that!? Pretend to be happy, or smile the way you do, after everything you've been through!? Have you forgotten that your parents are **dead**!?"

Téa's jaw dropped, her eyes desperately searching Seto's face for any sign that his words were some form of twisted humor. They were not.

"Wh…How **dare** you? I haven't forgotten my parents, I **can't** forget about them, not for a second I'm breathing on this planet!"

Against her will, tears formed at Téa's lower lash line, even as she bit her lip and continued speaking, resolutely, "I honestly thought we were getting somewhere, Seto Kaiba, where you at least **tried** to understand me and what I'm going through—what I've **been** going through! You should know, better than anyone else, that I'm always going to be in pain, that I can't just forget anyone or anything! I smile because if I don't, I'll fall apart! I'll break into tears, I'll scream, and I'll suddenly realize that I have **nothing** left!"

Téa was decidedly angry now, but somehow, her tears stayed in check.

Seto's eyes narrowed slightly at her words, and with a few quick strides, he'd closed the distance between them, suddenly forcing Téa against the wall beside the front door.

"I don't know how you do it, no matter what you say. You're everything I wanted to be when I lost them…" His eyes, Téa realized, were severely dilated, an abyss of black, hardly reflecting any light at all, "I want your determination. Your courage, your…ability to smile like that." His voice dropped lower, gruff than before, and this time, Téa could hear the desire laced in his voice.

"I want you."

And before Téa even had a chance to respond, Seto's mouth was on hers, his arms pinning her to her the wall, his eyes already closed. His lips were warm, but forceful, passionate—demanding.

Her blue eyes widened impossibly, and the tears that she'd somehow kept in check spilled down her face as her body refused to respond. Her arms went slack, her velvet coat spilling to the floor, forgotten.

Her mind hadn't even completely processed the notion that Seto Kaiba was crushing his lips against hers—kissing **her**!—before he pulled away, pushing his palms against the cool marble wall. His eyes refused to meet hers, already closed as he turned away. Without a second thought, he headed toward his office and slammed the door once he was inside.

Téa stood in place for a moment, tears still streaming down her face. Almost mechanically, gloved fingertips brushed across her moist, swelling lips, an electric spark of pain dancing across them.

She closed her eyes as she reached for her coat, tears falling, fading into the midnight blue velvet, and burst into a fresh set of tears, running upstairs as fast as her trembling legs could carry her.

Only one thought made any sense in her mind:

_'Idiot!'_

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> **HAHAHAHHAHAHAHAHAHAH CLIFFHANGER OF DOOM! DON'T YOU ALL LOVE ME? I love me. ^_^ Yeah, bit of an ego there. ;) But tell me what YOU THINK!**
> 
> **THANK YOU!!!!!!!!!**
> 
> **READ ME! (well, everything below this line, please…)**
> 
> **The song featured in this chapter was Kajiura Yuki's "Em More," an Image Song from the NOIR soundtrack. The romanization, as well as the translation (in part) were from AnimeLyrics.com. I use the song a lot (well, this is the second time) in dance scenes, just because it works so well. **
> 
> **Eventually I will feature a soundtrack page for WDKY, where you can find all the artist info, and maybe even download the MP3s. ^_^**
> 
> **CONTEST 1: I guess without a real prize to win, no one was interested? Or maybe it was too long a chapter for people to see the contests? In any case, here's a hint, for people who want to go back to Chapter 3 (the first scene) and try to guess the animes/mangas the teachers' names came from:**
> 
> **In no particular order…**
> 
> *** Two of the teachers are based off of characters from Rumiko Takahashi series.  
> * One of the teachers is from one of CLAMP's most popular titles.  
> * One of the teachers is named after a minor character in Sailor Moon.  
> * Two of the teachers are named for characters that are ONLY found in manga.  
> * Those two teachers' characters are NOT in the SAME manga.  
> * The last teacher is based off the creator of Yu-Gi-Oh. **
> 
> **CONTEST 2: It wasn't exactly a contest, it was me wondering who thought they saw similarities between Seto Kaiba and another male anime character. Here are my answers…feel free to agree or disagree…or add your own thoughts.**
> 
> **SETO KAIBA REMINDS ME OF…**
> 
> *** Prince Demando from Sailormoon - Because they are both quiet, ruthless, and will do anything to get what they want. They'll also die for a cause they believe in. Both of them can be pretty stubborn too. **
> 
> *** Rui Hanazawa from Hana Yori Dango - They're both reticent (quiet) as heck, and incredibly hard to read. Sometimes it's next to impossible (if not COMPLETELY IMPOSSIBLE) to tell what they're after and why. And both of them can change their minds on a whim, but are still very determined to reach their goals—even if it doesn't seem that way to EVERYBODY. **
> 
> *** Mamoru Chiba from Sailormoon - Both guys like to tease someone mercilessly, and for the most part, without reason. Both guys get along SOMEWHAT with a few people, but the rest either hate him or think he's got something stuck up his @$$. Still, few are privileged enough to see a sense of humor twinkling under those deliciously dark blue eyes. Both are also "killer" dressers. *laughs***
> 
> *** Dias from Star Ocean EX - Quiet. Determined. Holds a grudge like no tomorrow. Don't #$^% with either of these guys' friends or family! HE'LL GET YOU!!**
> 
> *** Sagara Sousuke from Full Metal Panic - Both are strong and determined, but EXTREMELY lacking in common sense. Of course, they're total specialists in what they do and what they "love," but sometimes you just wanna smack the both of them upside the head. Both of them have a very twisted sense of humor, and when it comes through…well…^^;;**
> 
> **AAAAAAAAAAANYWAY…let me know what you think. If you think…anything. :) Yeah.**
> 
> **~Azurite**


	5. Dwelling

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> She's been denying what she knows are growing feelings. And now she might just have to come clean with the truth...

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> **What Doesn't Kill You  
> Chapter 5: Dwelling  
> Version 3.5 - **Deprecated tags removed**  
> A Yu-Gi-Oh Fanfiction**  
> **By:** Azurite - azurite AT seventh-star DOT net  
> **Site: **seventh-star DOT net  
> **Conceptualized/First Written:** 10/22/03  
> **Completed/Posted:** 10/23/03
> 
> **Edits:** 8/15/04, 12/4/05
> 
> _**Rated PG13/T**_
> 
> **Disclaimer:** ME, own Yu-Gi-Oh? I wish! (I can't believe I forgot a disclaimer before) This is for fun, not profit.
> 
> * * *
> 
>   
> **RECAP:** Téa's parents died. She didn't have a place to call home-- until Seto Kaiba, of all people, offered her a job. Too good to be true? Maybe. But now she's got other things on her mind-- like how Seto Kaiba stole her first kiss…
> 
> * * *

Nothing was helping.

Not warm milk, not herbal tea, not classical music, not ANYTHING! And already it was Sunday, the hours slipping away…

_'I can't get it out of my head…'_ Téa thought dazedly to herself, willing her eyes closed. They burned. Her eyes were red and bloodshot from all the crying last night-- she'd hoped to cry herself to sleep, but the Sandman evaded her that night.

Sleep never came.

The hours ticked away, midnight turning into 1am, 2am… and it seemed, in the blink of Téa's contrasting red-and-blue eyes, it was suddenly 6am. She knew she hadn't slept any. All she could think about was…

_'Him. It. Me! That stupid idiot! Or is the idiot really me…?'_

Despite what felt like endless streams of tears and dark hours dragging on into the night, Téa was no more rested than she had been the moment Seto Kaiba's lips had touched hers.

Electricity would have been the best word to describe the absolute SHOCK filtering through her system, her blood, her entire mind, body, and soul.

Still, she couldn't quite believe it, but she hadn't slept any in order for such a thought to be a mere dream.

_'It really happened. He really… he really kissed me.' _

But it hadn't been at all like Téa had been envisioning--

_'What am I thinking? We came close… maybe ONCE, but we… I never wanted… That idiot!'_

Her anger at Seto Kaiba didn't help things any; the situation hadn't changed. And lying awake in her bed, constantly running her fingers over her bruised lips didn't change anything either.

So, after she finally changed into a big T-shirt and a pair of blue sweats, she stumbled down the stairs into the kitchen, in the hopes that she could concoct something that would help her sleep. But she'd ended up staying in there, sitting at the kitchen table, going over the scenario over and over again in her mind-- staring at the countertop tiles, into space, into the dark, even as it receded into the growing daylight.

At 6:54am, the swinging door separating the dining area and the living area from the kitchen and the entertainment area swung open, Seto Kaiba stumbling through it.

"Ow ow ow…" he was mumbling, one palm clutching his head. Téa glanced up in surprise, realizing with a shock as she caught sight of the microwave clock beside Seto gleaming the time.

Seto was rifling through one of the upper cabinets beside all the appliances, finding a bottle of aspirin and quickly dumping three small white tablets into his hand. When he turned around, he noticed Téa, but his eyes didn't widen much; they were just as bloodshot as Téa's, and he looked incredibly tired.

"Hey. What are you doing up this early?" he asked, grabbing a glass from the dish pan. Téa stared at him, wondering why in the seven hells he would ask such a stupid question, when last night he--

"Never mind, my head hurts too much to process anything logical anyway. And I'm sure you have a perfectly logical reason…" Seto trailed off, dropping the three painkillers into his mouth and chugging his glass of water. When he finished, he wiped his mouth on his T-shirt sleeve.

"Massive headache," he explained, though Téa hadn't asked a single question in regards to his pill-popping. "There is one logical explanation you can offer me, though. And there **has** to be a logical explanation for this, unless I had one hell of a dream. How the hell did we get home from the Ball last night?"

* * *

Téa was staring at the countertop again, but this time, her thoughts weren't lost in last night's kiss --not as impossibly as before, anyway-- but in Seto's words from earlier.

_'He doesn't… remember?'_

But that didn't make any sense… did it?

_'It… he tasted like alcohol.'_ Téa remembered with a slight haze. A spicy sort of taste, almost burning. She didn't know exactly how she recognized the sensation as alcohol, but it certainly would explain things.

_'If he can't remember coming home last night, then that means he can't remember… that.' _

Téa's eyes widened in shocked realization.

_'Do I really **want** him to remember, though? He must have been drunk, but… I couldn't even tell!'_

Téa remembered a glass bottle shattering against the door to the Wheeler home, the one time she had visited the place with Tristan and Yugi. Joey's father was an alcoholic, almost always in a state of drunkenness.

**He** was the stereotypical image of what Téa had pictured a drunken man was like. The night previous, Seto hadn't been like that at ALL.

'_He seemed… quiet. Angry about something, but he wasn't throwing bottles or chairs or anything. And when we got home, he…'_

With startling clarity, Téa remembered Seto Kaiba's biting words, his **accusations**, almost, demanding to know how she managed to smile, managed to be happy, despite her parents dying only a month ago.

_'He thought I'd… forgotten. No one can ever forget something so-- so horrible! I lost so much in one day, and…'_

What didn't make any sense in Téa's mind was WHY Seto would have said such things to her in the first place. He, of all people, knew the pain of losing loved ones. He knew that it was impossible to forget about them.

_'But maybe he doesn't know me as well as I thought. He doesn't know that if I don't try to smile, if I don't try to be happy, be myself, then the world just isn't a nice place for me anymore. It'll all fall apart, and I'll go down with it.'_

After many months of being in the shadow of those with bigger destinies, more talents and skills, and possible dreams, Téa knew how dangerous entertaining thoughts of doubt were.

_'The moment I start to doubt myself… the moment I start to believe that I really **don't** have anything left is when it all starts to come true.'_

Téa knew-- she still had her friends, and, thanks to Seto, she was blessed enough not just to have a home, but almost a family.

_'But what kind of a family member says things like **that** to someone?'_ Téa wondered. She would never forget Seto's words.

_"You're… everything I wanted to be when I lost them… I want your determination. Your courage, your… ability to smile like that." _

_'It doesn't make any sense. Seto Kaiba, jealous of me? This is the guy that has the entire world at his fingertips, endless resources at his disposal, more money than be counted by human hands… a little brother that adores him, and a house big enough for twenty people! Why… why would he be jealous of me, for my stupid cheerleader attitude, nonetheless? Everyone always says I'm too optimistic, and naive… but I've seen the real world, I've seen reality, and it **hurts**! I have to smile, even when it hurts, or…'_

_"I want you."_

She could still hear his voice, dangerously low and almost gruff. Filled with desire. His breath hot on her face, his eyes pools of bottomless black.

_'That wasn't the Seto Kaiba I knew. His eyes… his eyes weren't so… full of emptiness. So… devoid of everything… even hope.'_

* * *

A few hours of rest were just what Seto Kaiba needed. He didn't understand just why he'd woken up in his office, still in his horribly uncomfortable tuxedo, draped across the couch like his body was some sort of throw rug.

And the splitting headache hadn't helped any.

While he'd worked up the willpower to get up and head to the kitchen for some aspirin, he'd come up with all sorts of adjectives for his newfound companion-- pain.

_'Like someone cut my head open with an ax. Like I got sliced and diced as if I were a melon. What the hell did I **eat **last night?'_

It had to have been something in the Chicken Apple Marinade. There was just no other possible explanation-- at least, not in Seto Kaiba's mind.

But then, Seto Kaiba's mind was rather hazy at the moment, clouded with pain and strikingly intense sensations. They were still flitting around in the forefront of his mind, bright colors and too-loud sounds, like the squeaking of the swinging door in the kitchen…

_'I'll have to get the hinges oiled…'_

Still in a daze, he grabbed a bottle of pills and downed them, along with a glass of water-- noticing Téa's presence. Her face was averted from his, but he knew that she realized he was there. He wasn't entirely sure HOW he knew --maybe it was from her rigid posture-- but he just did. And though she didn't respond to him at all, he did feel the need to ask her--

"How the hell did we get home from the Ball last night?"

And she'd looked up at him, her eyes wide in surprise. With some amount of clarity in his fogged mind, Seto realized that Téa looked just as bad as he did-- if not worse. Her eyes were bloodshot, dark circles making the brilliant blue of her eyes seem a cloudy gray.

"We… took the limo. You… you don't remember?" She asked, her voice trembling.

"No," Seto shook his head, the movement agitating his headache once more. "Nothing past… nothing past the dance, really. My mind's really hazy now. I… better go get some rest."

"…Yeah."

And so he'd left the kitchen. After taking a few hours of sleep, he woke up to the most annoying sound in the world, amplified a few hundred times by his intense headache.

The phone.

"Yes?" Seto gripped the receiver of his phone with eyes still closed, fighting against the bright daylight beginning to stream through his curtains. He hadn't drawn the heavy ones last night --after all, he'd passed out in his office.

There was no answer, but a faint "Mister Kaiba?" from somewhere caused the young man to open his eyes to slits, realizing he'd held the receiver upside down.

"What?" He said, this time with the receiver upright.

"Mister Kaiba! I'm very sorry to disturb you this morning." It was Mrs. Kodaku, but rather than sound like her usual lecturing-mother-self, she sounded a bit worried-- agitated, even.

_'If she doesn't make this explanation for such an early morning call quick, **I'll** be the agitated one!'_

"But it seems we have some problems. Last night a member of one of the tabloid press managed to get a few pictures and an interview with Miss Gardner last night, and the things the tabloid says are not exactly good for your image, sir!"

"WHAT?" Seto gritted out, moving to sit up in bed.

"The tabloid, sir… will come out this evening if we don't do something to stop it. I realize Miss Gardner was your date, but…"

"Téa? That damn tabloid reporter said something about **her**?"

"Y-Yes, sir. And he's managed to pull some rather disturbing information on the girl. If this gets out…"

"I'll be right there."

And with a click, Seto was up and out of bed, storming to his closet to get dressed and head out-- even WITH a pounding headache.

* * *

"Okay, I'm going now!" Mokuba's cheery voice called as he dashed out the front door. Unlike the other days when Téa was at the front door, letting Seto and Mokuba out, Seto had already left for KaibaCorp… and Mokuba was headed to a classmate's house to work on a project.

And Téa was lying on the couch, her eyes fixed to the ceiling some twenty feet above.

"Have fun," she mumbled out, not even glancing in Mokuba's direction. The young boy cast a worried glance at his 'Big Sister' before dashing out the door, slamming it shut as he left.

The sound rang in Téa's ears even five minutes after the smaller boy had gone.

Every time she closed her eyes, she kept seeing it again … feeling **it **again.

"AUGH! I have to get this out of my head! Must de-stress!" Téa sprung off the couch, dashing upstairs on nimble feet, rummaging through the CD tower near her desk. She picked out a CD and dashed back downstairs, opening the case while she tried to decipher the many buttons on Seto Kaiba's impressive home stereo system.

"Okay… Power… On."

"HEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEY GOOD MORNING TO YOU, THIS IS KBBBLX, THE--"

"Woah. Way too loud." Téa fiddled with the volume a moment, pressing a few more buttons on the Sony stereo before pressing 'CD' and powering up the 7-disc CD-changer. She only loaded the one CD in it, a mix of some of her favorite dance tunes, and set the mode to random.

"Okay now… Play." Téa turned the volume up slightly from when she'd forced it all the way down. Taking a few unsteady steps towards the area behind the couch, where perfect marble floor met soft white carpet, Téa tried to get herself into a relaxed state of mind.

"Just dance. De-stress. Just dance," she murmured to herself, stretching slightly as the CD-changer whirred, going through the many tracks on the CD to pick one-- track 6.

There was a burst of music, violins and drums, and then a fading quiet as the singer began.

_**The moonlight…  
Shines down interstellar beams  
And the groove tonight  
Is something more than you've ever seen**_

_'Carry on Dancing, by Savage Garden,'_Téa realized, moving her arms. She twirled in place a moment, careful that her bare feet wouldn't slip. As the words were spoken, she moved, lithe and graceful, running stretched palms over her body and reaching out towards a sky she couldn't see.

_**The stars and planets taking shape  
A stolen kiss has come too late**_

Téa realized with a jolt that the words were speaking to her-- as she suddenly spun and found herself facing that very wall Seto had pushed her up against the night before. And, like the shadow of her memory, she could almost see herself --see **them**\-- night descending on the house as Seto Kaiba forcefully leaned in towards a frightened and almost angry Téa, kissing her.

The real Téa stared, shaking her head, and turned away from that side of the area, focusing on the music once more.

_**(In the moonlight)  
Carry on, keep romancing,  
Carry on, carry on dancing**_

_**(In the moonlight)  
Carry on, keep romancing,  
Carry on, carry on dancing**_

She could feel him pressed against her. She could sense his movements seconds before he made them, when they'd danced the night before. The way he'd twirled her outwards from him, keeping a firm and steady grip on her hand, not flinching in the slightest when she wound her way back into him, his arms locking around her as she pressed her back against his chest.

_**You're never safe 'till you see the dawn  
And if the clock strikes past midnight  
The hope is gone  
To move under…**_

_**(The moonlight)  
Carry on, keep romancing,  
Carry on, carry on dancing**_

Unable to dance without finding herself drawn to that space -that wall from last night- Téa closed her eyes, willing her body to move as she imagined it to, steps flowing from one into the next, her form sliding from one position into the next.

Memories assailed her, one after the next. That almost-kiss the night they'd been watching Toy Story with Mokuba. His embarrassed blush when he'd first asked her to the 50th Anniversary Ball. His gentle, welcoming smile as she'd descended the stairs in her velvet coat, Mokuba winking at her the whole time. His startled and perhaps even amazed gaze as he caught sight of her in her dress, revealed for the first time.

His emotionless, steel blue eyes, when she'd lectured him back at Duelist Kingdom. How she'd thought he didn't care about anyone or anything-- but himself.

Those selfsame eyes, color fading into black, just before his face closed the distance between them, his lips claiming hers. _****_

(In the moonlight)  
Carry on, keep romancing,  
Carry on, carry on dancing

_**Move. Closer. Passion. Stronger.**_

Téa's movements suddenly became jerky, in tempo with the music, but uncoordinated all the same. She remembered smothering her face with a pillow, embarrassed that she'd even THOUGHT about Seto Kaiba kissing her. Thought, there was no way he'd ever like her THAT way, no reason for her to even CARE whether he did or not. But then, she'd wanted him to… in a corner of her mind, she'd desperately wanted him to kiss her back then…

_**There's a magic only two can tell  
In the dark night  
Ultra violet is a wicked spell**_

_'And now that he has, and I can't stop thinking about it… but it's… it's not LIKE before! It wasn't special, it wasn't intimate it was…'_

_**The stars and planets taking shape  
A stolen kiss has come too late**_

_'Just that. Stolen. I didn't expect it, I didn't… I didn't **want** it! Not that way…'_

_**In the moonlight  
Carry on, keep romancing,  
Carry on, carry on dancing  
In the moonlight **_

_**Carry on, keep romancing,  
Carry on, carry on dancing**_

_**Moving on… Moving all night**_

And so Téa kept moving, kept dancing, her arms sliding down the length of her legs as she brought her left leg up in the air, balancing precariously on the ball of her right foot and then bringing her leg down swiftly, shifting into another position, fanning her arms out.

_**In the moonlight  
Carry on, keep romancing,  
Carry on, carry on dancing**_

_'I can almost… I can almost feel his arms around me…'_

_**In the moonlight  
Carry on, keep romancing,  
Carry on, carry on dancing**_

_**Moving on… Moving all night**_

The song came to a close. During the new shuffle process, Téa heaved a sigh, taking the few steps across the white carpet to the CD player and shutting it off.

"This isn't working," she said aloud to herself. "There's got to be another way to get this off my back."

Téa headed back up to her room, glancing around, hoping for some sort of inspiration. And it came-- in the form of her little pink cell phone

* * *

"Well, I gotta say Téa, I didn't expect for you to call ME."

Téa sighed, shaking her head, "Lately, I've had so much going on, I just… I have to tell someone."

"Well shoot, girl. You know I'm your friend, and I'd be glad to act as a sounding board."

Téa glanced up, a measure of surprise reflecting in her blue eyes. "You can keep a secret, right?"

Téa's violet-eyed companion laughed cheerily, "Well I wouldn't be a girl if I didn't have my own, would I?" Mai Valentine's expression faded, and she became serious again, "Of course I can, Téa. And I have to say that while we haven't always been on the best of terms…" she trailed off, her eyes shifting to the left, glancing at the various stores she and Téa were passing in the Domino Mall, "But I'd like to think we've all seen enough hell to at least have some common bond."

Téa smiled gratefully, "Thanks. And this shopping therapy is probably right up my alley."

"It's the best medicine, Téa. Now, let's get started!"

* * *

Some forty minutes later, Téa and Mai were both loaded down with several bags of clothing, a few bags of accessories, and a couple of books.

They were headed towards the food court, both ready to discuss everything.

The two girls settled on getting some tapioca bubble drinks and pizza, with Mai opting for pepperoni and sausage, while Téa preferred a vegetarian slice, loaded with olives and bell peppers.

The latter girl was nibbling absently on her pizza, only finishing half of it before she distracted herself with twirling the oversized straw in her bubble drink while Mai ate. The older, violet-eyed girl raised a blonde eyebrow at Téa, wondering why she hadn't said anything since they'd gotten to the food court.

"So," she began, finishing off the last pepperoni, "What's on your mind, Téa?"

"Oh, Mai…" Téa began with a sigh. "This is NUTS!"

"What's nuts? You forget, Téa dear, I'm the uninformed party here. I can't exactly help you if I don't know what the problem is."

Téa leaned back in the two-person booth, her own eyebrow raised in amusement, "You make me sound like a shrink patient."

Mai only smirked, so Téa continued.

"This all began the night after I found out my parents died," Téa began, closing her eyes. She could still remember, her memory clear, though in short bursts, Seto appearing at her house. She could remember him saying 'If I were you Gardner, I wouldn't turn it down,' and she'd replied, 'But you're not me.'

_'Was that supposed to make sense?'_ Téa wondered. _'Then again, I wasn't exactly thinking straight that day…'_

"I'd spent the whole night before at the police station, filling out forms, getting details… and then, the next day, I just had to go to school…"

"Had to?" Mai raised an eyebrow, "After what happened, I would have thought you'd just go home…"

"But that's the thing, Mai!" Téa looked up, blue eyes shimmering, "I didn't have a home to **go** to!"

"Huh?" Mai asked eloquently, surprise written in her eyes.

"The police said I couldn't stay at my own house for more than a night. Since I'm a minor and I have no other relatives…"

"Where did you stay then-- not at some cheap hotel, right?"

"Far from it," Téa responded, her voice dropping to a whisper.

"Then where? I remember the day after your parents' funeral, Joey called me up, frantic that you'd been kidnapped or something, We swung by your house, and it was completely empty."

"Rewind," Téa murmured, "We're still a week before all that. The guys treated me out to lunch- or they were going to, but some guy paid for everything. So we went to the movies after that… basically the guys were trying to cheer me up."

"I guess it worked," Mai winked, noting Téa's slight smile as she remembered the day.

"Yeah. They really… they really made me feel a lot better. It didn't change things any, but it did make going home a bit easier. Up until the part I realized I couldn't go inside."

"So you basically distracted yourself from the inevitable-- that you couldn't go home because of what the police said."

"That and the fact that I didn't have a key, since they were still rummaging through the rubble of my parents' accident to see if they could find one," Téa grumbled sarcastically. Mai made a surprised and somewhat disgusted face.

"Yikes."

"And then, all of a sudden, out of nowhere, HE shows up."

"He?" Mai queried, her curiosity officially piqued. So there **was **a guy involved.

"Seto Kaiba," Téa said with a sigh. There were so many ways to say his name, but any time you said his whole name in a single breath, the listener was bound to know that whatever you had to say about the young CEO was serious.

Mai's eyebrows shot up, but she didn't voice her lack of real astonishment. Unlike the others at Téa's parents' funeral, she'd seen Seto Kaiba emerge from the same limo that Téa had. And when Téa had nearly collapsed in front of her parents' coffins, it had been Seto Kaiba at her side first.

"So?" Mai prompted, wondering what happened.

"So, he offered me a place to stay. And I took him up on the offer. Found out that he's an orphan too, and figured that's why he was being so nice to me."

"Makes sense."

_'**Not**. Seto Kaiba, ruthless duelist, suddenly has a soft spot for Téa Gardner? Not that she isn't a sweet girl, but the two of them are almost exact opposites. There's something I'm missing here, I just know it.'_ Mai thought to herself, _'And I'm going to find out what.'_

"Next day, I didn't go to school-- I had to swing by the police office to sort some things out-- figure out what I was going to do about a place to live, employment… all of that. My parents had life insurance, but their policy wasn't very big, and the costs had to cover the funeral, mostly. I was… too out of it to really deal with any of it. I think the police officer I talked with handled it."

_'Odd. Cops don't usually handle funeral arrangements.'_

"Okay. Go on." Mai urged, sipping from her tapioca drink. She glanced down at Téa, who was still swirling her drink with her straw. She'd already squished most of the tapioca balls into a floating mess inside her drink, which she hadn't touched for over ten minutes.

"Well, I found out that I couldn't live alone unless I was employed, but school rules state that you can't be employed unless you meet special requirements, and I didn't really meet them…"

"But Joey does?" Mai interrupted, surprised. Téa shot Mai a look that personified her sarcastic tone, "Haven't you met his dad?"

"No…" Mai trailed off, thinking, _'Why would I have?'_

"Good. You don't want to. He's the reason Joey's got a job in the first place, and I should be so lucky not to have his excuse."

_'Huh? I'll have to ask Wheeler about that one later.'_ Mai mentally stored that tidbit of information away, but wisely didn't ask Téa about it further. After all, Mai was there for HER, not Joey.

"Anyway, guess who shows up at the police station -out of nowhere- again?"

"Let me rack my brains," Mai intoned sarcastically, leaning on one elbow, "Seto Kaiba?"

Téa nodded sharply, "I have **no** idea why he suddenly showed up when he did, but he said he needed someone to take care of his brother. Would give me a job to be Mokuba's tutor and caretaker when Kaiba couldn't be around."

Mai eyed Téa suspiciously, "Since when is Seto Kaiba ever APART from his little brother? I mean aside from the obvious, when the little runt's gotten kidnapped, or when they're at school."

Téa quirked a smile, which faded quickly as she nodded. "That's what I thought. But I wasn't about to look a gift horse in the mouth, so to speak," She grinned, "So I took him up on his offer."

"Waitaminute," Mai said, suddenly piecing two and two together, "So **he's** your Boss? **Seto Kaiba's** the one you've been living with lately?"

Téa nodded, and then her expression became worried-- terrified almost.

"Please, Mai, the guys don't know that it's Kaiba. I just know if Joey found out, he'd kill him. I… after all he's done for me, I can't let that happen."

Mai chuckled a little, "Well, I'd like to think Joey'd be a bit more understanding then **that**, but then again, he and Kaiba have never gotten along very well, have they?"

"As well as cats and dogs," Téa muttered. Mai laughed, and the younger girl raised an eyebrow, "Well, you remember when Duke Devlin made Joey wear that ridiculous dog get-up, don't you?" Mai had seen the entire incident on TV, and hadn't been able to stop laughing throughout the whole ordeal, no matter how bad she felt for Joey.

"And Kaiba always DID call Joey a dog," Téa remembered, from all the Duelist Kingdom battles when they'd encountered the CEO.

"In any case, you haven't told any of the guys yet because you're afraid of their reaction. How long are you going to keep it a secret, though? I mean, they'll find out sooner or later, won't they?"

"Sooner or later…" Téa sighed, "I'd prefer later. I don't think Kaiba's going to be telling them any time soon. I go back to school for the first time tomorrow, and I'll probably end up telling them the truth then. I'm not looking forward to it," She added glumly.

"I can tell. But that's also not what's really bothering you, is it?" Mai smiled, the corner of her mouth curved upwards.

Téa sighed, raising her eyes, "Yeah. The past week, I've been off school… 'healing,' as my teachers called it. I've done everything from writing essays to making dinner to watching Toy Story," Téa said, grinning when Mai looked at her, confused.

"I made dinner for Kaiba and Mokuba one night. My mom used to…" She shook her head. "Anyway, there was this… this minute, when we were watching Toy Story. Mokuba fell asleep on my legs, and I said something about the movie, and Kaiba laughed, and…"

"And?" Mai was leaning forward, envisioning the scene in her head.

"And we almost… almost… kissed." Téa whispered, strands of brown hair falling in front of her eyes. Almost. But more than that 'almost-kiss,' she remembered the REAL one. Her FIRST one. And how much it had hurt…

"Wow," Mai leaned back. "Kind of surprising to realize that Seto Kaiba might actually be a normal guy."

"What do you mean, Mai?" Téa asked, knitting her eyebrows.

"What I mean is that you two were in some comfortable position, right?" Téa nodded, "And in one of those unexpected, sweet situations where you glance -and he glances- and…"

"I take it you have a lot of experience in this area?" Téa smirked, leaning her chin on her right palm, her elbow propped up on the table.

Mai chuckled, her cheeks pinking slightly, "Well, I've had my share of run-ins with that sort of thing."

"Oooh, Mai! What haven't you been telling me about what's going on with you and Joey?" Téa grinned, laughing when Mai's eyes widened impossibly and the older girl lunged across the table, swatting the empty space Téa had just occupied. Téa leaned just out of reach of Mai's hand, laughing all the while.

"Wasn't Joey," Mai finally said, her expression somewhat sad, "Just some bad past experiences."

She glanced up, violet eyes lighting up again, "But we're not here to talk about ME, are we, Miss Almost-Kissed-Kaiba?"

"Well… that's the thing," Téa started, her voice catching as she recalled the previous night, "Later on, Kaiba sort of me… invited me to this… Ball."

"A date, huh?"

"Well, not really… I mean, it wasn't in my job description or anything, so Kaiba told me to call it a personal favor, but he's done so much for me it's not like he'll really owe me anything anyway, and it was all really nice. I mean, he even paid for a designer to make an original dress for me, and…"

"Téa, darling," Mai began, "You're babbling. Slow down."

"So… I had a really nice time. But towards the end of the Ball, Kaiba just sort of… drifted. He didn't talk to anyone, and he stopped smiling…"

"Waitasec, freeze!" Mai lifted her arms in a 'Take!' position, clapping one straightened hand over another horizontally. "Kaiba was SMILING?" Mai racked her brains of every incident where she'd faced Seto Kaiba, or seen him.

_'Nope, not a one. The boy never smiles!'_

"He had a speech," Téa began."I told him to smile, since he wasn't too thrilled about it, and he did, and the speech went great… **everything** went great, but when we got home…" she trailed off, Seto's words still echoing in her ears.

In the recesses of her mind, she could SEE his words as they escaped from his mouth, each of them lit by a bright fire, aimed straight at her like burning arrows.

"What happened, Téa?" Mai asked, suddenly concerned. The brunette had looked almost **happy** when recalling the Ball, but then the smile on her face dropped completely, and she looked as if she were on the verge of tears.

"He-- he said… things to me. And then he…"

Burning,

Spicy.

Forceful, demanding…

But passionate.

_"I want you."_

_'I'm never going to get that out of my head!'_ Téa thought to herself. _'My first kiss, and he just kissed me like **that**, the stupid…'_

But it wasn't the fact that it had been her first kiss that had Téa so upset. Nor was it the fact that it was Seto Kaiba that had done the kissing.

"And he what? Téa, he didn't hurt you, did he?"

Téa was silent a moment, _'Not unless you count bruising my already fragile heart…'_ She thought to herself. _'How poetic. And **pathetic**, too.'_

She'd knew now why Seto Kaiba had closed himself off from the world, becoming so reticent and emotionless-- living for only one thing, for one person.

It was tempting, to throw away the entire world like that, and write it off as a horrible place that needed to be conquered, not lived in. But that wasn't how Téa was raised, and it wasn't how she thought. And no matter how much the world threw knives at her, she'd keep going, because… because…

_'Because I have to. Because there's nothing **else** left for me to do.'_

"No," Téa whispered, absently raising her fingers to touch her lips, "He kissed me."

* * *

"Just what is the problem, Mrs. Kodaku?" Seto Kaiba gritted out in a calm as voice as he could manage.

But ever since he'd stepped outside, his headache had only gotten worse. Whatever pills he'd taken hadn't worked.

"The Evening Star is, sir. Public Relations discovered one of their… 'reporters' was a little more intrepid than past ones, and actually managed to get some pictures from last night. And with Miss Gardner being as genial and polite as she was, he also got an 'exclusive' interview… we're not sure what it says, but knowing the _Evening Star_…" She trailed off.

Seto's eyes narrowed. He hadn't spoken to any reporters the previous night, which was a surprising fact in and of itself-- but Téa had. And who knew what she said? Only the reporters-- and it would all be distorted, front-page news the next morning… or worse, this coming evening.

He didn't waste any time paging his driver and rushing out of his office.

"Mr. Kaiba, where are you going? Aren't you going to stay here and--"

"I've got a reputation to save, Mrs. Kodaku! I'm headed towards the Star's offices!"

* * *

Ten minutes and a hell of a limo drive later, Seto Kaiba emerged from the vehicle looking no more worse for the wear than he had when he'd entered his own offices.

Except, inside, his headache was still pounding, threatening to tear his skull to pieces from the inside out. And hearing about some idiotic reporter from the Star ready to destroy Téa's reputation --without even knowing her!-- only angered Seto Kaiba more.

He'd always hated dealing with the press, but he knew this time, there was no choice. If he didn't do this himself --didn't do this right NOW-- then Téa would be the one suffering the consequences-- needlessly so.

_'I'm the one that asked her to that damned Ball anyway, and… because I'm an idiot or something, I can't even remember anything past that dance. I probably did something stupid and **that's** what the press is going crazy about!'_

Luckily, he'd managed to get the name of the nosy reporter in question before he'd left KaibaCorp's offices entirely.

Kyuuji Sajizawa.

He strode into the offices of the _Evening Star_, barely sparing the receptionist at the front desk a glance before walking past her. He headed into the office where teams of reporters, editors, and photographers were scurrying around, checking copy, fixing errors, and getting ready for that evening's edition.

The receptionist had been about to greet the visitor to the office, but recognized him even before he'd brushed by her-- and her jaw had gone slack. She was still in shock, watching him disappear into the office, for a good three minutes before she called the Editor-In-Chief.

"Boss, we have a problem! Seto Kaiba's here!"

* * *

Seto Kaiba wasn't the type to hunt for something noisily-- he was smart, strategic, and ruthless-- at least when it came to people hurting those he cared about. While he couldn't claim that he'd "easily disposed" of Pegasus, he'd done so with countless other duelists on his way up to the castle.

Of course, he wasn't exactly PROUD of his methods-- couldn't get Téa's lecture out of his head completely, either-- but it was for **her** that he was even at the office of the _Evening Star_ in the first place. He didn't know why he suddenly cared so much about the reputation of one of Yugi Moto's friends… but in recent past, she'd come to be something indescribable… something **more**.

He spotted a cubicle with a nameplate on the side -- Kyuuji Sajizawa. Just who he was looking for. There was no one sitting at the desk, but the computer was on, various papers scattered on the L-shaped desk.

_'He'll be back. And when he gets here, I'll be waiting for him.'_

Thankfully, Seto Kaiba didn't have to wait long. The sounds of a busy office were tearing at his skull, but before they became too much, a skinny young man, his arms full of papers, stumbled into the cubicle.

Not being able to see Seto, he was unaware that the CEO had extended his leg out purposely-- and he tripped right over it. He immediately fell to the ground, landing face-first in a storm of papers. He groaned, using his arms as leverage to push himself up, but the moment he caught sight of Seto Kaiba, his eyes widened. His face became an impossible shade of white, and on trembling limbs, he attempted to scuttle out of the cubicle.

Seto barely needed to move before he was in the opening, an arm barring the frightening young man from leaving.

"Going somewhere?" Seto asked in a dark voice, thick with sarcasm. The boy trembled more, backing up and tripping over his spilled papers, this time landing in his own chair.

"I think you know why I'm here," Seto Kaiba said, eyes narrowing at the young man. He stayed where he was, barring the opening so the boy couldn't entertain any thoughts of escape.

"Last night you snuck into my company's private Anniversary Ball. And you got a bit lucky, scoring an interview with my date. But if you've written ANYTHING libelous about HER--"

"I-- I-- here's the copy! See for yourself!" The boy fumbled around on the desk a moment, handing Seto a few pages, stapled in the corner.

The CEO skimmed the pages, eyes narrowing as he came across the lines.

"B-But I didn't write any of the copy, I swear! I j-just took notes! And photos! I didn't write any of that, I swear!"

"It's your name on the byline, kid," Seto growled, stepping forward. He yanked Kyuuji up by his collar, holding him at eye-level. "So if you didn't write it, then who DID?"

"What the hell is going on here?" a voice demanded. Seto unceremoniously dropped Kyuuji back into the pile of papers, turning to face the source of the angry voice.

It was a plump man of at least forty, a receding hairline creating a prominent bald spot on head, interspersing black hairs with silvery-gray ones. His bushy eyebrows were drawn down to his narrowed brown eyes, arms crossed over his chest.

"Who the hell are you?" Kaiba asked, not bothering with the old man's question.

"Seto Kaiba," the man smirked maliciously. "Come here to claim libel?"

"You must have written that garbage," Seto responded, striding forward to look down at the old man, a mere foot away.

"My name's not on the byline, now is it?" The man responded, "I'm the editor-in-chief. If you have a problem with something, address it to ME, not the lowly reporters."

Silence befell the newsroom, curious eyes appearing from over their cubicle walls to see what the commotion was about. Kyuuji still sat, shell-shocked, in his pile of papers, swallowing as he watched the proceedings between his editor and Seto Kaiba.

Many of the 'lowly reporters' the editor had referred to were now staring, watching Seto Kaiba stare down their boss-- the fire-tempered, stubborn Hojo Shiro.

Then, to the nearby reporters' amazement, Seto Kaiba lifted the older, portly man clean off his feet, pressing him up against the glass window of the office from which the editor had emerged.

"If you don't take that garbage out of your so-called newspaper before tonight, you WILL feel the consequences."

"Oh really," Shiro coughed, pressing his hands against Kaiba's, in order to get him to let go, smirking as he accomplished that. Disgusted, Seto Kaiba started to turn away.

"Just how do you plan to do that, Mr. Kaiba? Not only do you have no proof that what we are saying is libelous, but even if it IS, it will take you weeks to get your precious lawyers in here and arrange for a suit. And it's not as if KaibaCorp has any corporate sponsorship of this **newspaper**, anyway."

Seto Kaiba froze and turned, slowly, ice-blue eyes meeting Shiro's brown ones.

"You're a fool if you think you can cross me and walk away from it."

"Enough of your empty threats, Mr. Kaiba. I don't even know why you're getting so worked up over an article that isn't about you. Now, if you're through disrupting my office…"

"**Isn't about me**?" Seto growled out, closing the distance between him once again. He was tempted to haul the old man off his feet again, this time tossing him THROUGH the glass, but he refrained. Violence wouldn't solve anything at that point. He had to think like Seto Kaiba-- strategically. Tactically. Intelligently.

"When you mess with the people I care about, it's the same thing. You've crossed the line." Seto dropped Shiro suddenly, and the old man fell on his rear, where he stared up at the younger man, bewildered.

"Now I'm done disrupting your office," Seto said as he turned away again. He paused once again, "And by the way: KaibaCorp might not have direct sponsorship of your pathetic tabloid, but it does sponsor someone that holds your newspaper together."

Without waiting for anyone to ask him who that someone was, he replied with a malicious smirk of his own.

"Your printer. So consider yourself cut off. Go ahead-- try to find another printer in less than eight hours. With your poor resources and reputation, I doubt even a local high school would consider it."

He walked from the office, pausing once more in the doorway before he left, "And if you reporters are stuck with someone that treats you as badly as that ass does over there, you should find yourself another job-- working for a more respectable publication."

And with that, Seto Kaiba left the building.

* * *

"KISSED YOU?" Mai exclaimed, rising from her seat and pressing her hands against the tabletop. Several eyes turned towards the pair of girls seated in the small, two-person booth, wondering what the sudden shout was all about.

"Mai!" Téa hissed, glancing about nervously. She just hoped no one that she knew was around.

Mai blinked a moment, taking Téa's words in. So she'd been living with Seto Kaiba all this time, and hadn't told any of the guys yet. And she'd even gone to the exclusive KaibaCorp Ball with him last night, but something had happened, and Seto had said some hurtful things-- and then kissed her.

_'Talk about nonsense. If I didn't understand Seto Kaiba **then**, I'm sure as hell not any closer to understanding him **now**.'_ Mai thought to herself, musing over everything.

"Well, Téa… that's what's on your mind, huh?"

"Yeah," Téa sighed. She was glad to get it all off her chest, but part of her insisted that talking to someone wasn't even a quick fix-- it was just that: talking to someone.

She needed to figure out what to do.

"Did anything else happen, after that?" Mai questioned suddenly. If Téa lived with the guy, it'd be impossible to avoid him in the morning, wouldn't it?

"Well…" Téa trailed off, her eyebrows knit together. "Kaiba, he… I think he was drunk when he kissed me."

"Drunk? Seto Kaiba?" Mai repeated, careful to keep her voice low this time.

_'Okay, I'm still in the right dimension now, right? Somehow the word "drunk" and the name "Seto Kaiba" don't seem to go together…'_

"W-When he kissed me…" Téa whispered, remembering with painful clarity, "It… it was spicy. Burning. It…" Her voice dropped even lower, to the point where Mai had to lean in to hear the younger girl speak, "He tasted like alcohol."

The older blonde pulled back, pursing her lips. There wasn't really a way to argue with that sort of thing. There was no way to tell Téa she'd been imagining or exaggerating things.

Mai had been on the receiving end of many unwanted kisses, several of them poisoned with alcohol. It didn't take her long to imagine what it must have been like for her friend.

"And…" Téa started again, her voice rising in volume, "This morning. He…"

"He…?" Mai prompted, an eyebrow raised. _'The story gets longer.'_

"He didn't remember. I mean, he forgot everything-- from when we danced to… everything!"

"So he doesn't remember what he said to you… and he doesn't remember kissing you, either?"

Téa shook her head mournfully, sipping on her tapioca drink, slurping almost all of it down in one swallow. Once she'd finished it, she wolfed down the last of her pizza, even though it was cold.

"I'd say you're making a mountain out of a molehill, Téa. If he can't remember, and you wish it'd never happened, it's as good as all that never occurring, right?"

Téa glanced up at Mai, "But… it's not like I wish it'd never happened," she found herself saying, surprised even as the words tumbled from her lips.

Mai's violet eyes widened in surprise, "Then what?" She paused, not getting an immediate response from Téa. "It has to be one of three things. You regret losing your first kiss. You regret losing it to Seto Kaiba. Or…" Mai tapped a well-manicured finger to her chin, smirking as she realized the last was the most likely, "you wish he hadn't been drunk."

Though Téa hadn't raised her head, Mai caught sight of the younger girl's eyes widening. Mai knew she had hit gold.

"I guess living with him has made him grow on you, huh?" Mai questioned rhetorically, leaning back."Gotta say, wouldn't have expected it. He always struck me as the loner type…"

"I know, but I…" Téa raised her eyes from the table, meeting Mai's amused gaze, "I don't know what to do."

"Not dwell on it, that's what! Even if you wish that it he hadn't been drunk, what good is it going to do you to keep thinking about it? You can't change the past, you know, so just keep living-- in the moment, for the future. Isn't this usually the kind of thing you'd say to everyone else to get them to buck up and smile?"

A small smile curled the corners of Téa's lips and she nodded.

_'Mai's right. I'm always the one cheering people up, it doesn't make sense for me to get so worked up over something… in the past. I can't avoid Kaiba forever…'_

Of course, in her mind, it wasn't Kaiba she intended to avoid at all-- just her growing feelings for him. If she denied their existence, then maybe… maybe…

_'Maybe forgetting that kiss will come a little easier.'_

* * *

Seto and Mokuba both turned from their position at the dining room table when Téa walked through the door, after 6 o'clock.

She blinked, placing her bags down on the floor, staring at the two boys who sat at the dining table, utensils already in their hands.

"Uhm… hi?" she tried, grinning crookedly. Téa walked over to the two boys, stopping in her tracks when both of them grinned.

"We want dinner! We want dinner!" they both chorused.

Téa sweatdropped in embarrassment, groaning as she disappeared into the kitchen, "I'm not your cook, Seto Kaiba, so if you want dinner," She popped her head out from the kitchen, smirking, "then you're going to have to pay me extra!"

"Fine by me!" He called back.

"Yeah, as long as we don't have to eat Big Brother's attempts at cooking!" Mokuba laughed, cringing. Seto shot him a look, but the smaller boy only rolled his eyes.

"Speaking of which," Téa reappeared from the kitchen, this time wearing an apron, "your lessons start tomorrow afterschool, Seto Kaiba. You better be ready for the challenge of a lifetime."

Seto Kaiba smirked, glad to see that all the tiredness from Téa's eyes was gone, and she was back to being herself. He still didn't remember what happened between their dance the previous night and when he woke up, sprawled out on his office couch the next morning, but… it probably didn't matter.

What mattered was that he'd stopped the _Evening Star_ from publishing their lies about Téa, Mokuba had finished his project at his friend's, and Téa was happy.

_'That's all that matters.'_

* * *

Somewhat of a happy ending, ne? (Note: I wrote this sentence before I wrote the end of this chapter. Har har.) By the by, the chapter titles DO have a bit of sense in them. For this one, "Dwelling" refers not just to Téa's new HOME, but to how she's been DWELLING on Seto's kissing her… well, yeah.

I know this chapter is short, but it contains everything I needed it to… and I suppose it's shorter than the last chapters, so maybe it's easier on the eyes? Fun, conflict, and hilarity (among other things) ensue in the upcoming Part 6: Cooking with a Kaiba. I hope to get Part 7 out by Saturday (the 25th) as it's Seto's birthday… :D So you have three guesses as to what Part 7's going to be about. Hehehe… evil grins I hope you enjoyed!

**THANK YOU!**

**CONTEST 1: **And finally, the secret is out! But don't expect the teachers from Chapter 3 to be the last "cameo-style" appearances in this fic! Oh no, there'll be one next chapter!

In no particular order…

Mrs. Higurashi (Inuyasha), is Téa's Home Ec teacher.  
Mr. Kinomoto (Cardcaptor Sakura), is Téa's History teacher.  
Miss Ninomiya (Ranma 1/2) is Téa's Japanese Literature teacher.  
Mr. Takahashi is the creator of Yu-Gi-Oh, and is Téa's Science teacher.  
Mr. Eba is based off of Ryu Eba from the Wild Act manga, and is Téa's English teacher.  
Ms. Misao (Peach Girl) is Téa's gym teacher.  
Mr. Furuhata is Téa's math teacher, and is based off of Motoki Furuhata from Sailormoon.

AAAAAAAAAAANYWAY… let me know what you think. If you think… anything. :) Yeah.

Azurite


	6. Cooking with a Kaiba

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Seto Kaiba's got a few lessons to learn-- in the kitchen! Will romance be on the menu at the Kaiba household, though?

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> **What Doesn't Kill You  
> Chapter 6: Cooking with a Kaiba  
> Version 4.6 **\- Punctuation fixes, "missing text" fix**  
> ****A Yu-Gi-Oh Fanfiction**  
> **By:** Azurite - azurite AT seventh-star DOT net  
> **Site: **seventh-star DOT net  
> **Conceptualized/First Written:** 10/23/03  
> **Completed/Posted:** 10/25/03 (with 15 minutes to spare! WOO!)
> 
> **Edits:** 8/15/04, 12/5/05, 1/18/06, 12/28/09
> 
> _ **Rated PG13 for angst and such…** _
> 
> God, this chapter really didn't want to come out. It didn't come out yesterday because I had to work extremely late hours, and was tired as heck when I got home…and then today, I had a meeting…I go home, catch up on my Zs, wake up and work on it—and then the compute restarts on me! AUGH! I lost a bunch of scenes, too…but hey, here I am again…Part 7 comes out later tonight. N'Joi
> 
> **Disclaimer:** ME, own Yu-Gi-Oh!? I wish! (I can't believe I forgot a disclaimer before…someone smack me) Anyway, if I were Kazuki Takahashi or the people at Shounen Jump or Viz or 4Kids or wherever, I'd not only be rich, but I'd make a REAL life Seto Kaiba for me to hold prisoner or something…So yeah. This is for fun, not profit.
> 
> **Version 3.0 Notes: **After much confusion, I have successfully updated this chapter to version 3! This means that all scenes are separated by nice and easy-to-see horizontal rules, and also all the U.S. "Imperial" measurements have been converted to metric (which is in use in Japan, so it makes sense). Please note that I've gone througha grueling screening of the metric conversions—and there really _are_ metric teaspoons, tablespoons, and cups! I am not imagining things! YAY! They're not the same as the U.S. ones, but if you're a nitpicker, I'll have both versions (U.S. and metric) of the recipe Téa uses on my website!
> 
> **Version 4.6 Notes:**Thanks to Jade for pointing out that FFnet's "wonderful" system went and stripped out chunks of this chapter. I've fixed that and made some minor punctuation, formatting, and grammar fixes along the way.
> 
> * * *
> 
> **RECAP:** Moving in with Seto Kaiba was one thing, but Téa Gardner certainly didn't expect to start LIKING him. Worse, when he steals her first kiss from her —and doesn't remember!—Téa finds herself trying to find any excuse to forget her growing feelings for the young CEO. So now, only Mai knows the truth, but Téa will have to tell her other friends soon…

"Why why why why why why why why why **why**!?!?"

For all intents and purposes, it appeared that Téa was not that thrilled to be returning to school that Monday morning.

Seto Kaiba and his younger brother Mokuba exchanged a glance before stepping forward to greet Téa, clad in her pink-and-blue school uniform for the first time in the past six days.

"Why is the sky blue?" Mokuba asked.

"Why the world is round?" Seto added.

"No," Téa groaned, glancing at the boys from where she'd been banging her head on the front door.

"Why do I have to go back to school? I mean aside from the obvious reasons, but I'm really **not** looking forward to it."

"Who does?" Seto asked rhetorically, shrugging as he tossed his metal briefcase over his shoulder. Larger than Téa's black leather satchel, it often doubled as a weapon —and a shield—against the countless idiots after Seto Kaiba.

"I thought you'd be happy to go back to school and have something real to occupy your time with. Though," as he opened the front door, he glanced back at the sulking Téa, "you do have a few tests to make up."

"That's the least of my worries," Téa grumbled, slapping her satchel against her knees. Her eyes drooped and her lips curved down into a frown, "I have to face the guys."

* * *

"Can we **not** stop right in front of the school?" Téa asked suddenly, turning to face Seto inside the limo. They had just dropped off Mokuba at the elementary school, and were nearing the high school.

"Afraid someone's going to see you?" Seto quipped, sarcasm in his voice. Téa didn't respond, she only shot him a look that said 'Damn **straight**.' He blinked for a second, and leaned forward, pressing a button on the panel below the driver/passenger separation window.

"Hey, can you stop about a block from the school, around the corner?"

"Ah yes, Master Kaiba. Of course."

Seto leaned back into the chair, glancing at Téa with an 'Are you satisfied now?' look. She only sighed, but she wasn't relaxed. In fact, her posture stiffened even as they neared the school, the sleek black limousine coming to a stop around the corner from the school gates.

Téa didn't look too eager to step out of the car, even when the driver opened it for her, so it took Seto shove from behind to even get her to move. She nearly tripped over the curb in the process, shooting daggers at the young CEO as she clambered up onto the sidewalk, beginning her slow walk to the school as if it were a death-march.

"Would it please you if I walked ahead? Then no one will be the wiser." Seto raised an eyebrow at Téa, knowing that she didn't fear seeing her friends so much as she feared their reaction to learning that **she** was living with **him**.

The idea didn't please him very much either—after all, his home life was just that—his. But of course, having Téa embarrassed or scared about her friends knowing where she'd been staying…

An uncomfortable ache formed in Seto's chest, but he ignored it.

_'Let her think the way she wants. She obviously doesn't trust me enough.' _

_'And why would she?'_ Another voice piped up in Seto Kaiba's mind. It was true. Téa Gardner, as yet, had no real solid reasons to trust him. Be grateful to him, that was one thing, but…

* * *

Téa's head was lowered as she entered the school grounds, Seto Kaiba trailing only a meter or so behind her. Very few people noticed as the pair entered the school grounds, and of those few, none of them suspected that Seto and Téa had actually arrived together.

The two weren't walking close to one another, talking, or anything of the sort. It was just the way things were—two people running into each other on the sidewalk on their way to school, not saying a word to one another, just walking…

Of course, for anyone who knew Seto Kaiba better than that, they would realize that he didn't WALK to school, and when arriving on campus, always walked a good three meters from any of his classmates. His 'loner' aura radiated about him every second, but no one put two and two together, thinking that it was odd that he walked so closely to another classmate—a girl, no less, and the friend of his nemeses!—or that he hadn't emerged from his limousine.

Of course, the one person that DID notice happened to be someone that didn't know Seto Kaiba and Téa Gardner as well as everyone else on campus. And for that reason, a pair of eyes narrowed, realizing that the two had likely arrived together.

_'Interesting pair. I'll have to introduce myself to them later…'_

* * *

"Class, we have a new student starting with us today," Mr. Eba spoke, as he tapped some papers on the surface of his podium. The young English teacher glanced towards the sliding door entrance of the classroom, which opened, revealing a young girl with light blonde hair and brown eyes, smiling as she walked into the classroom.

Whispers immediately filtered through the classroom. Many were from boys admiring the new student's figure; others were from girls jealous that this girl had bright blonde hair, and was allowed to keep it.

Mr. Eba motioned for the girl to introduce herself, and she smiled, speaking suddenly in perfect English, "Hello, my name is Chieko Sagusa. It's nice to meet you."

Very few students -save Seto Kaiba, who spoke English as a second language- understood her, and gave her confused looks. She smiled and repeated her words, this time in Japanese. Nods of understanding, complete with "Ahh, so that's what she said" filled the room.

"Miss Sagusa, why don't you tell us a bit about yourself," Mr. Eba suggested, winking at the students."In Japanese, please."

"I have just transferred here from Degas Ballet Academy in New York City. My father works for Sony as the President of the American branch, and was recently transferred here to Tokyo. I was raised in America, but my mother is Japanese, and taught me to speak the language when I was a child," Chieko spoke.

Many of the students were tittering amongst themselves; Chieko's speech was very formal and refined, almost ancient in retrospect to how they spoke amongst themselves. Still, she seemed like a nice girl.

"I also know Chinese and French, and one day I hope to become a fashion designer and take my designs around the world!"

A smattering of polite applause filled the classroom, and Chieko glanced expectantly towards the teacher, awaiting his direction towards a seat.

Mr. Eba glanced up, noting that Téa was in her seat, and smiled, "Ah, Miss Gardner, you're back. That's perfect, since you're class representative, why don't you show Miss Sagusa around today?"

Téa blinked and smiled pleasantly. The girl seemed nice enough, and hadn't she said she'd come from a ballet academy in New York City? The two would have a lot to talk about, and since Téa was eager to find things to distract her from a confrontation with her friends, she quickly accepted the role Mr. Eba had bestowed upon her.

"Sure, I'd be glad to."

"Perfect. Then…there's a seat open to Miss Gardner's right. Why don't you sit there, Miss Sagusa?" Chieko smiled and walked gracefully over to her newly assigned seat, either oblivious or ignorant of the many stares the boys gave her as she walked by.

However, there were a few boys' gazes that were not directed at the pretty new student's legs.

Yugi Moto was one, distracted by Téa's appearance. He hadn't seen her arrive on campus, and thus hadn't had a chance to talk to her before class. He was eagerly waiting to know what had happened to her the past week, and find out how she was doing.

Seto Kaiba was another, though his gaze wasn't directed at any one person in particular. His thoughts were clouded once again, mulling over how desperate Téa had seemed earlier that morning, just to ensure no one saw them arrive together.

_'They're going to find out sooner or later, aren't they?'_ Seto mused to himself, _'What good will it do her to keep dodging the inevitable?'_

The only other boy whose eyes weren't directed at Chieko Sagusa's legs was Tristan Taylor. Rather than staring at the transfer student as she walked through the desks, his eyes were riveted on a newspaper in his lap, unseen to everyone else.

On the front page was a color picture of someone he knew all too well—Seto Kaiba. But it wasn't Seto Kaiba's appearance in the newspaper that irked him. It was the fact that in the foreground, someone else Tristan knew very well stood, in an incredible blue dress, smiling as if she had no cares in the world.

Téa Gardner.

* * *

Much to his chagrin, Tristan Taylor could not find a spare minute to speak to Téa.

Every time the class ended for a break. Téa dashed out of the classroom before anyone could catch her. The first time, she claimed she needed to use the bathroom, and after that, she had to dash to the nurse's office to get something.

Fourth period was gym, so the boys and the girls separated into their own locker rooms and gyms, effectively cutting Tristan off from Téa AGAIN.

"Yo Tristan, what's up? You've been lookin' agitated all mornin'." Joey appeared, having thrown on his gym clothes in record time. Gym was his best class, and that day's "lesson" was to be basketball, his favorite.

"It's Téa," Tristan growled out, pulling his gym shirt on.

"Uh yeah, we all know she's back. But it's not exactly easy to talk to her when class is in session, ya know? She'll probably stick around and catch up with us at lunch."

"Something tells me she'll try skipping out on us then too," Tristan muttered.

"Hey guys, what's up?" Yugi appeared behind Joey, noting Tristan's less-than-pleased appearance. "Tristan, what's wrong?"

"See for yourself," Tristan said simply, throwing the newspaper on the bench beside him.

Joey and Yugi both leaned in closer to inspect the newspaper; their eyes widened when they caught sight of the front page picture.

* * *

"Miss Gardner?" Téa turned around, halted by the sound of a voice calling to her just as she was leaving the girls' locker room to head upstairs.

Chieko Sagusa was behind, her, clad in a brand new Domino High gym uniform —a white T-shirt and navy blue bloomer-shorts. Her name, written in permanent marker on her shirt and the lower right corner of the right leg on her shorts, was still drying.

"Hey Chieko—" Téa realized that the new girl had called her by her last name, and blushed, "It's okay if I call you Chieko, right?"

"Oh sure! I…I am used to people calling me by my first name only in America. I have to remember to use all the honorifics when here in Japan. I must admit, it is somewhat confusing." The two girls started to walk together upstairs.

"Uhm, Téa—" Chieko smiled, her cheeks reddening, "It is okay if I call you Téa, right?" Téa grinned nodding, gesturing for the blonde to continue, "Would it be okay if you showed me around the campus during lunch? I'm afraid I didn't have a chance to tour the place, and I believe I will get very lost…"

_'I know I should talk to the guys, but…'_

Mr. Eba's words from earlier that morning echoed in Téa's ears.

_"That's perfect. Since you're the class representative, why don't you show Miss Sagusa around today?"_

Téa closed her eyes in silent apology for her friends. But she just couldn't tell them the truth—not yet.

"I'd be glad to."

* * *

It was only a few minutes before the lunch bell, and Yugi, Joey, and Tristan were all fidgeting in their seats. Joey and Yugi, the two sitting closest to one another, cast a glance at one another.

The picture in the newspaper had been surprising. The article that accompanied it…shocking.

_"Kaiba Corporation celebrated its 50th Anniversary on Saturday, August 24th. Many notable figures from the technological industry were present, including the company head, Seto Kaiba, and his younger brother, Mokuba Kaiba_ _. _

_Mr. Kaiba's date for the evening, Téa Gardner, agreed with many of the industry leaders in saying that she hopes Kaiba Corp. continues to succeed for another new year, producing more technology that will revolutionize the entertainment, medical, and home and office technological markets._

_'I have always known Kaiba to be dedicated to his company, and the amount of dedication he puts into his work is amazing. He offers a fresh perspective to what would otherwise be an industry dominated by older adults, and he attempts the impossible by creating technology for every market. He's out to help everyone and revolutionize the world, even if he doesn't know that himself,' said Miss Gardner."_

Everyone had thought the same thing—_**Téa**_? Their Téa? Not only was there no way she would have gone to Kaiba's ball, but as his **date**!? And even if by some snowball's chance in hell that she HAD indeed gone with Seto Kaiba as his date to his company's Anniversary Ball, would she have ever said such things about the CEO?

_"There's just no way,"_ Joey had said to the other guys in the locker room. But he couldn't deny what was written in black and white. It's not like the newspaper was claiming that Téa was going to have Seto's love child, but…

With a sinking sensation, they all realized that they hadn't had any contact with Téa in the past week, and they really DIDN'T have any idea what she was up to. And for all they knew, the newspaper article could be completely true.

After all, her picture was there…

*BRRRRRRRRRRRRRIIIIING!*

Joey, Tristan, and Yugi all sprang from their seats at the same time, intending to converge on Téa's desk and get some answers from her.

After worming their way through a flood of students trying to tumble out of the classroom, they stood, shell-shocked when their eyes met with Téa's empty desk.

"Damn!" Tristan swore, snapping his fingers.

"She musta jumped outta here with that Sagusa chick before the bell rang!" Joey muttered, leaning on Téa's empty desk. He glanced up, catching sight of someone else leaving the classroom.

"But if Téa can't give us the answers we want, I know someone else who **can**." Joey Wheeler grinned maliciously, rising to his feet and rushing after Seto Kaiba, Yugi Moto and Tristan Taylor following closely behind.

* * *

"And this is the chemistry lab," Téa opened the sliding door, revealing the lab to the blonde girl beside her. Chieko nodded appreciatively, then turned to Téa.

"Do they have a dance studio here? I am wondering, since I like to study dance…"

Téa grinned, "And this is the best part of the tour. I actually want to study dance myself," she admitted. "When I heard you came from a ballet academy in New York, I just knew I had to talk to you. I'm glad Mr. Eba asked me to show you around."

"I am glad too!" Chieko smiled, "What kind of dance do you want to study?"

"Well…" Téa trailed off, "I've always been interested in all forms of dance. I took ballet as a kid, and up until recently, I was in a dance class not affiliated with the school."

"Ah, so the school doesn't have a dance class?" Chieko asked, disappointment creeping into her soft voice.

Téa nodded sadly, "Like any other Japanese high school, we focus more on academics. Of course, that's not to say that our extracurriculars and clubs aren't great—our drama club has been to the nationals, and our baseball team's made it to the playoffs before…and I'm pretty sure our choirs have won a lot of awards."

"I see," Chieko murmured as the two girls entered a small room. It wasn't much-- the floor was dusty, as were the walls. There was no barre on the wall, and desks cluttered up the corners.

"It's not really a dance studio, if you want to be honest," Téa said. "But the place is good for practice. During the day, it's pretty well lit, and I like to eat in here sometimes-- it's got a great view of the courtyard." Téa gestured toward the windows, which looked frosted-over with an old layer of paint, or perhaps an aging layer of sticky paper.

Chieko was silent a moment, walking around the perimeter of the room, running her hand along the walls. "Téa? I have an idea." She smiled broadly, catching the brunette's attention. "And I think you will like it very much."

* * *

"Hey moneybags! Hold it!" Joey Wheeler called out.

Seto Kaiba froze where he was, heaving an internal sigh. He really didn't feel like dealing with 'the dog' at the moment, and he also knew enough to respect Téa's wishes—and not tell them where she'd been staying.

"What do you want, Wheeler?" Kaiba ground out, turning to face the approaching triad of boys. His face remained less than enthusiastic—then again, he usually looked like that at school. If emotion ever crossed Seto Kaiba's face, it wasn't ever in the presence of his classmates.

"An explanation," Joey began, narrowing his eyes at the CEO, "for this!" He whipped out a newspaper that he'd been clutching at his side, stretching the front page so that the color photo of Téa -with Seto Kaiba in the background- was right in front of Seto Kaiba's face.

He blinked, abruptly snatching the newspaper from Joey as he skimmed the article. Nothing incriminating or derogatory…the newspapers were always better than the tabloids. But, he couldn't control the photos they used for their copy….

_'I don't remember that picture being taken,'_ Seto thought, noticing that he was in the background, leaning against the bar with a glass in his hand. His face wasn't all that clear, but he knew it was himself.

Of course, it wasn't **his** picture that had captured the Three Stooges' attention. It was Téa, right in the foreground, smiling.

"Why don't you ask Gardner yourself?" Kaiba sighed, tossing the paper back to Wheeler, turning on the ball of his feet and heading back down the hallway.

"Hey!" Joey caught up with Kaiba in a few quick strides, clamping a hand on the brunette's shoulder. Kaiba immediately turned his icy gaze to the offending hand, which Joey promptly removed—but his expression remained just as serious as Seto's.

"She's been avoiding us all mornin', and I'm thinkin' you know the reason why. If it was your company ball, and she was **your** date, the least you can do is explain some things. We didn't even know where the hell she was all week, and you're takin' her out dancin'?"

"It's not as if you asked me where she was, anyway," Seto shot back, narrowing his eyes as he faced the boys again.

"Kaiba, please!" Yugi's voice came. Seto cast his gaze down to the younger boy, and he noted the concern laden in the boy's violet eyes.

"We were really worried about Téa all week, and if you know something…" He trailed off, but his gaze remained steadfast, the worry in his eyes never wavering.

Seto Kaiba was silent for a moment. He had a grudging respect for Yugi Moto, though the same couldn't be said for the dog Wheeler and his lackey, Tristan Taylor. And he knew the concern in Yugi's eyes was genuine. He'd seen the same worry in the younger boy's eyes at the Gardners' funeral. Worry and…

"It was a favor," he finally said.

"Huh?" Joey and Tristan said at the same time.

"The dance. I needed a date, and I asked Téa. It was a favor. Nothing more. She did a good job charming the press, but she hasn't done anything to warrant an interrogation. Now, if you're **through** harassing me?" Without waiting for an answer, Seto Kaiba strode down the hallway, ignorant of the gazes piercing his back.

"A favor, huh…?" Joey murmured, staring at the picture in the paper.

_'I dunno about this one. Somethin' seems _real_ funny here!'_

* * *

"A dance club?" Téa repeated.

"Yes. Did you not say that this time of the year, clubs have to renew their charters to the administration? I am sure that you, as class representative, would be able to put in a good word. And I know that from gym class, we two are not the only girls interested in dance."

_'She's right. I never thought about it. Not being able to be part of the old dance company like I used to, having a dance club here at school would be great. Especially since I can't keep practicing in the living area at home…'_

"Sounds great! Now, we should get planning…"

* * *

The school day quickly drew to a close, but Yugi and his friends were no closer to having a real answer as to Téa's whereabouts in the past week than they had before she'd returned.

Seto Kaiba 'explaining' Téa's presence with him at the dance was one thing…but how would they have run into one another outside of school, anyway? After all, wasn't Téa now working for some guy, baby-sitting his kid?

Yugi couldn't get the thought out of his head. He needed to talk to Téa. No matter what.

The seconds seemed to irk by at a painfully slow rate, but finally, the bell rang. It only took Yugi a second to gather his things from the side of his desk, but when he looked up, Téa was already gone.

"Come on, Yug'! We can catch up with her downstairs at the cubbies!" Joey called, dashing out of the classroom with Tristan.

Meanwhile, downstairs, Téa was shoving her books into her satchel, trying to slide her school shoes off as soon as possible, so she could dash the heck out of there and get home.

The idea that she was actually calling the Kaiba mansion 'home' hadn't occurred to her, even though she'd thought it twice that day already. Rather, foremost on her mind was avoiding her friends for another day.

_'I'm not ready, I'm just not ready! I can't tell them—!'_

"Your friends are worried about you," a voice came. Téa blinked, and looked to her right. Seto Kaiba was methodically removing things from his cubby, sliding his shoes off and placing them in his locker—but his eyes never moved towards her. Téa went back to stuffing her things in her bag, still trying to beat the time.

"I can't…I can't face them. I can't tell them, not yet."

"I don't think it matters whether you tell them everything or not. They just want to talk to you." He closed his locker and turned, pausing for only a moment as he exited the cubby area, "I'll wait in the limo for fifteen minutes. Around the corner, where we were this morning. If you're not there by then, I'll assume you've decided to talk to your friends and can walk home."

And with those words, Seto Kaiba left Domino High School.

Téa was frozen in place, wondering just when Seto Kaiba had started to care about **her**.

_'I've been trying so hard to convince myself that he's the same ruthless, narcissistic bastard I met back at the Duelist Kingdom…after he stole that kiss from me. But he's not. Even though he doesn't get along with Yugi and the others, he knows they care about me, and I care about them. And he wants me to talk to them, because…he knows it'll make me happy.'_

Téa swallowed, closing her cubby and sitting on the bench.

"Better now than later," she sighed, waiting. It wasn't long before she heard a thundering of footsteps, and caught sight of Joey, Tristan, and Yugi all piling down the stairs from the main building, calling her name.

"TÉA! TÉA, WAIT UP!"

She smiled slightly, "I'm not going anywhere, guys."

Their eyes all widened in surprise, to see their best friend waiting there as if it wasn't out of the ordinary at all. They were all heaving, trying to catch their breath, flopping down on the bench with smiles appearing on their sweaty faces.

* * *

No one noticed another person in the area, carefully placing shoes in a cubby on the opposite side of the lockers as Seto and Téa's. That person had heard the entire exchange between the two, and was curious…

Before anyone could see them, the person slipped out of sight, leaving school grounds.

* * *

The quartet of friends walked down the sidewalk, intending to head to a local diner to grab something to eat and talk things over.

They walked right by the Kaiba limo —and Téa, closest to the car parked at the curb, cast a quick glance at the tinted windows of the car.

_'Thank you,'_ she mouthed, smiling slightly. She turned her gaze forward again, laughing as Joey cracked a joke, the blonde's arm slung around her shoulder, Yugi in front of them, and Tristan to Joey's right.

Inside the car, Seto nodded to himself, having seen Téa walk by and silently thank him. He paged the driver, and moments later, the limo pulled away from the curb, speeding away towards the Kaiba mansion.

* * *

"So. Where've you been this past week?" came the inevitable question, asked by Joey not long after the four friends had placed their order for food at the local diner..

Téa swallowed nervously. Half of her was primed to bolt out of her seat and get the hell out of there, but she couldn't—she owed her friends an explanation. That and Tristan was sitting right beside her, and it wouldn't exactly be easy to clamber over him and escape.

"Well, as you guys know, I moved out of my old house. Because of what the police said, I can't live alone until I'm 18, or am employed…and school rules won't allow me to be employed at a place like Burger World," Téa grimaced, "but I managed to get employed as a live-in tutor and baby-sitter of sorts for this guy."

"So, when do we get to visit?" Tristan asked.

"Yeah," Joey added, "If this guy can afford some live-in tutor for his kid, he's gotta be sproutin' money outta his ears, ain't he?"

Téa blinked, suddenly envisioning Seto Kaiba with money falling out of his ears. She giggled. The boys exchanged a glance, Joey and Yugi shrugging as they missed the punch-line, but waited for Téa to respond.

"Not exactly," Téa finally said, "But I don't…I don't think…" She scratched behind her ear nervously. So far, so good. They just wanted to know what she'd been up to the past week. They didn't need to know who she'd moved in with. That was an explanation she would give when **she** was ready.

"I don't think you guys should visit just yet. I mean, I just moved in about three weeks ago, and I'm not so sure my employer would be uh…fond, of high school visitors."

_'Damn straight. Kaiba would probably have Joey reduced to ashes with some sort of laser beam technology he's got hidden in his house somewhere. Or maybe he's got a pack of Dobermans ready to eat anybody that intrudes on his personal space.'_

Téa was well aware that the Seto Kaiba she'd known as her classmate for the past two years, and the Seto Kaiba she lived with were very different people. She recognized the fact that people liked to have a private home life, and it wasn't anyone else's business—

_'Even if I _have_ moved in with him.'_

"Ah, I get it," Joey nodded."One of them rich and snooty types, huh?"

Téa sweatdropped. Well, he was rich and kind of 'snooty'…

"You could say that." She grinned, a little embarrassed.

"Well I'm sure you'll worm your way into his heart soon enough," Tristan piped up, their food arriving."And when you do, let us know so we can drop by for a visit and check this guy out. See if he's worthy of having Téa Gardner around 24/7."

Téa laughed, her grilled cheese sandwich set in front of her. "Thanks, guys. I'm really sorry though, for…not being around."

"Nah," Joey said, popping a fry into his mouth."It's okay."

"Yeah, Téa," Yugi added, smiling, "but you know that if you ever need us -any of us- for anything, we'll be here for you."

"True that!" Tristan said, slinging his arm around Téa and rubbing his knuckles into her hair.

"Ow, hey, guuuyyys!"

* * *

Seto Kaiba was just emerging from his office when the front door slammed closed.

Téa sighed, glad to have spent a day with her friends again. While she hadn't told them everything -next to nothing, really- she did feel good about not avoiding them anymore.

In time, she'd work up the nerve to tell them everything.

They'd asked about the Ball, producing the newspaper, and Téa had almost lost her wits.

_"Uhm, yeah…hey Téa, we got somethin' else we wanted ta asked you about." Joey rummaged around in his satchel, drawing out a crinkled newspaper—that morning's edition of the Tokyo Sun._

_Téa's eyes widened when she caught sight of the full-color picture of her, smiling in her Jacques Mode ball gown, Seto Kaiba in the background, leaning against the cocktail bar with an unreadable expression on his blurred face._

_"Kaiba told us you went with him as a favor," Tristan began, looking somewhat uncomfortable, "But he didn't say more than that." Téa heaved a silent sigh of relief, thanking Seto for not blowing her secret. _

_She swallowed before speaking, "Uh yeah. Since—since Kaiba helped me out…at the funeral, and everything, uhm…He's also the one who, uh, referred me to my employer. So, I…he asked me, as a favor, and I said yes." _

_"Oh," the guys said synchronously, as they nodded slowly. In the back of all their minds, something still irked them, but they remained silent. If there was something else to Téa's story, she'd tell them in time._

"How'd it go?" Seto asked her, raising an eyebrow in question. Téa glanced up at him, grinning.

"Good. It went good. I mean, I didn't exactly tell them **everything**, yet…" she trailed off, gesturing to the house around her.

"But I will. Soon. Eventually. Someday."

"Riiiight," Seto drawled, turning back to his office. He barely got a step before he was YANKED backwards by his collar.

"Don't even think about going back into that office, Seto Kaiba," Téa said, smirking.

"I haven't forgotten about your cooking lesson tonight!"

"Oh, great …" Seto Kaiba groaned, allowing himself to be dragged to the kitchen.

* * *

"What are we going to start with, anyway?"

Téa glanced at Seto, who looked downright uncomfortable in the Hamtaro apron she'd forced on him. "It has to be something simple," Téa said aloud, rifling through the various cookbooks she'd assembled under the kitchen cabinets, almost all of them from her old house. She'd bought one new one at the bookstore with Mai the day before, when she'd gone shopping, but she hadn't used it yet.

"Cookies!" a voice exclaimed, and both Seto and Téa turned to face Mokuba, who was just walking into the kitchen area.

"But Mokuba, I thought **we** were going to make cookies together!" Téa smiled at the small boy, hugging him, since she hadn't seen him since they'd left for school that day.

"Yeah, but** he**," Mokuba thumbed towards his brother, "needs the lesson more than I do. Besides, cookies are pretty easy, right? And they won't make a huge mess…"

"You just want sweets," Seto said, grumbling. It was then that Mokuba noticed the pink Hamtaro apron his brother was wearing, and he burst out into fits of laughter.

"Oh my god, I have to get the camera!"

Mokuba dashed out of the room before Seto could do anything to stop him.

"Cookies do sound pretty easy. I think even you could pull it off." Téa grinned, flipping through her new cookbook for a suitable recipe.

"Hey. My cooking skills aren't THAT bad," Seto grumbled, leaning into the palm of his left hand, elbow propped up on the kitchen counter.

"You can't even boil water," Mokuba's voice came, and when Seto glanced up to glare at his brother, the smaller boy smirked, snapping a picture of his elder brother in the pink Hamtaro apron.

"Mokubaaaaa!" Seto growled, intending to chase the boy. Téa caught him by his shoulders before he could catch the black-haired boy.

"Cookies," she reminded him with a gentle smile.

Seto relaxed a little, his face still expressing irritation, but he nodded slowly. "Sugar cookies. Easy."

* * *

"Okay, the first thing you learn whenever you cook anything is to always make sure you have everything you need before you start mixing anything together, or take anything out." Seto Kaiba nodded slowly, feeling somewhat ridiculous (then again, who wouldn't feel a bit silly in a pink Hamtaro apron…?) but listening all the same.

Mokuba apparently thought he needed the lessons. Téa didn't seem to mind giving them. And Seto? Well…

_'I guess…I guess this will help me figure things out. With Téa. I think. I hope. Whatever.'_

Seeing his picture in the paper had unnerved Seto—and he couldn't get it out of his head. He didn't remember getting any drinks at the bar, but there he was- and he knew that whatever was in the glass he'd been depicted as holding, it probably wasn't a mere glass of water.

_'It would explain why I can't remember anything. But if the press didn't go wild about me doing something idiotic because I accidentally got drunk, then what _did _happen after Téa and I danced?'_

By now, Seto knew it **hadn't** been something in the Chicken Apple Marinade that had made him forget all about how he'd come home and somehow passed out on his office couch. True, he didn't remember anything more than he had the previous morning, but…

_'At least I have a place to start. Téa seemed upset yesterday, and it was might have been because of something I said. So, if I go along with these lessons of hers, I might just get some answers out of her.'_

Téa, on the other hand, remained completely unaware of Seto Kaiba's thoughts—or his slowly-developing plan to find out the truth about the Ball. For her part, she was doing her best to forget all about the event **and** the incident that had occurred afterwards. It wouldn't leave her thoughts completely, especially since it seemed to tie in with everything else going haywire in her life at the moment—but she was distracted enough not to be thinking about it completely.

"So, what do we need?" Téa continued, sliding the cookbook towards Seto. He glanced at the recipe quickly, his photographic memory storing all the ingredients and tools needed.

"One hundred and sixty grams of softened butter, three hundred grams of granulated sugar, two eggs, five milliliters of vanilla extract, three hundred and ninety grams of flour, twelve and a half milliliters of baking powder, and two and a half milliliters of salt. Plus extra sugar."

Téa stared at Seto, her eyes widening as he calmly recited all the ingredients without even looking at the cookbook.

"What are you, some sort of human PDA?"

Seto chuckled, even as Téa snatched the cookbook back to confirm everything he'd said, "Something like that." He tapped his head, rising from his seat to get some of the ingredients out, "Photographic memory."

Téa rolled her eyes. _'Yeah, right. If he's got such a photographic memory, why doesn't he remember what happened Saturday night?'_ Téa thought. Another part of her mentally added, _'You don't _want_ him to remember though, right?'_

Téa sighed and turned to get the butter and eggs out.

* * *

"No electric mixer," Téa chided, dashing towards Seto before he could plug the mixer into the wall socket.

"But it says—" Seto began, looking a bit confused.

"Nope! For beginners like you, we do everything the old fashioned way. And that means—your hand. Or a spoon. You **did **wash your hands before starting, right?" Téa asked, an eyebrow raised.

"Of course." Seto shot her a look. He wasn't stupid enough to handle raw eggs and the like with dirty hands. Even though he'd since deduced that he hadn't been the victim of food poisoning Saturday night, he was no stranger to the experience—and if he could avoid it happening in his own home, all the better.

"Okay, so what are we supposed to do first, Kaiba?" Téa asked, purposely keeping the cookbook at her side. She wanted to test how well Seto's photographic memory worked.

"Blend the butter and half of the sugar."

"Bingo," Téa smiled. Once Seto had measured the sugar, Téa moved towards another bowl, this one sitting beside the bag of all-purpose flour she'd dragged out.

"So if we have three hundred and ninety grams of flour and we have to put a hundred grams of it in at a time, how much will we have left after we mix this with the butter mixture?" She gestured to the two-hundred and fifty gram dry measuring cup, placed beside the other measuring cups and spoons on the counter, along with many of the ingredients they'd need.

Seto favored Téa with a bland stare, "This isn't sixth grade math class, Téa. I know how to subtract fractions."

"Enlighten me, oh Master of Trigonometry," Téa smirked.

Seto rolled his eyes, "Ninety grams."

"Good. So what measuring cup or spoon should we use then, to measure the first hundred grams?"

"Uh…the hundred gram one?" Seto was giving a Téa a look that plainly said 'Are you **kidding** me?'

"No!" Téa crowed, glad that she'd caught something she could actually TEACH to Seto, "Cooking is like math in that you always have to have a common denominator. So if you have three hundred and ninety grams of flour, it's the same as having thirteen thirty gram measuring cups. So stick with using the thirty gram measure, and you have to do less dishes."

"Is that the only reason why you go to all that trouble?" Seto asked as he measured the flour. He was about to dump the first batch of flour into the bowl when Téa's hand reached out and grabbed his wrist. She made a clicking sound with her tongue in cheek.

"Always pack the flour. Use a spoon or your fingers to press as much as you can into the container. If you have more than can fit even when you cram it, you can level it off by using a knife or something else that's flat. The only two ingredients you ever pack are brown sugar and flour."

"Good?" Seto asked, pressing the flour into the cup as Téa had told him to do.

"Let's check." She upturned the cup of flour into the larger mixing bowl, and Seto watched as it came out as a stubby cylinder of flour before collapsing.

"Good. When you pack something successfully, it stays together when you drop it—well, depending on how high you drop it in from. But you did a good job."

Téa watched Seto carefully as he poured the first two hundred grams of flour into the bowl, which was to be mixed with the butter mixture later on.

"Okay, since you don't keep your butter out —it'll go rancid if it does, anyway—we'll have to soften it the old fashioned way…" Téa smiled,"the microwave!" Again, Seto rolled his eyes, even as Téa popped the unwrapped one hundred and sixty grams of butter into a glass measuring cup into the microwave, setting it for 45 seconds.

She poured the liquid mixture, once it had finished melting in the microwave, into the bowl with the sugar, and handed Seto a spoon.

"Mix until creamy."

"How do I know when it's creamy?" Seto asked, beginning to stir the grainy yellow concoction. It slowly thickened, the sugar absorbing the liquidity of the melted butter, blending together.

"Creamy," Téa began, walking around, gesturing, "Like…like whip creamy!"

"Right. Whip creamy." Seto repeated. "Is this good?" Téa strode over to the bowl and touched her finger to the rim, sliding a droplet of mixture onto her finger. She promptly brought it to her lips and licked it off, much to the horror of her student.

"**That's** how you see if it's creamy?"

"Oh, have a sense of humor, Kaiba. It's not like it had any raw eggs in it…yet. And yes, it's creamy."

"But…all that butter…" he mumbled.

"Oh please. All that butter. All that sugar. Don't tell me you've never eaten raw cookie dough before!" Téa rolled her eyes, glancing back at Seto Kaiba dubiously when he said nothing.

"You've got to be kidding me! You poor, deprived child! Well, there's a first time for everything!" she crowed triumphantly.

"Now for the eggs," she smiled. "Okay, practice makes perfect, and eggs are a few hundred yen a dozen. So you're going to learn to crack eggs properly. You learn to do this, and you can make a bunch of different breakfasts in no time. For once, you and Mokuba can eat real food for breakfast, and not Lucky Charms."

"What's wrong with Lucky Charms?" Seto pretended to look offended, but Téa only laughed. After a moment, Seto smiled too, grabbing an egg in one hand.

Téa glanced at the egg in her hand, and the egg in Seto's hand. While all the eggs were roughly the same size, in her hand, the egg fit snugly into her palm. But in Seto's hand, the egg looked horribly out of place, a tiny little ball of white.

_'His hands are so…big!'_ Téa thought. _'Then again, he is like, 180 centimeters or something. Tall guys like that have to have big hands, right?'_

Suddenly, Téa remembered what it felt like to have those selfsame hands on her bare skin. When she'd danced with Seto, he'd had one hand on her back, just above her dress line. And when he'd spun her outwards, catching her back in his arms, both palms had rested on her shoulders, his slender fingers brushing against the wavy tendrils of hair on Téa's neck.

The feeling of warmth rocketed up Téa's spine like electric fire, and she shuddered slightly, wondering what it would be like to feel his hands on her skin again.

_'No no no no no. Do not be thinking that way. Bad Téa. Bad.'_

"Something the matter?" Seto asked, noticing Téa had frozen in place, her eyes fixed to her feet.

"Uhm, what?" Téa looked up suddenly, nearly dropping her egg."No! everything's fine." She glanced down, turning the egg over in her palm.

"You have big hands."

Seto blinked, wondering where that comment had come from, but nodded, "I guess so."

Briefly, Téa wondered what Seto's father had looked like, wondering if maybe Seto's stature came from him.

_"…Questions regarding his past are best left between those…_not _in his employ," _Téa remembered suddenly.

_'Charles. Charles told me that. And he was right. No matter what's almost happened,'_ Téa grimaced, glancing at Seto out of the corner of her eyes, watching him inspect the eggs, _'or what **has** happened, he's still my boss. We've never actually been close friends, and no matter what I wish for, it's not like I can ever be part of his family. It's been him and Mokuba for almost all his life…'_

Téa banished the thoughts from her mind, returning to the problem at hand—or rather, the problem **in** her hand. The eggs.

"Okay, so just for practice," Téa said, licking her lips as she spoke, "crack your egg into that small bowl there." Seto glanced at Téa, awaiting further instruction, blinking when none came. So he took the egg and cracked it on the rim of the bowl—promptly shattering said egg into a million tiny bits, egg white and yolk dripping from his hand and into the bowl—and all over the counter.

"Okay, **that** didn't go as planned," Seto said, walking briskly over to the sink to wash his hands. "Disgusting."

"Live and learn, Kaiba, live and learn." Téa grinned, handing Seto her egg, now that his hands were clean and dry.

"This time, don't actually crack the egg yet, just hold onto the egg —not too rough now, or you might crack it in your hands again—and show me the motion you'd use to crack an egg."

And so Seto Kaiba did just that, gripping the egg firmly and moving his wrist—as if he were about to bang the egg on a rock.

"No no no…Here, it's all in the wrist," Téa reached out, placing one of her hands on top of Seto's, the other underneath it, fingers just grazing his palm, where he clutched the egg.

Seto turned to stare at Téa, and after a moment, her eyes met his. She realized what was likely going through his mind at that moment —her hands still touching his—but she couldn't think enough to remove them.

_'Her hands are so small…'_ Seto found himself thinking, though he never tore his eyes away from hers. He kept searching them, those endless sky-blue depths, hoping to find some sort of answer in them.

For what question, not even Seto knew, but he knew he couldn't just blink, couldn't just look away…

_'Where Téa Gardner is concerned, everything gets a little…_complicated_,'_ Seto remembered. But it certainly wasn't an unwelcome feeling of complication…

"Uhm…"

Seto seemed to be searching her eyes, his own navy blue eyes shifting as he watched her face with a frightening intensity. Out of embarrassment, Téa glanced down, focusing on the egg —rather than Seto's hands, or worse, his face.

"It's…just a quick flick of the wrist, really. And you want to hold the egg so its curved side is going to hit the rim of the bowl. That way it doesn't explode in your hands, and you can just curve the egg into the bowl, so you don't make a mess on the counter, or…"

"Right." Seto said abruptly, moving his hands. Téa's own hands were trembling as she withdrew them, watching carefully as Seto cracked the egg, flicking his wrist and curving the cracked egg along the rim of the bowl.

This time, it broke perfectly, with no egg shell in the mix, or goo on Seto's hands or the counter.

"Great! Now do that in the sugar-butter mixture…"

The two continued to work, Seto learning how to **gradually** add one mixture to another, along with the various ways of mixing or blending things together.

"It's like chem class," he commented, stirring the cookie batter slowly.

"Right. I mean, you learn in chemistry that everything in this world is made of smaller somethings, right? So cooking is the easiest way to demonstrate that. Since we can't just grab atoms and squish them together, I mean."

Seto cracked a smile.

"Okay, I think this is mixed," he gestured towards the lump of batter in the bowl. They'd already taken all the measuring spoons and cups they'd used, along with the original flour-mixture and egg-batter bowls, and rinsed them out in the sink, placing them in the dishwasher for later cleaning. It freed up a lot of space on the counter, and a good deal in the sink as well.

"Okay, so now we roll it out on the cutting board —a floured cutting board, so it doesn't stick—and we cut it up!"

"Hearts, stars and horseshoes?" Seto quipped, raising an amused eyebrow. Since he didn't cook, Seto didn't have anything like cookie cutters at the house. And unless Téa had suddenly bought some on her way home, it would be hard to make any cute decorative cookies without them.

"Well…you don't have any cookie cutters. We could always improvise, but I think if we stick with simple rectangles, we can have more fun decorating them later on, anyway."

"Decorating?" Seto asked, rolling out the dough on the lightly floured cutting board.

"Yeah, that's the best part. Hey, when rolling out dough, make sure to do it evenly—top to bottom, side to side. If you stop midway, the thickness changes, and when you cut the cookies out, they'll cook unevenly. Uneven stuff burns. Remember that."

"Right. Uneven. Burns," Seto repeated, rolling the pin evenly now, creating a perfectly even slab of cookie dough on the cutting board.

Téa used a knife and a plastic ruler she'd found in one of the kitchen drawers —where Seto kept spare office supplies and the like—and carefully cut out even rectangles. Seto moved to get a cookie sheet, and didn't notice Téa's expression as an idea hit her.

_'That's perfect! Now, how to get Seto out of here so I can pull it off…'_

"'Place evenly on ungreased cookie sheets,'" Seto quoted from the cookbook.

"'Sprinkle generously with sugar,'" Téa smiled as she did just that.

"Okay! You did it! Now we just bake them for eight to ten minutes,"

"'Or until edges are lightly browned,'" Seto smirked.

"Right," Téa nodded.

"Well, how did I do, Teacher?" He grinned and glanced over at Téa.

"Not bad for a first-timer." She smiled back at him. "You remembered all the ingredients, used the measuring utensils properly, and put the ingredients in order. Believe it or not, if you add stuff out of order, it can change the overall consistency and taste of whatever you're making."

"And so your sugar cookies end up tasting like crap?"

"Not crap," Téa sweatdropped, "but more like butter cookies."

* * *

*DING!*

"Cookies are done," Seto murmured, rising from the couch. He and Téa walked into the kitchen, quickly turning the oven off and removing the cookie sheet with oven mitts.

"Now we transfer them to a rack and let them cool for a bit. Then, decoration!"

"Are we going to make frosting now?" Seto asked curiously, noticing how Téa was picking through the cabinets, looking for food coloring. When she'd found a box, she grinned to herself.

"That we are!" Téa grinned, pulling a box of powdered sugar from the cabinets. She withdrew the carton of milk from the fridge, and pointed to a bowl.

"About two hundred grams sifted powdered sugar, and enough milk to make a creamy icing. Remember, **creamy**?" Téa smirked and giggled when Seto rolled his eyes as he shook his head at Téa.

"You know how to use one of these things?" Téa asked as she handed Seto the sifter.

"I didn't even know I had one," he responded, pulling on the metal contraption's handle. It looked like a watering pail, only with no spout, and a mesh basket in the middle.

Téa measured out two hundred grams of powdered sugar, using a tablespoon and a dessert spoon to remove the excess. She then dumped them into the sifter. Very few flakes actually escaped the mesh basket, since it was so tightly woven.

"Okay, so gently squeeze —don't pull—the handle there. The spinning blades attached to the handle move, and add air to the powdered sugar, letting it fall through the basket. Once you've got all of it, it's been fluffed enough."

"'Fluffed?'" Seto queried, an eyebrow raised in amusement. Téa nodded smartly, and went back to searching for custard cups. The cookies were cooling on a rack, and would be ready to frost in about six minutes.

Soon, Seto had sifted all the sugar, and started to carefully pour milk from the carton into the mix. After a few moments, the consistency was just right for an icing, and so he started to stir it.

"Ready to frost?"

"I sure am. You, on the other hand," Téa grinned devilishly, and pushed Seto towards the swinging door, "OUT!" And she booted the confused young man from his own kitchen, leaving him standing on the other side of the swinging door—only to get smacked in the rear by the swinging door for not moving fast enough.

"Aw man, I wish I'd kept the camera on me for that one," Mokuba smirked, looking up from the couch, where he was watching TV. "The expression on your face just now was priceless!"

"Why you—!" Seto growled as he tore off the Hamtaro apron. He lunged for his brother, forgetting entirely about Téa kicking him out of his own kitchen.

* * *

Meanwhile, Téa grinned to herself, mixing several food coloring drops with the icing she'd poured into small glass custard cups. She made a light blue, a dark blue, red, green, brown, purple, yellow, and orange.

_'This is too perfect. Now all I need are some…shall we say, "samples?"'_

Téa carefully snuck around the other side of the kitchen, into Seto Kaiba's office. She stealthily went through the drawers until her eyes alighted on just what she'd been looking for—a deck box. She opened it quietly and glanced at several of the cards—the one on top being the legendary Blue-Eyes White Dragon.

Téa committed the design to memory, along with that of several other cards in Seto's deck box, including Swordstalker, Gemini Elf, and the Rainbow Fish. The Malevolent Nuzzler card made for a great use of the green and purple frosting, while Téa made use of the brown and pink for the effect monster Penguin Soldier.

_'These are perfect! Duel Monsters cookies!'_

It wasn't long before the icing hardened and dried, giving the once-plain sugar cookies an all-new look. Téa carefully arranged them on a plate, tossing a napkin over them. She dusted herself off and went through the swinging door, a secretive smile on her face.

Seto and Mokuba Kaiba both glanced up as Téa entered the room, both curious as to what she was smiling —no, more like **smirking**—about. Once the two boys had seated themselves at the dining room table, the TV now turned off, Téa placed the plate down.

"Presenting," she said, in a showman's voice, "Duel Monsters Cookies!" She removed the napkin with a flourish, revealing the arrangement of cookies. Seto and Mokuba both leaned in, their eyes wide with surprise.

"Wow, Big Brother, look!" Mokuba pointed to the cookie closest to his elder brother on the circular arrangement, "It's a Blue-Eyes!" Indeed, the design of the cookie was that of Kaiba's famed and favorite card. Téa picked it up carefully, placing it on a clean napkin and handing it to Seto, who was staring at it —and the other cookies—with awe.

"Go on guys. I didn't poison them. It's just frosting."

"Just frosting!" Mokuba exclaimed, snatching the Swordstalker cookie, "Man, we could make a fortune with these! Just imagine," he waved his arm in the air as if envisioning a marquee, "'Kaiba Corp. cookies!' Now in stores everywhere!"

"Not a chance," Seto said, giving in and biting the head off his Blue-Eyes."These," he waved the remainder of his 'cookie-card' at his little brother, "are a family secret."

Mokuba laughed, chomping down his cookie, while Téa selected one of her own, smiling to herself.

"A family secret, huh? Wow. Thanks, Kaiba."

Seto looked up, finishing the last of his cookie.

"So if we're family now," he smiled, leaning back in his chair, "you can call me Seto."

Téa blinked, her heartbeat suddenly quickening in her chest. The only person to call Kaiba by his given name was his own flesh and blood—Mokuba! Anyone else who dared usually incurred the wrath of the aforementioned CEO, as such references weren't that respectful.

"O-Okay," Téa murmured, a smile blossoming on her face, "Seto."

He grinned, while Mokuba glanced between the two, "Hey, but she still calls **me** Mokuba…"

* * *

The next day, Téa once again became apprehensive as the limousine neared the school, and asked to be let out at the corner. And again, she got cold feet, practically requiring Seto to forcefully remove her from the car.

"You're never going to get anywhere by always freezing up at the last second, you know," he mumbled from behind her.

"Quiet you!" she hissed, not even glancing his way. Behind her, Seto adopted an irritated expression on his face, but he didn't say anything.

The two walked briskly through the school-yard, not catching the attention of anyone, despite their second day of walking within close proximity to each other.

Well, except for the attentions of one particular person—as she saw the two walk by her, she immediately shoved the novel she'd been reading away, dashing after the pair.

* * *

"T-Téa!" Téa glanced up from her desk on the far left side of Class 2-B, where she'd been arranging her supplies for that day.

Huffing and puffing in the doorway was none other than Chieko Sagusa.

"Chieko! Hi—what happened?" Téa asked, rising from her seat, noticing that Chieko was on the verge of hyperventilating.

"I…saw you and your brother…come to school. I wanted to catch up with you, but I was never very good at running."

Téa's mouth opened and closed like she was a landed fish —"My…my brother?"

She cast a quick glance at Seto, the only other person in the classroom, who raised an eyebrow. He looked as though he were about to speak, and correct Chieko's mistake, but Téa quickly zipped over to his side and clamped her hand over his mouth, muffling whatever he had to say.

"Oh yeah, my **brother**! Hehe, you mean this lout! Well, he's got legs as long as a giraffe's, and I've had to get used to walking with him, so we walk pretty fast…"

Téa glanced downward at Seto, making sure he wasn't about to say anything, "Isn't that right, **Big Brother**?"

Seto only grunted, neither an affirmation nor a denial of Téa's question. He cast her a suspicious stare, but said nothing—even when the brunette settled herself on the corner of his desk, leaning on it as she spoke to Chieko.

"So what's up with you this fine morning?"

Before Chieko could answer, however, the bell rang, and Téa grinned sheepishly, "Well, I guess we better get to our seats before Mr. Kinomoto sees us. Bye, **Big Brother**!" Téa said with a sugar-sweetened grin, dashing back to her desk.

* * *

Seto Kaiba was the only one quick enough to catch up with Téa as she practically sprinted from the classroom, dashing down the hall to the gym.

"What the hell was that about?" he hissed, clamping a hand on Téa's shoulder, forcing her to slow down.

"Well," she murmured, not glancing behind her at Seto, and keeping her own pace steady, "Didn't you say we're like family now?"

"You know that's not what I meant. What's the point of making her think we're brother and sister?"

_'Why do _you_ want someone to believe that?'_ Seto thought. So, it wasn't just a lack of trust Téa had for him…it was a lack of attraction, too, apparently. Normally, this thought wouldn't have bothered Seto Kaiba in the slightest—on the rare occasions he'd captured the attention of some vapid schoolgirl, he'd always been quick to dissuade her feelings.

Primarily, it was because Seto Kaiba wasn't like the other dunces in his school—he didn't give a rat's tail about whether or not a girl liked him—he had other priorities. His company. His brother.

Of course, now that he found himself **somewhat** attracted to a girl, it seemed she didn't want anything to do with him—at least, not that way. No, Téa Gardner seemed much more content making the new girl believe they were brother and sister.

And, as was the usual where Téa Gardner was concerned, Seto Kaiba hadn't the slightest idea why.

Téa was silent, wondering just **why** she wanted Chieko to believe it. Something inside her insisted it was the right thing to do—perhaps she'd seen them arrive together, or heard them talk the previous day.

_'And if that's true, she could blow my cover to the guys! I'm still not ready to tell them everything yet, and if Chieko makes good friends with them, I'm done for! So if she believes we're brother and sister, it wouldn't be at all unusual for Seto and I to hang around one another…or live together. Besides Mai, she'd be the only one who knows!'_

But there was another reason—one Téa wasn't too quick to admit.

_'Maybe…maybe if I pretend that Seto and I are just that—family—then these stupid feelings I have for him will go away. It must be some weird side effect of trauma or depression or something—latching onto him like that. It doesn't make any sense! This is Seto Kaiba, who, for as long as I've known him, as been sadistic, rude, power-hungry…There's absolutely nothing attractive about him _whatsoever_! Except maybe his eyes, or his hands…but _no_! I-I thought I was in love with Yami…'_

Thinking of the mysterious pharaoh "inside" her best friend Yugi only saddened Téa more. She hadn't seen him much—if at all—since Battle City. The chaos had ended, though everyone was no closer to solving the truth about the mysterious pharaoh's past than they had been when Yugi'd first assembled the Millennium Puzzle.

But no matter what, Téa couldn't forget what Yami had done for her.

_'He saved my life…so many times. When Kaiba could have cared less about anything—besides his precious God Cards. Even Mokuba seemed to come in second place to Seto's dueling. I can't let myself be duped into believing that he would ever think of me as anything more than a friend…if that.'_

And so, Téa convinced herself that what she was doing—duping an innocent girl into thinking she and Seto were siblings—was right. If not for Chieko's own sake, not knowing what kind of a person Seto Kaiba could really be—then for Téa's, and for her own fear of her friends—and her heart.

"She might blow my cover," she finally told Seto in the dimly lit stairway, below which were the divided boys' and girls' locker rooms. "I can't risk that, not yet, Seto."

Something nagged inside of her, tugging on her heartstrings. _'What a hypocrite I am, to call him Seto, to make believe in my heart that we're family, when…!'_

The sensation of his lips against hers assailed Téa, and she blinked hard, trying to forget.

_'I can't…I won't!'_

"I'm not ready."

* * *

_'It doesn't make any sense,'_ Seto Kaiba thought, pulling his gym shirt on. _'Even if that Sagusa girl thinks that Téa and I are related, it wouldn't take her long to learn the truth. If she even asks one person —namely Yugi, Joey, or Tristan—Téa's cover would be blown. So what the hell is she thinking?'_

Seto didn't know.

_'Now I know what it's like,'_ he mused, _'On the other end…not knowing what someone is thinking.'_

* * *

"Uhm, guys?"

Téa approached Yugi, Tristan, and Joey with some amount of trepidation. It had taken her all gym period to come up with a scheme that would keep her secret safe with Chieko—and would keep her friends playing along as well.

Téa hated tricking them, too, but there was so much at stake.

_'I just know that if the others found out I was living with Kaiba, they'd never speak to me again. And it's been hard enough, avoiding them—almost lying! And now I really _am_ going to lie, because if Chieko knows the truth about Seto and I living together, one answer from Yugi or the others could spoil everything! I…I just can't risk it!'_

"What's up, Téa?" Yugi asked, about to open his lunch box, "Are you going to eat with us today?"

"Yeah. You wouldn't mind if Chieko joined us though, would you? She's gone to the cafeteria to get some lunch."

"Sure." The other boys smiled, each wolfing down their food as Téa sat next to them in their circle of five desks.

"Uh, there's something, else though…" Téa's cheeks reddened, praying to any gods that she wouldn't give herself away.

_'You can do this Gardner. It's for your own good!'_

"Chieko, she kind of…" Téa furrowed her eyebrows, trying to come up with a plausible excuse for Chieko's assumption that she and Seto were related.

"Yeah, whazzit?" Joey asked, a leaf of lettuce hanging from his mouth. He shoved the last bit of his sandwich down, swallowingit with a single gulp, just as quickly guzzling a nearby soda he'd bought.

"…" Téa said in a rush, squeezing her eyes shut.

"Wha?" Tristan murmured, wiping the mustard from the corners of his mouth."Why would she think that?"

"I don't know. But…" Téa grinned to herself, suddenly hitting upon an idea, "I think we should let her keep believing that."

"But why, Téa?" Yugi asked, curiously.

Téa smirked, "I have a plan, guys. And it involves our lovely transfer student and my, shall we say, **brother**…"

* * *

"Ah, Téa!" Chieko spotted Téa, sitting at a circle of tables with three other guys. She walked over to them, her steps slowing as she became unsure whether her new friend wanted Chieko to join them.

"Hey, come on, sit down," Téa beckoned to the empty chair beside her, "Join us."

"Ah…hello." Chieko said softly, her voice somewhat timid. She glanced up quickly at each of the boys, smiling, but then just as quickly glanced down.

_'I did not know Téa was such…a tomboy!'_ Téa thought. Back in New York, Chieko had always eaten lunch with a bunch of other girls from the ballet academy. Of course, that was mostly because there weren't that many boys at the academy in the first place…

"Chieko, these are my best friends Yugi Moto, Joey Wheeler, and Tristan Taylor."

"It is very nice to meet you," Chieko murmured politely, unwrapping her sandwich slowly. She glanced around the classroom, not seeing Seto anywhere.

"Ah, Téa," she began, her cheeks pinking slightly "where is your brother? Don't you eat lunch with him?"

Joey and Tristan exchanged a glance, Tristan coughing briefly before nodding.

"Seto usually eats by himself," Téa explained quickly, forcing herself not to look at her friend's reactions. She expected them to be somewhat surprised at how easily Kaiba's given name rolled off her tongue —but then, she'd been calling him that for a whole day now, and no matter how polite she'd been in her speech, she'd always known that Kaiba was Seto. In her thoughts, he was always Seto.

_'Not that I think about him like that or anything. Anyone that calls someone they're not really related to by their first name has to be close to them. But since Chieko doesn't know Seto and I _aren't_ really related, she doesn't have to be any the wiser. After all…it's not like I am close to him. And…and I don't _want_ to be!'_

Of course, Téa didn't even believe herself. But she was trying.

"Oh," Chieko said, disappointment creeping into her voice. Surprised, the three boys exchanged a glance.

_"Yeah, what kind of a plan?" Tristan asked, unwrapping his sandwich as he looked at Téa. She was smirking, her eyes twinkling with a plan._

_"Seto Kaiba is the most stubborn, reticent guy we know, right?"_

_"Yeah, and as thick as a rock to boot!" Joey added in a growl, shredding the plastic wrap around his own sandwich._

_Téa sweatdropped but nodded, continuing, "Well, Chieko and I are certainly hitting it off right. And if she thinks Kaiba and I are related, I think we might have a shot to get the normal teenager in him to come out."_

_"Waitasec, Téa," Yugi stared at his best friend—and longtime crush—with wide eyes._

_"You want to set Chieko and Kaiba up?"_

_Joey immediately choked, almost spewing soda all over Tristan. It took a good solid whack on the back for him to get his air back._

_"You WHAT?" _

_"Well come on!" Téa winked, "All the time we've known him, he's been—like you said—stubborn and sadistic. Only focused on one thing: his dueling. What he needs most in his life," Téa said, only believing her words with half a heart, "is someone who can get him to open up some more."_

_"And you think this Chieko girl will be able to do that?" Yugi asked, somewhat dubiously. Téa nodded firmly, sure that all the pieces in her plan were coming together._

_"I _know_ she will." _

"Just out of curiosity," Téa began, beginning to nibble on her own lunch box that she'd prepared that morning, "What do you think of my brother, anyway?"

Chieko's cheeks immediately reddened, and when she dared to look up, everyone in the ring of tables was looking at her curiously.

"He—Well—I didn't get a chance to speak to him much," Chieko murmured, brushing a stray strand of hair aside.

"I know," Téa grinned, "but you can still answer my question, right? You know, what do you **think** of him?" The emphasis in her voice was clear, and if it hadn't been for Téa's earlier explanation, the three boys present might have been utterly confused by Téa's implications.

"Ah…" Chieko blinked rapidly, "is it really appropriate to say?" She glanced at the three boys, who seemed torn between hearing what she had to say about Seto Kaiba and wanting to interrupt her with something of their own.

"Oh yeah," Joey piped up, stealing a chip from Tristan, "we've all known Kaiba for years now, and he's just never…you know."

"What Joey means," Yugi quickly interrupted, "is that Kaiba's never really paid attention to girls before—he's always so focused on his work and everything—but…"

"But…?" Chieko prompted, interest plain in her voice. She leaned forward, and Yugi suddenly blushed, blinking.

"But," Téa said quickly, "he seemed to take an interest in **you** yesterday. So since we're all Seto's friends—" Téa kicked Joey in the leg before he could make a snide remark, "and I'm his beloved little sister, we just wanted to know if you were at all interested in him. You know, thought he was cute or something."

"Oh…well," Chieko smiled, "as I used to say in America, he is quite hot."

"Hot?" Téa asked, confused.

"Uhm," Chieko blushed, "in Japanese, I suppose 'handsome' would be the closest description? There are a lot of words in English that have multiple meanings when used in slang."

"Oh. But what it gets down to is that you think he's really cute, right?"

"Ah," Chieko blushed scarlet, "yes."

Tristan and Joey both started coughing at the same time, so Téa fixed them with a bland stare and used the full strength of her arm to whack them both on the back at the same time. They both glanced up at her, daggers in their eyes, but she only smiled back at them, sugar-sweetness dripping from her lips—and a dangerous promise to them that they had better not ruin her plan.

Had Joey and Tristan been able to communicate telepathically with one another, they both would have thought the same thing: _'What is Téa up to!?'_

"I meant to ask," Chieko murmured, glancing down, "I knew from the first day I arrived on campus that you and Kaiba had to be brother and sister, since you two were walking together," Téa's eyes widened and she paled, refusing to look at the guys, "but I've noticed that you have different last names. Why is that?"

"Uhm, that is…" Téa was nervous now—the guys knew she'd arrived to school with Seto!—but she had to think fast, if not for Chieko, then for herself. "Well, we're not really brother and sister—we're half-brother and sister. We uh, had different dads."

"Oh. I see," Chieko smiled. The other boys nodded, though their gaze wasn't directed at the new girl anymore—so much as Téa, who was steadfastly ignoring their pointed stares.

And again, the same thought ran through the minds of all the boys at the table—_'Téa, you have a _lot_ of explaining to do!'_

* * *

It wasn't long after the lunch bell rang that Chieko dashed off, having to sort some paperwork out in the office. All three boys turned to Téa before she could get out of the desk she'd been sitting in.

Tristan blocked her only exit off by pushing his own desk at the side, glaring down at Téa.

"'Since you two two were **walking** together…?'" he repeated with careful emphasis.

"Yeah, what the hell was **that** all about, Téa?" Joey asked, his eyes gleaming with suspicion. Normally, he wouldn't think twice about Téa or her actions—she was a good girl, through and through—but lately, she'd been acting funny, and Joey knew he wasn't the only one to see it. And 'funny,' to Joey Wheeler meant that she was hiding something—and he, like the other boys, intended to find out **what**.

"Uhm, er…" Téa trailed off, glancing from one boy to the next. Joey and Tristan looked almost angry, though interest shone in their eyes, but Yugi…he looked sad.

Pangs of guilt shot through Téa's heart, but she knew she couldn't tell them everything—not yet. She had to keep them playing along…

"It was nothing guys, really!" she started, dropping her eyes to her desk."It was just the day after the Ball, and Kaiba was thanking me. That's all…" she paused, swallowing painfully. "Trust me."

* * *

"This sucks," Téa sighed, banging her head on the table, "this sucks, this sucks, this sucks, this **sucks**!"

The only response to Téa's frustration with her situation was laughter—from Téa's tablemate, Mai Valentine. Téa glanced up at the blonde, shooting daggers at her with her eyes.

"You've just gone and gotten yourself in deeper trouble," Mai commented, nudging the straw from her lemonade into her mouth. She took a long slurp from the tangy beverage and continued, "Seems to me as though you've got three options."

She put her cup down on the table, leaning forward with her chin in her hand.

"One, is to come clean to the guys. And I mean the whole truth. They might not like it, but at least it'll stop a sticky situation from getting even messier." Téa shook her head mournfully; that was **not** an option. To her, telling 'everything' didn't just mean admitting who she'd moved in with and who was **really** her boss, but also saying that she'd started liking Seto Kaiba.

_'No I don't! I can't! It's…it's stupid!'_

Téa was at war with herself, half of her passionately believing that she really DIDN'T like Seto Kaiba **that** way, and that whatever she was feeling was the result of depression piling on gratitude.

_'A twisted combination. But it doesn't change anything! The Seto Kaiba I've known for the past two years hasn't cared for anything besides his company, his brother, or his dueling! And sometimes, even Mokuba takes second place to Seto's goals…Why would I even think that he'd _want _me in his life…as anything more than a friend?'_

"Second option," Mai continued, noting Téa's negative response, "is to keep lying. Not exactly the smartest option, but undoubtedly the easiest at this point. Still, one way or another, someone's going to find you out."

_'Mai's right. It's only a matter of time before Chieko figures out what really happened to me, and why I'm really living with Seto. And the guys…well, it seems they're already suspicious, and no matter what I tell them about wanting to set Chieko up with Seto, they know it doesn't make much sense…'_

Tristan, Yugi, and Joey weren't exactly the sharpest, but they weren't stupid, either—especially when it came to their rivals. Or their own friends.

_'Not seeing me for a week, and then when they do, I'm acting completely abnormal. They _must_ know something's up.'_

The way they'd cornered her earlier had been enough of a warning to Téa —and she'd gotten so scared that she'd lied to them—**again**.

She felt horrible about it too. She vividly remembered the sadness that emanated so plainly from Yugi's eyes when he'd found out from Chieko that Téa had walked to school with Seto Monday morning. And now, Tuesday afterschool, Téa was in no less of a mess than before.

_'Waitasecond…didn't Mai say something about a third option? But…'_

"Option three," Mai said, smirking, "is to turn your lies into the truth."

"Huh? Mai, I don't understand." Téa glanced up, confusion plain in her blue eyes.

"You told the guys that this Chieko girl believed you were brother and sister. And maybe she really **does** believe that, for whatever twisted reason, but as far as Yugi and the others are concerned, you're no closer to being Seto Kaiba's sister than they are being his best friends." Téa smiled wryly at that; no matter how hard she tried, she couldn't imagine Joey and Kaiba in the same room with one another —without one or the other cracking some sort of joke or insult at the other.

"And so they think that you're trying to set Chieko up with Kaiba. I bet they're lost wondering why, but you always have the excuse of a woman's prerogative," Mai smiled, waving a perfectly manicured finger at Téa. Téa smiled at this, knowing that Mai, of all people, was an expert where "women's charms" were concerned. She knew exactly what to say and how to say it to get the result she wanted.

"Waitaminute," Téa started, blinking away her confusion, "you're suggesting that I actually set Chieko up with Seto?!" Mai leaned back in her seat, nodding slowly.

"That is," she said slowly, "unless **you** have feelings for him…" the older woman trailed off purposefully, already knowing from Téa's earlier reactions—and the initial conversation regarding the young CEO—how Téa likely felt about him.

_'And it's not like I don't know how she feels. I had my share of crushes back in high school…Though somehow, I get the feeling that this is a bit different. Téa and Seto don't look like they'd be compatible with one other, namely because they both don't seem to care much for relationships, but…'_

"No, Mai!" Téa looked horrified, but her pink cheeks gave her away. Her blue eyes dropped to the surface of the table where they were sitting at the food court, "That's silly." Of course, her mind chose that particular moment to remind Téa of that almost-kiss from when they'd been watching the movie …of the sensation of Seto Kaiba's large, warm hands on her bare skin, pulling her close to him when they'd danced…of the spicy, heady feeling of his lips crushing against hers, kissing her —passionately.

Her eyes widened at the memory, her voice having dropped to a mere whisper, "Ridiculous, even."

_'Yeah, that being the kiss he can't even remember! And it's for the better anyway, isn't it? Under every other circumstance, I'm totally sure Seto wouldn't like me that way at all…'_

There was a shred of doubt flitting its way through Téa's mind, but she steadfastly ignored it.

_'No. I have to stick to my original plan. Mai's right—if I stick by my word, and set Chieko up with Seto…' _The very idea pulled at Téa's heartstrings, but she ignored the pain flaring in her chest, _'She's a nice girl. And she _does_ seem to like Seto. If Seto Kaiba needs someone —a girl—in his life to get him to open up more…that girl isn't me. She can't be.'_

* * *

"What's on the menu today?" Seto Kaiba asked, walking into the kitchen through the swinging door. He glanced towards Téa, sitting at the table, seemingly absorbed in another one of her cookbooks. But she didn't respond.

Her eyes weren't at all focused on the words or pictures in front of her. Rather, she was staring off into space, remembering Mai's words from earlier.

_"That is, unless _you_ have feelings for him…"_

_'Mai thinks I have a crush on Seto. Which is…it's silly. Right?'_

But Téa couldn't be sure of herself at all. Her head was spinning with ideas, thoughts, and memories—most especially of Battle City.

_'I thought for sure that I was…that I loved Yami. He's done so much for me, and when I finally found out that he and Yugi were the same…'_

It hadn't changed anything. Téa had kept on treating Yugi like her best friend, and Yami as if…

_'As if he were someone else entirely. But they've both got a destiny that's so much bigger than me…. Out of everyone, I'm the only one who isn't part of something bigger. There's those with their Millennium Items and other selves. There's the serious duelists, like Joey, Yugi, Mai, and Seto. Tristan and Joey both used to be part of a gang, and Serenity just recovered from a marathon operation on her eyes. Am I the only one who's been trying to live a normal life, despite all this?'_

From the beginning, Téa had known that her friends were different. If everything she had known was "normal," then she lived in a world alone. Yugi, after all, had solved the mysterious Millennium Puzzle, and gained himself a destiny bigger than anyone ever could have predicted for the boy. Joey and Tristan, once bullies out to teach Yugi "how to be a man" suddenly became his best friends, and got him out of more scrapes than Téa could count on both hands. Seto continued to be his rival, while Mai and even Duke Devlin were new friends, additions to the group. Serenity was Joey's constant support and motivation, an amazing girl in and of herself.

_'And here I am, the tagalong, the one who's always cheered everyone on, helped them realize their dreams…I've gotten in a bunch of tangles for being everyone's friend, but I wouldn't give it up for the world. Just, sometimes I wish we were a more "normal" group of friends. Where the only things we worried about were tests, or having enough money to karaoke on a Saturday night.'_

Alas, this wasn't how life was lived in Domino City.

"Earth to Téa? Hello?" Seto waved a hand in front of Téa, who immediately snapped to attention, casting an apologetic glance at Seto.

"Something the matter?" he asked her, and for a moment, Téa glanced up, searching his eyes. It almost seemed as if he really **was** concerned…

_'Don't fool yourself, Gardner. This is Seto Kaiba. Everything comes second to his dueling.'_

Still, part of her reminded her that he hadn't been obsessed with dueling in a long time. He'd gone to school like every other normal guy his age, ate breakfast and showered. Been "normal." He'd treated her with the utmost respect and kindness—_'More than I deserve, maybe?'_ Téa thought. _'I'm thinking about this…thinking about _him_ way too much for my own good. If I distract myself…If I don't focus on it, all this madness will just…_go away_.'_

Or so Téa told herself.

"Not too much in the mood for something big and complicated," she told Seto, "so how about a cake?"

"Dessert again, huh?" Seto quirked a smile, "Does somebody need their sugar-fix?"

Téa eyed Seto with a smirk of her own, whacking him lightly on the arm as she rose from her seat.

"Come on."

* * *

The next day at school, Chieko came up to Téa and smiled, "I have heard from one of the teachers that we must fill out this form," she placed a sheet of paper on Téa's desk, "in order to start up a club. I hear that the Autumn Festival is soon, and we could certainly attract a lot of attention if we did something then."

"You're right…it's coming up on October 16th, I think. If we got enough people together by then, we could do something for the festival, and raise enough money to fix up the school's studio."

Chieko clapped her hands together excitedly, "Wonderful!"

Téa smiled at the blonde girl. True, she didn't know the girl that well, but she seemed nice enough. Téa hated duping her, but…

_'She just might be what Seto needs in his life right now.'_

* * *

"Hey, Biiiig Brooooother!" Téa hollered, immediately catching Seto Kaiba's attention as he walked down the hall at lunch time. He turned around, an eyebrow raised, the other lifting when he realized Téa was accompanied by the new girl. Chieko Sagusa.

"Téa. Sagusa," he said, nodding politely. Chieko smiled brilliantly, though Seto didn't really take much notice. He kept his eyes fixed on Téa, still searching her eyes for any trace of what she was hiding. He still didn't remember anything about the night of the Ball—and part of him doubted he ever would—but now he was left wondering what Téa's true motivations were for keeping her new home a secret. He realized with some dissatisfaction that Téa didn't trust him yet, but it was likely more an issue with the fact that her friends didn't—and probably never WOULD—trust him.

_'Not that I care what Yugi, that dog, and that other bonehead think about me. They're not part of my life in any way.'_

Which was a total lie, and Seto Kaiba knew it, but he wasn't quick to admit such things to himself.

"Eat lunch with us today, Seto," Téa said, linking her arm with his. Seto looked down at her with some measure of surprise; she was being awfully bold around him, if she wanted to keep her 'relationship' of sorts with him a secret.

_'She might have said something to Yugi and the others…but somehow, I doubt it was the whole truth.'_

"Yes, we are discussing the upcoming festival. Perhaps you could offer some helpful input?" Chieko smiled, oblivious to the fact that Seto didn't smile back, nor offer her much of a glance.

Seto only grunted slightly, allowing himself to be dragged outside by the two girls.

* * *

"I think the problem is going to be that I have to help everyone in our class come up with something. I know I want to try helping out with the dance club too, but first we have to get it off the ground," Téa mused aloud, leaning back on one of the trees in the courtyard.

"Well, we should probably discuss things with Ms. Misao, the gym teacher…she might know how we could make in-class announcements, or maybe we could post flyers…"

"I'm glad we're thinking ahead for the carnival, though. I know it's only a month away, but we always end up having problems, the closer we get…" Téa remembered her first year school festival, when the upperclassmen had stormed their space with their okonomiyaki grill, practically ruining the freshman booth of Carnival Games.

"At least this year the upperclassmen aren't so stingy about their space," Seto murmured from his laptop. He was busily typing away out of his briefcase, and for a while, neither of the girls had been sure if he was even paying attention to their conversation.

"You're right, Seto," Téa smiled, "and assuming we win another good spot in the lottery this year, I know we won't have to worry about anyone trying to steal it."

"Did something happen with the upperclassmen last year, Téa?" Chieko asked curiously.

"Ah yeah," Téa remembered, her voice dropping a level, "some really rude seniors from class D shoved their grill right where we were having our carnival games booth. I don't know how, but the next day, they moved their grill, and we had our space back. I think Yugi might have had something to do with it," Téa thought back, realizing she hadn't even known Yami **existed** back then."But, hey, it's all in the past."

"I am worried, now. What will stop any upperclassmen from stealing our area, then?" Chieko asked.

Téa smiled, thumbing over towards Seto, "Between my other friends and this slugger here, I know no one will try and mess with us! I'm sure of it!"

Seto raised an eyebrow at Téa, but nodded slightly, "What are you planning to do for the carnival, anyway?"

"Good question," Téa tapped a finger to her chin."For the class, we'll have to have a meeting, but what about for the dance club we want to start up? If we spend too much time trying to get people to join, we won't have enough time for the festival, and then we won't attract anybody!"

"Competition," Seto said suddenly, catching both girls' attentions.

"Say what?" Téa asked. Seto glanced up at her, steel blue eyes meeting sky blue ones. Téa suddenly felt the urge to turn away, embarrassed by his penetrating gaze, but she simply…couldn't.

_'I'm such an idiot! This is my "big brother," right?'_

"Everyone gets a big kick out of competition, right? Why not have dancers compete against one another to a lottery of random music?"

Téa and Chieko exchanged a glance, nodding as smiles blossomed on their faces. Seto figured that the suggestion had appeased their little conversation, and he went back to working. But he didn't expect to get suddenly glomped by two girls as once, hugging the living daylights out of him.

"Thank you!"

Seto Kaiba flushed, sweatdropping.

"Uh, can't breathe…"

* * *

The week went by rapidly for everyone. Téa grew slowly less and less apprehensive about showing up to school with Seto, but insisted she get out around the corner on her own—when and where she was absolutely no one would see her.

She and Chieko ate lunch with Seto almost every day, scheming about the carnival and the dance club plans, with Téa sticking to her "plan" and doing her best to worm Chieko into Seto's heart.

It was getting harder and harder to remember why she was trying to set them up in the first place though—with every day that passed, she went home with Seto, leaving Chieko and the guys behind, and she reminded herself that the Seto everyone knew—as a duelist, as a businessman, and even as a classmate—wasn't the Seto she knew at home.

**Their **home.

It was an odd thought.

And everyday, Seto waited for her in the kitchen, a frighteningly attentive student, eager—in his own strange way—to learn about cooking. Wednesday, Téa had helped Seto assemble a delicious salad, and taught him how to correctly store and use fruits and vegetables, including how to make the most out of every food item, so nothing would be wasted.

On Thursday, Téa had taught Seto how to properly handle meat of various types, and together, they'd made a beef stew, and chicken stir-fry. Friday was Seto's "final exam," during which he'd have to assemble an entire meal—from appetizers to dinner to dessert—all by himself.

Suffice it to say, he wasn't looking forward to it —and it was awfully unusual being in the kitchen by himself—but he had assured Téa that he could handle it. And he could. Except, he kept thinking back to the past week, when he'd been eating lunch with Téa and Chieko.

He had the sneaking suspicion that Téa's reason for eating with him wasn't simply to get ideas for the upcoming school festival—which Seto had rarely given a thought to before. He hadn't even attended the one in his first year, and planned not to this year—after all, it was a day when he could work instead, right?

Every day, Téa had brought that Chieko girl with her. Seto had no problem with her personally, but he didn't know her very well, and supposed he couldn't be as friendly with her as Téa was.

_'That kind of thing just comes to her naturally,'_ Seto thought, a nagging feeling of jealousy flaring in the back if his mind. Between his confusing feelings for Téa—trying to figure out just **why **she'd captured his attention so—and her even more confusing actions, he was stuck between a rock and a hard place.

_'She's not trying to set me up with that Sagusa girl, is she? What in the hell would possess her to…'_

Before Seto could finish his thoughts, the timer went off for the lemon chicken he'd prepared, and he had to rush to get everything cleaned up and prepared for dinner.

* * *

"That was delicious," Téa murmured, leaning back in her chair contentedly."You pass. Oh, you pass." She nodded slowly at Seto, who grinned back.

"Does this mean I win the Iron Chef Challenge?" he quipped.

Téa opened one eye and shook her head slightly, "I didn't even challenge you to a real duel of cooking yet, Seto. You had to learn how to boil water first!"

Mokuba laughed, so Seto swatted his napkin at him.

"Well then, you owe me a duel of some sort," Seto remarked.

Téa nodded, "Yeah…of some sort."

"Hey!" She sprung up from her chair slightly, "You did a really good job this week with these lessons, and Mokuba, you got an 100 percent on that project of yours, right?"

Mokuba nodded proudly, "Yep, best in the class!"

"I think this calls for a celebration!"

"Not more cake…" Seto groaned. He'd had enough of melting chocolate, burned saucepans, and stubborn frosting.

"Not cake. How about…a trip?"

Mokuba and Seto both glanced at Téa curiously, wondering what she had in mind, "Well, we only have a half day at school tomorrow," she explained, "so why don't we drive down to the beach or something? The nice weather's going to be gone soon, and I haven't been to the shore in a long time…"

"Wow, the beach! We haven't been to the beach since we were kids, Seto! We've gotta go!" Mokuba cried enthusiastically, tugging on his brother's shirt.

Seto cracked a smile and spoke, "Sounds good."

* * *

"What's with the duffle bag?" Chieko asked Téa curiously as she watched her friend set the pink bag on the ground beside her desk.

'Seto, Mokuba and I are going to the beach today!" Téa smiled."But ssh! Don't tell anyone. They'd probably laugh if they knew it was the first time we've all been there since we were kids."

Only a few moments later, Yugi, Tristan and Joey walked in.

"Hey Téa! What's up?" Yugi smiled at Téa, who seemed unusually happy about something.

_'Not that she can't be happy,'_ Yugi amended to himself, _'It's just that lately, she's been acting kind of out of it…'_ Yugi was no closer to figuring out what Téa was up to than he had been when she'd returned at the beginning of the week. He figured Téa still needed time to adjust to her new lifestyle—and her new home. But he worried about her…and he knew Yami shared his concern.

"Goin' somewhere today?" Tristan asked, noticing Téa's bag. Téa blinked, and was about to speak, before Chieko interrupted her, "Yes, Téa is coming over to my house today. We are going to practice dancing."

Téa smiled at Chieko gratefully, "Yeah, you know me guys, I've been out of practice for way too long. And Chieko and I thought we'd start up a dance club, just in time for the Autumn Festival."

"Great idea," Joey leered. "What kinda outfits you gals gonna be wearin'?" Chieko giggled and blushed slightly, but Téa just rolled her eyes, punching Joey on his shoulder.

"Don't even think about making the same suggestion as last year for the festival, Joey," Téa warned, "that cabaret joke of yours really pissed all the girls off."

"Ehee…" Joey scratched behind his ear, embarrassed, "you still remember that?" Téa only fixed him with a bland stare.

Not much later, the bell rang, and the short school day began.

* * *

"Isn't this a little too conspicuous?" Téa asked, eyeing the stretch limo that arrived behind the school. She glanced towards Seto, "Or do you always go all-out no matter where you go?"

"I don't see you flashing a pair of car keys," Seto responded hotly. He walked towards the trunk, signaling to the driver to open it, while he took his and Téa's things and put them in the rear of the limousine.

"That's because I'm not eighteen yet! Besides," she smirked, "you aren't either. Mokuba told me your birthday's coming up."

Seto groaned, shaking his head as he rested it in the palm of his left hand, "It doesn't matter," he grumbled, looking up, "I never celebrate it anyway." As if to emphasize his words' forcefulness, he slammed the trunk closed with a loud BANG!

Téa stared at Seto in surprise, "Why not?"

But Seto didn't respond.

"Let's go," he finally said, opening the car door, not even waiting for Téa to get in first.

She glanced at him curiously when she got inside the car, shutting the door as she sat down, but Seto did not meet her gaze.

The entire ride to Mokuba's school was silent.

* * *

"This spot is perfect!" Mokuba declared, immediately dumping his share of things on the ground. Seto, who had since donned a pair of sleek black sunglasses, pulled them down the bridge of his nose, glancing at their surroundings.

Sand to the left and right, as far as the eye could see, spanning out a good sixty meters behind them, and five in front, until which point the glistening blue waves crashed on the shore.

"It **is **nice," Téa agreed, setting down her bag. She and Mokuba pulled out the large blanket they'd gotten for the occasion, spreading it out. Seto put the cooler they'd brought with snacks off to the side, but it wasn't more than a few moments later before Mokuba tore off his T-shirt and went skipping down to the shore.

Téa smiled, watching the younger boy jump into the water, wading through it as he explored. She eyed Seto, who hadn't yet spoken to her since they'd left school, and sighed.

_'Well, if he wants to be stubborn, let him be. One more reason why I couldn't possibly like this guy,'_ Téa thought.

She pulled off her own shirt, revealing the bikini top she wore underneath. She didn't notice Seto's gaze suddenly shift to her as she worked on unbuttoning her shorts that she'd changed into before she'd left school. The CEO's sunglasses almost fell off his nose as he stared unabashedly at Téa, who had stripped down to her flowered bikini, and was now lying on the towel with her back to the sun.

Seto swallowed abruptly, glancing back up to the shore. He fixed his gaze on something much more mundane—like his brother's hunt for shells.

"Are you just going to sit there all day?" Téa asked, mumbling from where she'd rested her head on her crossed arms.

"What do you suggest, I make a sand castle?" Seto asked sarcastically, once again shifting his gaze back to Téa. Just as immediately, his face turned scarlet, and he forced his sunglasses back up on his face.

"No," Téa laughed, "I just wanted to know if you were still talking to me." She smiled and turned her head, snuggling deeper into her arms as she sunbathed.

"Well, aren't you at least going to go into the water or something? Or were you planning on sitting there in your shirt and pants all day?" Téa closed her eyes, turning her head slightly.

"I have swim trunks," Seto finally said.

"Then wear them, for Pete's sake," Téa mumbled. "You're as white as a ghost, and you need the tan more than I do. Always sitting in front of a computer, it's a wonder you ever see the light of day…"

She didn't get a response from Seto, and so opened one eye, then another.

She slowly craned her head to see if maybe Seto had run off to join Mokuba, and let out a squeak when she saw Seto pull off his shirt. Her eyes widened to the size of sand-dollars when she saw his back, revealed in the bright sunlight.

"Eep," she mumbled, sitting up, unable to take her gaze away.

Seto turned and faced her, his sunglasses now removed. He smirked devilishly as he said, "What? Like what you see?"

It was an open invitation for Téa to give him the once-over, and, like any other normal girl her age, she did just that.

Her heart thundered loudly in her chest —_'Oh heavens, he's hot!'_ Téa thought, remembering Chieko's word for it. Téa had been to the water park with Yugi, Joey, and Tristan before, and had seen them topless—and though they were all decently built, they hadn't captured Téa's attention quite the way Seto had.

And with the way he was leaning so dangerously close to her at that moment…

"You're surprisingly well-built," Téa sniffed, forcing herself to look in the other direction.

Seto laughed, "'Surprisingly?' What, did you think I was a twig underneath my uniform?"

Téa blinked, turning back to him, "Well…"

"Hey!" Seto pretended to be offended, even as he flexed his arm slightly, "What, do you think I got these arms by dueling?" he asked dubiously.

Téa fixed him with a flat stare, "Well, yeah," she responded, turning sheepish, "all that flinging of your Duel Disks and stuff…"

Again, Seto laughed, this time stripping off his pants to reveal dark blue swim trunks. Téa blinked and tried not to stare, instead occupying herself with leaning over and rummaging through the cooler.

"There's a gym of sorts in the basement," he explained. "I work out. 'Duel Disks.' Hah. You're something else, Téa," he chuckled. Téa only turned around and glared at Seto, sticking her tongue out.

* * *

"Hey Mokuba!" Téa called out, capturing the boy's attention. She pulled a camera out from her bag, motioning the black-haired youth over.

"Come on, let's take some pictures."

"Okay," the smaller boy nodded. Téa snapped a few of Seto and Mokuba together, prodding Seto to smile. When he finally did, Téa grinned behind the camera lens. In turn, Seto also snapped a few pictures of Téa and Mokuba —the first one being the funniest. Téa had reached and looped her arms around the younger boy, her bikini-clad breasts pressing dangerously close to Mokuba's face. His face turned scarlet and he stiffened as rigidly as a board.

"Now, if only we could get someone to take a picture of all three of us…" Téa murmured, glancing around the beach. She spotted a girl their own age, walking down the beach alone, in a white bikini with a light yellow jacket tossed over it, her aquamarine hair flying behind her in the wind, a tiny red bow securing it at the end.

"Excuse me," Téa called, catching the girl's attention, "would you mind taking a few pictures of us?" Téa smiled, and the girl blinked, glancing from Téa to Seto, who was behind her.

"Saga—" she stopped, giving Seto the once-over herself. Seto flushed slightly, averting his gaze from the girl, while Mokuba only smiled like the innocent child he was.

"Sure." She took the camera and snapped a few pictures. Téa was about to rise to her feet and get the camera back when the girl's eyes widened, and she suddenly ducked to her feet. She smiled sheepishly, "How about we take just a few more? Why don't you all sit closer together this time, and I can take a family shot?"

Téa blushed slightly; did this girl think they were…?

_'Doesn't matter,'_ Téa told herself, flashing a smile.

"Closer," the girl murmured, her voice having dropped a level. It seemed as though she were avoiding someone looking for her, and so wanted to keep a low profile. Seto and Téa moved in closer, with Mokuba in front of them, having wedged himself between their knees. Téa's were splayed off to the side, bent, while Seto sat with his knees up in the air, resting one arm on top of them.

When the girl motioned for them to move closer together, Seto glanced at Téa out of the corner of his eye, realizing they were already pressed against one another. He shifted his arm between them slightly, and draped it around her shoulders as casually as he could possibly manage. Téa glanced up and blinked at him, surprised, but then the girl's voice called out "Smile!" and Téa was forced to face forward again.

* * *

Barely ten minutes later, Mokuba had gotten himself acquainted with a group of kids on the beach who had made it their goal to build a giant fortress in the sand. Mokuba was helping them, running back and forth from the ocean with buckets of water to be used to solidify the walls.

Meanwhile, Téa had settled herself back down on the blanket, her back to the warm sunny sky, intending to relax and enjoy the sun for as long as possible.

Seto's voice, unfortunately, broke through her peace, when he commented, "You're going to get sunburned."

Téa immediately bolted upright, yelping "I forgot to put sunscreen on!" Seto rolled his eyes, watching as Téa scrambled to her duffle bag and pulled out a bottle of SPF 45.

She squeezed a sizable blob of the stuff onto her hands, spreading it all over her arms and legs, gently patting her face —especially her nose and the tips of her ears—and moving to slather her stomach and chest. But when she tried to smooth the lotion onto her back, she had problems. She twisted, angling her arms as many ways as possible, but she couldn't get her hands to reach any place besides her shoulder blades.

"Oh please," Seto grumbled, shifting towards Téa, "lie down."

"Wha—" The last syllable of Téa's protest was cut off as Seto pushed her to the blanket, muffling her voice. She grumbled, but eventually settled in the position she'd been in earlier. Only, earlier, Seto Kaiba hadn't been straddling her knees from behind.

Téa whipped her gaze forward again, refusing to stare at Seto Kaiba —even if he was awfully handsome in those swim trunks…

She was about to relax again when a pair of distinctly warm hands, slathered with the sunscreen, began rubbing her back. Téa froze, every muscle in her body tightening as she became acutely aware of Seto Kaiba's hands on her body.

Téa squeezed her eyes shut, trying to block out the sensations of pleasure she was experiencing—warm hands, soothing motions…

_'Ah! No! Not thinking about…oh, man, that feels good…'_ Before Téa could stop herself, she made a small sound of pleasure—just a slight moan, really—before she shifted her head, almost melting into the beach blanket.

Seto abruptly stopped, blinking. Téa made no move to stop him, nor was she as stiff and unrelaxed as she had been only a few moments ago. But there was a problem—her bikini top.

"Why'dya stop?" Téa mumbled, "That was nice…"

"Uh…" Seto began, glad that Téa wasn't facing him, lest she see the crimson color on his cheeks, "your top…"

"Ugh, I hate tan lines," Téa muttered, shifting. Seto's eyes widened as he realized she was taking her bikini top OFF entirely, worming about in such a way that she slipped it over her head and placed it off to the side of the blanket, now lying face-down—and topless—underneath him.

"Continue," Téa murmured, her voice growing sleepy again. With more than enough hesitation on his part, Seto finally put his hands on Téa's back again, slowly moving them up and down the length of her spine, soft skin shifting and glistening with the sun lotion. He shifted one hand to each side, rising up to her shoulders and neck. His fingers curved around her shoulders, squeezing and rubbing as gently as he could possibly manage, given that his muscles had tightened the moment Téa had taken her top off.

He wasn't even thinking straight when his hands slid up to her arms, tracing lines of sunscreen where Téa had already rubbed some, sliding back down the curve of her back to her ribcage, his fingers brushing against the tender skin of her breasts.

Seto flushed, realizing where his fingers were, and quickly removed them, drawing his hands back from her altogether. Téa made no sound of protest this time, and Seto dared to lean closer to her, finding her asleep where she lay.

_'I only hope she doesn't move in her sleep,'_ Seto thought, pulling his knees to his chest and glancing backwards at Téa. She lay with her head in her crossed arms, a slight smile on her face.

_'She's not that bad-looking…'_ Seto thought absently to himself. He shook his head rapidly, _'I am _not_ attracted to Téa Gardner. Not. Not, Not!' _His hands felt like they were on fire though. Holding her when they'd danced was one thing, but what had just happened…**that** was something entirely different.

Seto watched Mokuba build the fortress with the other kids, but he couldn't keep his gaze from Téa for very long, _'Okay, fine. So I'm attracted to her. A little. Just a little.'_

Well, she was beautiful. He couldn't exactly deny that. Not after the Ball, and certainly not now. He might have even grudgingly admitted to the fact back in Duelist Kingdom, that the dog Wheeler was damn lucky for the sort of company he kept -namely, Téa- but back then, Seto had been solely focused on getting his brother back. That was all that had mattered.

_'And now?'_ His brother was busy frolicking in the sand and waves with other kids. He was living the life of a normal kid. It was what Seto had always wanted for him. But for himself? His gaze wandered back to the sleeping girl at his side.

Seto had never given much thought to girls before. Not that he hadn't noticed them -he was a guy, after all- but there had always been other priorities. But things had changed. Dueling wasn't such a phenomenally large part of his life anymore, and for the most part, things seemed normal.

Téa was no longer the pawn of some sick and twisted enemy's plan to capture the Millennium Items, or the God Cards. She was an ordinary girl, doing what ordinary girls normally did to ordinary guys—confusing the living hell out of them. Or, in the case of one Seto Kaiba, boy-in-transition-to-normal, confusing HIM.

"You're going to get sunburned too, you know," a voice spoke up. Seto was about to turn around when he remembered that Téa wasn't wearing her top, and he didn't want to risk embarrassing her—or himself.

That's why, when he felt warm skin against his back, his posture became rigid, and he fixed his eyes on one particular point on the horizon.

"I put my top back on, stupid. Thanks for the help, by the way."

Téa smirked, "Now it's your turn." Téa's words didn't serve to loosen Seto up any more than he already had been, and he remained staring at the horizon.

Téa squeezed another blob of sunscreen onto her hands, trembling as they were, as she shifted forward on her knees. She took a deep breath before placing her hands on Seto Kaiba's shoulders, slowly tracing her hands—and the lotion—down his back.

A shudder rippled down Seto's spine, and almost against his will, he began to relax against Téa's ministrations. Her fingers seemed to caress every inch of skin he bared—though only on his back. She ran her two forefingers down his spine, the slight pressure forcing him to arch his back slightly.

"Geez, you never do relax, do you?" Téa chided, cuffing both her hands around his shoulders. She started a purposeful massage of Seto's tense shoulders, continuing to rub what lotion was left on her hands around his back.

This time, it was Seto's turn to groan, though whether his sound was one of pleasure or pain, Téa couldn't tell. She did smile slightly to herself, dipping her hands lower and lower until she almost reached Seto's tailbone—sneakily hooking one finger under his waistband and snapping it—hard.

"Ow!" Seto exclaimed, leaping to his feet, and Téa giggled, falling back onto the blanket.

"You are going to pay for that…" Seto growled, marching over to Téa. She quickly scampered around, but it wasn't long before Seto practically pounced on her, quickly burying her in sand.

* * *

"Uh…Big Brother?"

Mokuba approached his older brother, who seemed to be busy scooping sand and adding it to an already-large, shapeless pile.

"Where's Big Sister Téa?" Mokuba looked around curiously, not seeing the older girl anywhere.

"I'm right here, Mokuba," Téa's voice came. The small boy's eyes widened and he glanced around his brother's form, seeing Téa's head pop out from the growing mound of sand.

"Big Sister Téa!" he exclaimed in surprise. He plopped down on the sand right next Seto, "Why're you burying her in sand?"

Seto turned to his brother, grinning almost maliciously, "Why not?"

Mokuba eep'd and started to scoot away, afraid he'd be next. But instead, Seto grinned at him—normally, this time—and said, "Want to help?"

"Oh no! Seto, come on!" Téa cried pleadingly.

"Uh-uh," he responded, shaking his head as he added another pile of sand.

"You know," Téa said after a moment, her head tilting to glance down at her grainy, shapeless form, "The least you could do is give me some sort of a body or something. Being a block of sand isn't exactly appetizing, you know."

Seto looked at Téa, covered in sand as she was, and nodded. He then proceeded to poke two holes in the sand-mound where Téa's breasts would have been. Her jaw dropped open in surprise, and had her hands been free, she probably would have slapped Seto Kaiba upside the head.

"Pervert!"

"Brat!" Seto Kaiba responded just as quickly.

"Great," Téa shook her head, "I'm a giant pile of sand with dots for boobs."

Seto and Mokuba both snickered, even as they continued to pile sand on top of Téa.

"Ugh," she groaned, "I'm getting sand in places I don't want to think about. Seto, when are you going to let me out of here?"

Seto stood up, followed shortly thereafter by Mokuba, the two dusting their hands off and glancing down at Téa, their finished "creation."

"You mean you can't get out on your own?" Seto smirked."Not even trying, are we?"

Téa narrowed her eyes at Seto, and proceeded to struggle, much to the Kaiba brothers' amusement. Suddenly, Téa froze, her eyes widening.

"Guys…behind you—!"

Seto rolled his eyes. "Oh please Téa, I'm **not** going to fall for that one, it's the oldest trick in the book."

"No, guys I'm—" Téa never had the chance to finish her words, as an amazingly large wave crashed over them all, soaking each of them in salt water. Téa, still partially stuck in the sand, spit out some salt water and mumbled, "…serious."

She freed herself from the pile of mud she was no longer completely buried in, and helped Seto and Mokuba up. The younger boy had a piece of red kelp hanging from his hair, and when Téa plucked it out, she giggled.

"I guess that's your just desserts for burying me, huh? Seems like the sea is on my side today."

"You're still the one covered in mud," Seto pointed out. Téa turned slowly, her arm snaking out and yanking down on Seto's—hard—before he had a chance to react. He went plummeting to the now-wet sand, getting a chest—and face—full of mud.

"That makes two of us," Téa grinned, offering her hand to help him up again. He gripped it fiercely, almost yanking Téa down in the process, and blinked when she didn't let go once he stood.

"Come on, let's go rinse off."

She sprinted down the beach, dragging Seto with her. "Hey Mokuba, can you make sure none of our stuff got damaged or washed away?" she called from a meter away.

The smaller boy nodded, wringing out his locks of hair, "Sure thing!"

She and Seto, their hands still linked and their bodies still covered in wet sand, waded out to the water.

"Ooh, cold, cold, cold!" Téa mumbled, splashing her front with the water.

"The Pacific Ocean usually is," Seto remarked blandly. He brushed at the wet sand on his chest, but only succeeded in brushing the larger chunks away, the remaining grains forming a pattern on his chest, which scraped away at his skin when he tried to brush them off.

Téa only responded by splashing him with a handful of cold water, to which he splashed her back, and she splashed him—until it was an all-out water war between the two. Both had both been sufficiently cleaned of the sand covering their bodies, but they continued splashing at one another, neither ready to let the other gain the upper hand.

Mokuba was done inspecting everything, making sure nothing had gotten washed away or was too soaking wet, and looked up to see his brother and Téa splashing away at one another in the water. The ebony-haired boy blinked for a minute, not entirely sure he was seeing **his** brother there. Oh, but it was.

"Seto—" Mokuba called out, but his older brother didn't seem to hear him. This time, it was Mokuba's eyes that widened in surprise, seeing another wave heading towards them, "WATCH—" The wave splashed down on Téa and Seto, and Mokuba sighed, defeated, "Out."

"Okay, you were right, it is cold," Seto stood up from where he'd been splashing at Téa, and then realized with a sinking sensation that she was no longer there, nor anywhere in sight.

"TÉA!" Without a moment's hesitation, Seto dove into the deeper waters, looking for the girl he'd just lost.

It wasn't long before he found her underwater and unconscious. He quickly brought her up from the water, scooping her into his arms and walking briskly up to the spot where Mokuba was, and all their things had been laid out.

"Big Brother! Is she okay? Is she…" Mokuba paused, never having seen Téa look so…so helpless before. And he'd been stuck in a variety of messes with her, with the Rare Hunters, among others. She'd never given up, never let anything beat her down…but now, a stupid wave had taken that spirit and vitality away from her, and she was limp and unconscious in Seto Kaiba's arms.

Seto gently set Téa up in a sitting position, leaning her forward slightly.

"Come on, Téa. Breathe." He glanced at her for a moment, but she didn't respond at all. Her chest didn't rise or fall with any sort of movement, which gave Seto reason to believe she'd swallowed water.

"Hate me for this later," he muttered under his breath, delivering a sharp whack to Téa's middle. She immediately lurched forward and coughed, spitting up salt water.

"Ooh," she moaned, "Damn wave scared the living crap out of me…"

"It scared us too," Seto smiled, relieved, glad to see Téa breathing again.

"Can we go home now?" Téa mumbled, having had her fair share of a day at the beach. It had been fun, but she wanted nothing more at the moment than to get every last particle of sand OFF her, and take a nice, warm bath.

"Yeah," Mokuba nodded his assent, "Let's go."

* * *

The drive home was silent, with both Mokuba and Téa falling asleep. Seto, on the other hand, never one to fall asleep in any sort of moving vehicle, remained awake, thinking about the day's events.

He realized with quiet seriousness that he could have lost Téa that day—that if he hadn't found her when she did, she might have drowned. Or, even if he had saved her, he wouldn't have been able to get her to breathe soon enough. He was just lucky that he **had **saved her in time.

_'I…I didn't realize I cared so much about her.'_ Seto thought, glancing over at Téa, who was slumped over slightly, with Mokuba resting on her lap. She'd placed her hand on the younger boy's head, her fingers running through his hair before she herself had fallen asleep as well.

_'Lucky brat,'_Seto smiled slightly. His smile soon faded as he remembered even earlier in the day though—more of Téa trying to force that Sagusa girl on him. She was doing it in her own subtle way, of course, but Seto saw right through whatever ruse she was playing.

_'Why? I still don't get why she'd try to set me up with someone else, when we…'_

His thoughts cut off. _'When we _what_? It's not as if she likes me that way or anything.'_ No, he knew that Téa—by insisting she not be seen with him when they got dropped off for school, by keeping her new home and employer a secret from her friends, and above all else, by trying to get him interested in another girl—was forcing the message on him: "I'm **not **into you." Which stung Seto more than it should have, really.

He'd never cared hide nor hair whether girls liked him, or even what they thought of him—until now. Now, he was actually **trying** to be a normal guy, and he found it harder than he would have expected. He wanted Téa to like him—even a little—but she just made things more confusing. She was about as unreadable to Seto Kaiba as a book written in Greek—one of the few languages Seto Kaiba could NOT brag about knowing.

* * *

"Man, am I glad to be home," Téa stretched, "I think I'm going to take a hot bath now…" She moved to head upstairs, but Seto's arm reached out and grabbed her own. She turned around and eyed him curiously.

"Seto, what's wrong?" He didn't say anything at first, just stared at her, his eyes shifting, searching for something in her eyes, "I told you, I'm fine. See?" Téa brought her hand up and breathed in deeply, exhaling with another flourish of her hand, "Breathing!"

Seto swallowed slightly, "I know. I'm glad. But…That's not what I want to talk to you about."

"Huh?" Téa responded eloquently, confusion and tiredness plain on her face. Seto closed the gap between them to a mere foot, his hand still gripping her arm without the slightest sign he intended to release her any time soon.

"Why have you been trying to set me up with that Sagusa girl?" Seto asked bluntly, his eyes still searching hers. This time, he knew what he was looking for: a sign. Some sign—any sign—that Téa didn't hate him so entirely. That she didn't merely "tolerate" him, nor was she acting so nice around him simply out of gratitude. That maybe -just maybe- she liked him back. Even a little.

_'He knows!'_ was Téa's first thought, at which her eyes widened in surprise and horror. Part of her knew her plan had failed—but it wasn't just her plan to convince Yugi and the others that she had some sort of PURPOSE in letting Chieko believe she and Seto were brother and sister…it was also her unspoken plan to wean herself away from the possibility that she was falling for Seto Kaiba.

She had insisted to herself that she wasn't, that she couldn't, that she didn't WANT to, but as the days passed, she found herself growing more and more attracted to him, even reasoning out why Yami, the enigmatic pharaoh, no longer occupied her thoughts.

_'Because,'_ Téa had realized, _'He's not a separate body. He might not even be a separate soul. Whoever—or whatever—he is, he's inside Yugi. And Yugi has always been my best friend. I…I can't betray him like that. I've already pushed the limits of our friendship by lying like this, and I can't force myself to believe that I can love Yami when he's just inside Yugi's body. That would be using my best friend shamelessly. And while I do care for Yugi, I don't—I don't _love_ him.'_

"I…" Téa started, her eyes shifting off to the side.

Seto would have none of it, however, and used his other free hand to shift her gaze back his face. "Tell me why," he said, an imploring tone creeping into his voice. "Please."

"I thought…maybe what you needed in your life right now was a girl—someone nice and sweet to get you to open up some more. I…" Téa's voice dropped in volume now, "I'm sorry, I shouldn't have…"

Seto inhaled, and then sighed, "But why? Besides, I already **have** a girl in my life."

Téa looked up and blinked, "Wh…?"

"**You**," Seto responded, shifting his grip on her so that both his hands rested on her shoulders. Téa's eyes widened, "Isn't it enough that you're the only girl I want in my life right now?" Seto asked softly, his eyes searching hers once more. Téa stared back, hardly believing her ears. She hadn't the slightest clue what to say, and, her silence interpreted as a negative to Seto, he released her.

"Forget it. Just…forget it."

And he walked away, into his office, but this time closing the door quietly, with an almost sense of finality to it.

Téa stared after him, long after the door was closed and Seto was gone, before tears traced their way down the curve of her cheek.

"You idiot," she cursed under her breath, "Why did I have to fall in love with you?"

* * *

**W00T! I'm so proud of myself for being able to get the chapters out so quickly…and you guys like it when they're long? I know this chapter had a lot of stuff in it…Is this one of those fics you'll like to read again, in case you missed anything? I know a couple of fics like that…**

**I'm such a detail freak…I wrote out an entire floor plan for the ground floor of the Kaiba mansion (based off my aunt's house, actually, with some edits, like the secret floor!) and even drew a seating chart for Class 2-B, which everyone is in! Of course, it's not the same seating as the original manga, when everyone's still in their first year…plus, I know Japanese classes usually don't have 54 students, but that's how many desks there are in the class. Let's assume most of the back rows (except for Tristan) are empty, okay? I should plan these things out more in advance…**

**Uhm, I'd be all ecstatic about Chapter 7 coming out soon…and it will, I promise…but it'll have to be a belated birthday present for our beloved CEO. Sorry guys, this one took me FOREVER to chug out, and I was stressin' so much…I think I need to get my Yu-Gi-Juices back up again anyway, by watching some more episodes. So look for "Happy Birthday, Seto Kaiba," come the 26th or 27th. Hope you N'Joi-d!**

**Does anyone know who the girl on the beach is? I'll give you a hint—she deals with a guy mentioned in a previous chapter as being one of the Seto Kaiba seems-likes. Look at the bottom of the last chapter for possibilities.**

**~Azurite**


	7. 7A:  Love and Confusion

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> The school festival has arrived and with it, several mysteries!

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> **What Doesn't Kill You  
> Chapter 7a: Love and Confusion  
> Version 3.6.1 **\- Minor formatting fixes  
> **A Yu-Gi-Oh Fanfiction**  
> **By:** Azurite - azurite AT seventh-star DOT net  
> **Site: **seventh-star DOT net  
> **Conceptualized/First Written:** 10/26/03  
> **Completed/Posted: **12/2/03 (SORRY FOR THE HUGE DELAY!)
> 
> **EDITED:** 7/18/04, 8/16/04, 12/5/05, 12/28/09, 4/10/10
> 
> Sorry, Seto-sama!   
>  Happy UBER-BELATED Birthday! Don't kill me!
> 
> _ **Rated PG13 for a bit   
>  of swearin'…** _
> 
> CHAPTER 7 IS SPLIT INTO TWO PARTS ON ALL SITES—OTHERWISE, THE FILE WOULD BE TOO LARGE. THIS IS CHAPTER 7A!
> 
> **Version 3.6 Notes:** Thanks to Jade for pointing out that Yami's thoughts got stripped by FFnet's evil editor. They're back, along with a few grammar, punctuation, and formatting fixes along the way, same as last chapter.
> 
> * * *
> 
> **RECAP:** Moving in with Seto Kaiba was one thing, but Téa Gardner certainly didn't expect to start **liking** him. Worse, when he steals her first kiss from her—and doesn't remember!—Téa finds herself trying to find any excuse to forget her growing feelings for the young CEO. So now, only Mai knows the truth, but Téa will have to tell her other friends soon….

"Big Sister Téa?"

Mokuba looked around the Violet Room curiously, not finding a trace of Téa anywhere in sight. The curtains were already drawn apart, sunlight spilling into the purple-hued room, and onto the empty, freshly made bed.

He left the room with an expression of confusion on his face.

_'Where did Téa go?'_ He had looked everywhere for her, but hadn't been able to find her. She wasn't in the living area, wasn't in the dining area, wasn't in her room…Mokuba told himself he'd go to the kitchen next.

When he got there, Téa wasn't there either, but the boy **did** spot a bento set with a card with his name on it sitting on the counter. Mokuba smiled. As of late, Téa had taken to preparing lunch for everyone. It seemed she was an early riser, and didn't mind the extra work in the morning, and everyone seemed to like her lunches…well, Mokuba especially did. Not many of the other kids at his school got personal bento sets anymore: they usually had a bit of change to buy something with.

_'I'm one of the lucky ones, now!'_ Mokuba thought delightedly, plucking the bento set off the countertop. It was getting closer and closer to the time when they usually left to go to school, and Téa was still nowhere in sight. Mokuba knew his brother had spent the night in his office again, and was due to emerge any minute now, so it was unlikely that he knew where Téa was, either.

_'I guess she left already,'_ Mokuba thought, slightly disappointed and sad. He'd always looked forward to riding with Téa and Seto in the limo—Téa always had an open ear for whatever Mokuba had to say, while Seto typically seemed more reserved, focused on some project or another.

Mokuba wandered out to the entryway, meeting his brother's eyes. The elder Kaiba was already in his school uniform, his metal briefcase tossed casually over his shoulder as if it didn't weigh an ounce.

"Where's Téa?" Seto asked, barely a trace of emotion in his voice.

"I guess she left early," Mokuba responded, the disappointment creeping into his voice. "She seemed kinda sad yesterday…."

* * *

"Hey, Téa! We were wonderin' if you was gonna abandon us or somethin'!" Joey Wheeler called out, seeing his friend approach them. Serenity was also in the present company, and smiled, seeing Téa. The older girl was somewhat of a role model for Serenity, possessing so much strength after she'd been through so much.

Everyone had agreed to meet on Sunday, just to hang out—with the boys possessing the ulterior motive of finding out what Téa was **really **hiding from them.

Yugi, in particular, possessed the strongest concern for his best friend; since her parents had died, not only had Téa been acting awfully strange, but he abrupt subject-changing wherever her new job was concerned had him even more worried.

"Nah, can't get rid of me that easily," Téa attempted a smile, which reassured Joey and Tristan, but not Yugi.

_'Is she hiding something? I know Téa's not usually the type to lie about anything, but she's always been pretty stubborn,'_ Yugi thought, inadvertently letting Yami know what was on his mind as well, _'And if she wants something done, she'll try to do it herself before she asks for help. I hope nothing bad is happening to her.'_

_'I'm sure Téa is a very responsible young woman,'_ Yami's own thoughts came, _'If she needs us, she will say so.'_

_'I hope so,'_ Yugi added, _'because lately, it doesn't seem like she wants to be answering our questions._'He had never seen Téa so hesitant to answer questions before. Of course, her situation had completely changed in the past month or so, moving homes entirely; no one could expect her to bounce back and be her perfect self. And yet…

The group of teens wandered the Domino City area, eventually ending up at the mall. It wasn't long before the gang met up with Duke and Mai, and after some more wandering in and out of stores and looking at the various carts and stalls, they finally all agreed that they were hungry.

Yugi, Tristan, and Duke had all gotten up from the semicircular booth that the group of friends had claimed as their own, off to get food, while Mai, Joey, and Serenity surrounded Téa in the booth. Noticing she looked somewhat upset—or lost in thought, perhaps?—Joey piped up.

"What's eatin' you, Téa? Never seen you look so out of it before." He glanced sideways at Mai, but her face remained the same: concerned for Téa. Joey had the sneaking suspicion that Mai knew something; he didn't know **how** he knew, he just did. The same way he'd had that gut feeling when he'd dueled Odion—that the other guy wasn't really Marik. Of course, that was all from a time Joey rather would have forgotten, so be abruptly brushed the thought from his mind.

"…Hey Joey?" Téa suddenly glanced up, catching the blonde's attention.

"Yeah, what's up?"

Téa cracked a smile, the corners of her lips curving up devilishly, "I've been uh, sort of stressed lately. You know, juggling work, and school, and getting used to my new house? So I'm wondering if maybe you can help me out."

Joey blinked, "Uh, **me**? Help you de-stress?" He didn't quite get what Téa was asking, and it was by far the most unusual request he'd ever gotten.

"Yeah. Um, this might be a little pretentious of me," Téa started, confusing Joey even more, "But you know some pretty slick fighting moves. Maybe you could teach me some."

**That** Joey understood.

"Oh! Heck yeah, I'd be glad to! Not that I'm condonin' fightin' or nothin' like that," he explained, off his sister's glare, "But you're right, that kinda thing **is** good to release stress." He grinned cockily at all the girls present, "And if I must say so myself, I'm one damn good ass-kicker."

"I'm sure you are, darling," Mai said, rolling her eyes, glancing out of them sidelong to see Téa, "But right now, it's time to eat." Yugi, Tristan, and Duke were approaching, each of them bearing a tray with various plates and Styrofoam boxes on it.

"That was nice of you guys to pick up our food for us," Serenity said, grabbing her box.

Tristan smiled handsomely, leaning in, "It was no problem at all, Serenity…" Duke jabbed him roughly in the side, and the two boys started bickering with one another, shooting glares at each other, since neither of them could sit next to Serenity. With Duke on one side of the semicircular booth and Tristan on the other, they sat, picking at their food and boring holes into one another's heads with their eyes.

Meanwhile, Joey sat beside Tristan, Mai next to him, Téa next to her, Serenity beside Téa, and Yugi next to her and Duke. It didn't take long for people to wonder about Téa, who hadn't spoken much since she'd asked Joey to teach her to fight—and of course, Yugi, Duke, and Tristan had missed that request entirely, and wondered what Joey and the others had found out.

Almost waiting expectantly for Téa to say something, eyes shifted at her, glancing away nervously when the bearer saw Téa look up. Mai easily caught wind of Téa's discomfort, and said in a too-loud voice, "Well, we girls don't have our favorite drinks. Téa, what say you and I go grab some, hmm?"

Téa couldn't have looked more relieved, and clambered over the boys, who tried to avoid getting out of the booth while still letting the girls out. As Mai was on her way sliding out, she warned, "Don't even **think** about touching my butt Wheeler, or you'll lose more than your hands." Joey immediately flushed scarlet and sat on both his hands, abruptly crossing his legs underneath the table. Duke and Tristan had a good laugh at Joey's expense, but Yugi wasn't paying attention—he kept wondering what the expression in Téa's eyes was all about.

_'I'm still worried, Yami,'_ Yugi thought to his other half. He knew that the Pharaoh's spirit within him oftentimes seemed more than human—what with his uncanny way to make or break people's spirits. With normal people, he seemed able to detect whether or not someone was lying, but if he detected such a thing in Téa, he wasn't saying so to Yugi.

And for good reason.

_'She's afraid,'_ Yami realized, but kept this tidbit of information secret from his other half. His younger, more naive half. The boy still had much to learn about the world.

_'As I do about this place,'_ Yami knew, realizing that he was out of his own time, out of his place here. What little he could remember involved a lifestyle completely different from what he was used to as Yugi Moto. High school, card games, petty jealousy, living in someone else's body….

_'That too,' _Yami thought wryly. Had he been in control of Yugi at the moment, one might have seen him crack a sarcastic smile at nothing.

In any case, Yami kept the secret of Téa's fear from his other half, knowing full well of the boy's feelings for her. In becoming part of him, Yami became privy to his secrets—most especially the ones that Yugi could only admit to himself. And even if Yugi **had** tried to keep his affections for Téa a secret from Yami, he wouldn't have succeeded: almost every time she was close, Yugi's heartbeat sped up, his face flushed, and his hands tended to clench and fidget.

Visions swum across the boy's mind, visions from younger days, before Yami had technically 'existed' in Yugi's plane, when he first met Téa. Of how they'd immediately latched onto one another, and how she'd always protected him. And how slowly, as he became accustomed to the presence of Yami within him, his thoughts became more defined—more assured—that he wanted to return the favor to Téa, and protect her, no matter what the cost. But he was too afraid to take action, especially if it meant telling Téa how he felt. He clammed up and backed off, trying to find other things to focus on. And despite the major battles ending, he always found a way to do just that—without Yami's help.

* * *

"Are you going to tell them everything, or just part of it?" Mai asked Téa, as the two walked towards the tapioca drink shop.

"You make it sound like I don't have any other choices," Téa muttered, glancing up at Mai. The violet-eyed blonde fixed the brunette with a flat stare that said just what Téa already knew—she **didn't** have any other choices.

"Well, you're right, I don't. I do have to tell them something. I just…I don't know what."

"Listen, Téa," Mai started, halting the girl before she could walk another step, "No matter what, you have to be honest with yourself. You know my motto: the only person you can really trust is yourself. And all this time around you guys has made me question that. You should be able to trust your friends, too. Trust them to understand you, no matter what."

"I wish it were that easy, Mai," Téa murmured. But everything she'd been thinking had been so…so crazy, so confusing, lately! She wasn't sure what she'd been thinking in convincing Yugi and the others that it was **right** to let Chieko believe they were brother and sister…she didn't know what she was thinking in trying to set the two up! And the way Seto had told her…

_"Isn't it enough that you're the only girl I want in my life right now?"_

Téa blinked, forcing the memory out. _'My heart beat so fast when he said that…and I–I didn't know how to respond. He just walked away like that, and I know I hurt him, but this is idiocy!'_

_'All this time, I've been lying to myself, trying to come up with a million and one reasons why I can't possibly like Seto. One, because he's a narcissistic, sadistic bastard with an ego the size of a yacht. Two, because he's weird. Three, because he's weird _and_ he helped me through the roughest time in my life for _no_ reason! Four, because I'm supposed to be in love with Yami. Five, because Seto doesn't need someone like _me_ in his life…'_ The thoughts continued, sending Téa into a spiraling fit of depression—and it showed.

"Téa," Mai shook the girl, her manicured hands gripping the brunette's shoulders fiercely, "It **is** that easy. Once you stop lying to yourself about how you feel, it won't matter what other people think! It shouldn't anyway! They're your friends, and they love you more than anything in the world! And, far be it for me to be the cheesy one spouting friendship speeches," Téa raised an eyebrow at that, "but you can't spell 'team' without 'Téa.' They're lost without you—without you explaining things to them. They'll just worry, up until they decide to take matters into their own hands, and who knows what will happen then?"

Téa looked at Mai, but finally nodded, sighing. "You're right. You're absolutely right. I'm going to…stop lying. Right now."

* * *

Everyone at the table glanced up the moment they saw Mai and Téa return. Unlike before, Téa was now looking up, her eyes meeting each one of theirs exactly. Blue met with violet, with brown, with hazel, with emerald green.

_'These are my friends,'_ Téa told herself, _'I can trust them.'_

Mai and Téa squeezed back into their original places in the table, and it wasn't long before Tristan, obviously impatient for answers, piped up, "Téa, what's up with you, lately? We're sort of worried…"

"I know," Téa said slowly, swallowing to steel herself for the moment of truth, "That I've been acting weird lately. But I have a really good reason for it."

"Really?" Joey asked, "Cuz I've been thinkin' you're hidin' somethin' from us, and if you're gettin' hurt or somethin' like that, you know, we're all friends, and we'd wanna know," Joey glanced at everyone else, and they all nodded in solemn agreement.

"Hurt?" Téa looked confused. "Nothing like that's going on…"

_'Not unless you count Seto giving me a headache for confusing me the way he does.'_

"Oh. That's good," Joey began, though his voice seemed to imply that he didn't believe Téa so immediately, "I mean, we thought maybe your boss was…doin' somethin' bosses ain't supposed to, ya know?"

Téa blinked rapidly.

"It's not like that!" she almost yelled, startling everyone. "He–He's not like that at all. He's…nice. But that's not what I've been…out of it for!" Téa furrowed her brows, trying to come up with the words.

"The truth, Téa?" Yugi asked softly.

Her eyes met his, sincerity reflecting in both their depths, "The truth. The truth is," she began, taking a deep breath, "I–I sort of…I—" Mai's glance urged her on, "I have a crush on someone."

The boys blinked rapidly. "You…what?"

"Did you expect me to say I'm dying of cancer!? Come on guys…this is me! I'm a normal girl, and this–this kind of thing…" Téa wrung her hands in despair, while Serenity and Mai smiled, leaning back. They understood, all too well.

"Well, who is it?" Tristan asked, a devilish smile appearing on his face. He exchanged a glance with Joey, who jabbed Yugi under the table. The small boy didn't respond to the nudge, and instead decided to keep his eyes fixed on his Millennium Puzzle.

_'A crush…on…someone?'_ Suddenly, it felt as if the entire world around Yugi had blacked out, and he could only hear Téa's voice. But he didn't **want** to. He didn't want to hear that she liked someone else, didn't want to hear that she had a boyfriend, or that she was in love with someone else…

At that moment, Yugi wished more than anything that he could have traded places with Yami—to have his steadfast courage, his impassivity, his unreadable expression and supposedly near **lack** of emotions in situations that would otherwise be taxing to the heart.

But Yami wouldn't be coaxed out so easily.

_'Listen to her, Yugi. You need to be her friend.'_

And Yugi knew that, more than anything, but it didn't stop the feeling of heartbreak from spreading throughout his body.

"I—" Téa flushed, quickly shifting her gaze to the table, "I'm not telling you guys that! He doesn't even know, and besides, he's a friend, and I don't want my stupid crush on him to ruin our friendship, and besides, it's just…" Téa began babbling. In the midst of her words, Joey winked at Yugi.

The smaller boy didn't seem to understand, wearing a mask of confusion on his own face. Joey and Tristan both rolled their eyes at him, pointedly saying without saying: 'You don't get it, **do** you?!' But both boys kept their lips sealed while Téa spoke.

"Hmm, a friend, huh?" Tristan rubbed his chin thoughtfully, "So we know this guy?"

Téa nodded, her cheeks coloring, "Yeah…But don't think for a minute I'm going to play a guessing game with you guys! I just wanted to let you know…because I'm through lying."

"Lying?" Duke asked, finally joining the conversation. Before, he'd been content just to listen and wonder about the dynamics of the odd group he'd recently become acquainted with—that or staring at Serenity.

Téa gulped, but nodded and continued to speak. "It was wrong of me to ask you guys to play along with me in getting Chieko to believe Kaiba was my brother. It was a stupid mistake…and I should have just said from the beginning…" She trailed off, and Mai's eyes widened. Was she going to admit her feelings for Seto Kaiba then and there?

"I mean, Chieko assumed, because of that day she saw Se–Kaiba and I walking together," Yugi's eyes narrowed, realizing Téa had almost referred to Kaiba as 'Seto,' a rather personal reference for a pair that supposedly wasn't really 'that friendly' with each other.

"And instead of correcting her, I played along. And worse, I asked you guys to play along too, saying I was going to set Kaiba up with her!" Téa squeezed her eyes shut. "But…I didn't. And if I had, I shouldn't have, because it's not my place to play matchmaker with anyone. I barely know Kaiba," which was the truth, "and I just met Chieko," also the truth, "so I quit while I was ahead. And I just wanted you guys to know. I'm going to tell Chieko the truth tomorrow morning."

The guys remained silent in the face of this revelation, but they nodded, appreciating Téa's honesty—except for why her crush had anything to do with setting Chieko up with Seto Kaiba. Of course, foremost in all their minds was the identity of Téa's mystery crush, but Joey and Tristan felt assured that they already knew **exactly** who it was.

* * *

"Yug', this is it!" Joey said the moment the girls were out of earshot. Mai, Serenity and Téa had split up from the boys to do some "girls-only" shopping of their own. Despite protests from Tristan and Duke, who both wanted to stay with Serenity, the girls refused, and went off to go shopping for clothes.

"What's it?" Yugi asked in a tired voice. Hearing that Téa was crushing on someone else—and the frightening possibility that maybe she was becoming friendly with Seto Kaiba—distressed the young boy, despite the reassuring tone in his best friend's voice.

"Didn't you hear what Téa was saying, dude?" Tristan chimed in, "The guy she's crushing so hard on—and can't stop thinking about—is someone we **all** know, and he's a friend."

"Not just any friend," Joey interrupted, "But someone who's close enough to her that she's not willing to risk her friendship with him over. Come on, Yug' it's **so** obvious!"

"Enlighten me," Yugi said blandly, not ready to believe whatever the guys were saying just yet.

"It's **you**!" Joey and Tristan yelled at the same time.

Yugi blinked, recalling Téa's expression. Her cheeks had pinked, her thoughts obviously on her crush, and she had looked so beautiful….

_'It–it's not possible!'_ For the longest time Yugi could remember, he had harbored a secret crush on Téa. When he'd met Joey and Tristan, he'd hoped that their "lessons" would help him get enough courage to tell Téa his feelings, but things had happened. Things like Pegasus and Duelist Kingdom. Like Battle City.

He'd never gotten around to it. Despite having more courage than before, especially with Yami encouraging him in almost anything Yugi endeavored….

But this was something different. Yugi was aware that Yami didn't understand this time or place, didn't completely understand Yugi's mindset. While he was positive that Yami **knew** about his affections for Téa, he wasn't so sure if the Pharaoh shared similar affections.

_'Probably not,'_ Yugi thought, but then, he didn't exactly know the Pharaoh that well—the Pharaoh didn't even know **himself** that well!

_'She _is_ beautiful,' _Yami's mental voice came, startling Yugi out of his reverie. Images of Téa floated in Yugi's mind, in Yami's as well—her effervescent smile, her brilliant blue eyes…

Yugi was on the verge of sighing when Joey and Tristan's words came back to him.

_'Me…?'_

"No way, guys.** No way**." Yugi shook his head vehemently. "Not a chance."

Joey and Tristan groaned, Tristan shaking his head in his hands.

"Didn't you hear her though? Who **else** would it be? Besides, she's known you the longest, and we all knew before you did that she was crushing on Yami—now this time she's realized, hey, one and the same," Tristan pointed out.

"She might be crushing on **me**," Duke put in, grinning.

Joey and Tristan glared, "Shut up, Duke!"

However, Yugi grinned at Duke's words, somehow finding comfort in the crazy impossibility of them. "It's more likely than me, at any rate."

Joey and Tristan shook their heads despairingly, groaning at Yugi's stubbornness and strange need to put himself down.

"What have you got to lose by trying for once, then?" Duke prompted suddenly. He was aware of Yugi's affection for Téa now, and, judging from her words earlier, it was likely that the person she liked was someone she was a close friend with.

_'I'm not stupid. I know that it's not me,' _ Duke told himself, _'Not that I'd mind, really, but my heart's set on Serenity.'_

"Huh? Duke?" Yugi queried, looking almost confused.

"Devlin's right!" Joey exclaimed, catching an odd look from the dice-master, "The chances are huge in your favor if Téa's crushin' on you. And if you're the one that takes the offensive—makes the first move—then you'll know for sure that she likes you!"

"What Joey's trying to say," Tristan interjected, "is that Téa's not going to be the one to tell you outright that she likes you."

"**If** she likes me," Yugi pointed out. Joey and Tristan rolled their eyes again.

"In any case," Tristan continued, "She pretty much said back there that her friendship with this guy—being **you**—" he said, as if there was no doubt whatsoever that the guy Téa referenced was indeed Yugi, "Was too precious for her to risk over a crush. But, if she finds out that said guy," Tristan pointed to Yugi, "likes **her** the same way, then everyone's happy!"

It sounded great—perfect, even—but Yugi just couldn't buy it. Maybe after so much time being told that he shouldn't trust others so quickly, he was beginning to doubt his own friends. He hated thinking that way, but in his mind, he was positive there was no way that Joey and Tristan could ever be right.

_'But if they're _not_,' _Yugi thought suddenly, _'then who _is_ Téa crushing on?'_

* * *

Téa didn't bother announcing herself when she got home from shopping that day. And it didn't matter, because neither Seto nor Mokuba were anywhere in sight. As far as Téa knew, Seto Kaiba was still holed up in his office, doing whatever it was that he did when he holed himself up in there.

She quietly ascended the stairs to her room and shut the door, intending to mull over her confusing thoughts and maybe get some sleep. She didn't need dinner, she didn't need talking to people, she just needed to sort things out.

Once and for all.

* * *

When Téa arrived at school Monday morning, the campus was apparently void of all life, despite the doors having being opened. When she walked into her classroom, the morning haze still filtered in through the windows, casting shadows about the classroom. Desks almost appeared to be skeletons of the morning, shadows of their long legs stretching out to curve against the walls of the class.

Téa's eyes were so fixated on the eerie morning scenery that she didn't notice someone sitting in the first row right near the door—until that person spoke.

"Good morning, Téa."

Téa's skeleton just about jumped out of her skin, and she gasped when she faced the speaker.

"Chieko! Wow, you're here early."

"As are you. You didn't arrive with…Seto?"

"No," Téa murmured, "I decided to walk on my own this morning. He and I…"

_'He and I what? I have to tell Chieko the truth, and now's a good as time as any…I can't say that we had some stupid sibling fight, because that's not it at all. I don't understand what happened between Seto and I, all I know is that I–I…'_

_'I love him.'_

It was a startling revelation to Téa, one she'd been trying to figure out the entire night before, and during her long walk to school. But it finally boiled down to its most simplistic form…

"You and he…?" Chieko prompted, wearing a secret smile. She pushed herself off the wall on which she'd been leaning, between two desks in the far right row of seats.

"We…um, had a misunderstanding, that's all," Téa murmured, embarrassed by this awkward situation. "Look, Chieko," she breezed on, trying to get the moment over and done with, "there's something I need to tell you."

"And something I must tell you, Téa," Chieko spoke up, looking up at the brunette from the chair she'd sat in.

Téa looked at her oddly; "What's wrong?"

Chieko smiled slightly, brown eyes flickering in the golden morning light, "I know you and Seto Kaiba are not related."

Téa blanched, her blue eyes widening to the size of saucers. "What—? I mean…how did you find out?"

"More like I've known for some time now. Initially, it is true, I thought you and he were related, which is why I said as much when I went running after you that second day at school," she explained, "but—and forgive me for this—I decided to do some research, and I found out what happened to your parents a short time ago."

"Oh," Téa said. She should have known! Chieko probably wasn't stupid enough to rely on what other people told her as her sole source of truth. _'Yet I thought she would…and I kept trying to trick her, trying to…I'm so horrible!'_

"Téa," the brunette was startled by Chieko's slender palm touching her shoulder, "I do not yet know why it is that you have been trying to convince me—and others—that you and Seto are related. I do understand that you have been living with him, likely because you have no other place to go, correct?" Téa nodded abysmally, her eyes downcast and clouded.

"But what I could see—from the very beginning—is that the affection you have for Seto Kaiba is not that of a sister for her brother."

Téa swallowed, looking up at Chieko. She knew. She knew everything. "You're right, it's not," she said, her voice a mere whisper.

Chieko leaned back in her seat, a satisfied smile blossoming on her pretty face, "Good! It's about time you admitted that!"

Téa blinked, gaping for a minute. "Waitasec…you–you knew that, all along? And you didn't…?"

"If you are wondering why I didn't mention anything, it is because I was having a bit of fun at your expense. And for that, I apologize. But truly, it was too much fun to see you force yourself into thinking of Seto in a different way, and his reaction to that."

"His reaction?" Téa grumbled, "Annoyed, confused, stupid: same as always." Her gaze dropped, remembering how Seto had pulled her into the darkness of the stairwell above the gym and the locker rooms, demanding to know why Téa had suddenly decided to pretend they were siblings.

But now that Chieko knew—no, had practically always known—the truth, it didn't matter. The other guys already knew that. She hadn't told them why she'd bothered to ensnare them in her little plan, **why** she'd gone to all the efforts of making both her own friends and Chieko believe that she was setting the latter girl up with Seto Kaiba…

_'Because I wanted to convince myself that _I_ didn't love him! That was my only reason, and it was stupid, and selfish and—and I didn't know what else to do. I was so afraid! I still am. How can I tell my friends…how can I tell Yugi?!'_

Even though Téa had tried so hard to come clean, she still kept much of her secret locked away inside her wounded heart. She couldn't risk it, she kept telling herself, not yet.

Chieko remained silent to that, thinking to herself that Téa was either blind to the small actions that led the blonde to believe Seto had some feelings in return for Téa…or she just had convinced herself—beyond the point of all reason—that Seto really didn't feel anything.

"Well then," Chieko finally said, "are you up for some friendly competition?"

Téa blinked, "Wh-What?"

"Friendly competition. It seems we are both after the same thing—drawing Seto from his shell. To be honest, there were not many boys like him in New York, and I find him…intriguing, I suppose. Interesting. I would like to propose a sort of challenge between the two of us."

Téa's eyes narrowed in suspicion, "With Seto as the prize?" She cocked her head slightly to the left; she wasn't ready—not for admitting the truth to her friends, and certainly not for openly pursuing Seto Kaiba. But wasn't that just what Chieko was suggesting?

"Perhaps. But this is more a competition to see who can get him to open up more. You, who has known him for all this time, or me—a newcomer." Téa didn't like the way Chieko seemed to be slanting the balance against herself, rather than in her favor. What was she trying to say, exactly?

But…_'If I at least try, maybe I can stop lying to myself. Stop lying to my friends. If it becomes obvious to them that Seto is the one…that I–that I'm in love with…then maybe there won't _have_ to be a painful confrontation about it.' _

Or such was Téa's hope.

"You're on."

* * *

Téa spent the lunch period—for once, without any of the boys—setting things up for the upcoming school festival with Chieko. Together, they'd talked to Ms. Misao, the gym teacher, and planned to make several colorful flyers, and speak to the gym classes they weren't in.

The two charismatic girls would take the school by storm, just in time for the festival!

It was difficult avoiding Seto Kaiba for the entire day though. Téa briefly wondered if he'd been at all curious—worried, even?—that she hadn't been there when he and Mokuba had left the house that morning. Had he even cared?

_'I can't think about that right now. I have to focus–focus on the upcoming festival, focus on fixing things with my friends.'_ It didn't matter that Seto Kaiba was the primary reason why Téa Gardner was having so many problems in the first place.

_'It's not _his_ fault that I fell in love with him,'_ Téa thought, the idea making her unusually upset. It was supposed to be a good thing—a wonderful thing—when you fell in love.

_'I've been reading too many sappy shoujo manga,'_ she decided, _'Life's never that easy, and love isn't either.'_

Originally, Téa's heart had been wounded by the obvious—that she wasn't in love with her own best friend, Yugi, but the spirit inside of him. And not just any spirit, but that of a 3000 year-old pharaoh, one who knew next to nothing about himself—let alone the modern world. Worse, when she'd finally realized that Yugi couldn't remain "two people" forever, and that one day, Yami, within him, would have to return to the afterlife, she'd also realized that her love would never come to fruition.

It had been a foolish love, a pointless one…and she hadn't even been aware for a moment that her feelings had been shared.

* * *

"You, me, gym. Afterschool," Téa stated, dropping her textbooks on Joey Wheeler's desk.

He looked up, startled, but smiled at her, grinning. "I take it you want those lessons now, eh?"

Téa nodded firmly, somehow disguising the intensity of her stress to even those that knew her well. "You bet!"

The bell signaling the end of school came only a short time later, and Téa said her good-byes to her friends—Yugi, Tristan, Duke, and Chieko—and left the classroom with Joey in tow. She did her very best to ignore Seto Kaiba and his gaze, pretending that she hadn't seen him at all.

Seto Kaiba, for his part, only got angrier at this turn of events—though it didn't show. He kept his exterior calm, cool, and collected, as always. Emotions equaled weakness, as he remembered his late 'father' telling him, and it was best not to let them get in his way. If Téa's idea of fun was to play mind games with him—confusing him, giving him much unneeded heartache, then he wouldn't play along. He wouldn't be a puppet for her own desires, if that was her intention.

Of course, a voice within Seto Kaiba told him that Téa would never do such a thing—would never string anyone along like that. She wasn't heartless, she wasn't…

_'__She's not like_ me_,'_ Seto realized uncomfortably, ignoring the ache in his chest as he watched Téa walk down the hall with Wheeler, not even casting a single glance back in his direction.

_'I–I don't deserve her anyway.'_ On the off-chance that Téa really did have some sort of feelings for him…_'Which she _doesn't_!'_ Seto told himself resolutely, collecting his things and getting ready to go. None of it mattered, anyway. Seto steeled himself.

_'It's not like I have feelings for _her_ anyway.'_

* * *

"Pays to have friends in the Kendo Club, huh?" Joey Wheeler cracked a smile as Téa stared, wide-eyed, at their surroundings. Joey had pulled a few strings with the captain of the Kendo Club, a friend of his, and borrowed some of the club's equipment.

He'd lugged out the punching bag the kendoists used to increase their arm strength, and brought out some pads to Téa to punch and kick, while she went into the girls' locker room and changed.

_'Ugh,'_ Téa thought while changing, her mood swinging again, _'I have such a headache. Must be that time of the month again.'_ Her annoyance quickly faded into anger, _'One week a month I wish I were a guy. No more mood swings, no more headaches or bloating—no more stupid…oh! Never mind!'_ Téa pulled her shirt on and stomped out of the locker room.

When she caught sight of all the gear, her eyes grew to the size of saucers.

"Uh, I said something about relieving stress, but isn't this a bit much, Joey?"

"Hey, now you can cover all your bases," the blond said proudly. He had no real need to change his outfit, but he had taken his school uniform jacket off, and he stood behind the punching bag, gripping it with a smile on his face.

"Actually," he said, stepping from behind the bag, and towards Téa, "we gotta cover somethin' else first."

Téa swallowed, _'This isn't going to turn into an interrogation session, is it? Joey's one of the _last_ people I'd want to know that I…'_

"If there's one thing I've learned, it's that chargin' headfirst into a fight ain't the smartest thing to do. And since you just wanna reduce your stress, then what you gotta do is be calm and relaxed first—as much as possible—before you charge forward and blast the hell outta this punchin' bag here."

Téa blinked. She hadn't been expecting that.

"Stretch," Joey demonstrated, putting both arms behind his neck and holding both arms with his hands, arching his back and stretching on his toes.

Téa, having experience with dancing, knew that stretching was important before any workout session, and quickly followed through with her own stretches—but it wasn't long before impatience worked its way into her system, and she finished, waiting for Joey to get on with it.

"Don't be lookin' so eager over there," Joey admonished, though the expression on his face was humored. "Like I said, rushin' headlong into anythin' only gets you hurt."

"Yeah, well," Téa started, cracking her knuckles, "I have stress to burn. I don't mind."

Joey blinked, surprised, but nodded in assent. He walked Téa over to the side of the gym, where he'd brought out some dusting powder and wraps for Téa's hands—if she was to go all out on any sort of punching bag or pads, she'd need protection for her hands, especially since the Kendo Club didn't have boxing gloves.

Téa quickly wrapped her hands and dusted them, ready to channel all her negative energy into a series of hard blows.

"All right, let's do this." Téa said, standing up with a determined expression on her face. Joey didn't say anything, he just took his position behind the punching bag and let Téa have at it.

* * *

It hardly seemed enough of a workout for Téa when Joey announced they'd have to call it quits; he had to get to his job. Working as a courier, he hardly had time to spare, since deliveries had to be made quickly. Téa wished she could have found a way for him to stay longer, train her more—teach her more moves—but there was simply no way.

_'Guess I'll have to settle for dancing at home or something,'_ Téa thought. She wasn't too keen on the idea of going home. But hadn't Seto said something about a gym in the basement? _'Maybe I can go there,'_ Téa thought, _'And there was that time in the security room I thought I saw some sort of other room down in the basement as well…'_

At the moment, Téa wanted nothing more than to cleanse herself of all the anger, all the hurt, all the pain, welling up so insurmountably inside of her…

* * *

Mokuba Kaiba's eyes were riveted to the screen, his right forefinger pressing hard on a button that froze the third screen from the top—on the left wall of the security room—from flickering its view to another room or angle.

What had captured his attention so was the fact that Téa—his Big Sister Téa—had found the gym downstairs in the basement not long ago, and, armed with her portable boombox from her room, had been working out, starting out on the treadmill and the step machine, but quickly moving on to more difficult pursuits, like the weight lifts.

But even that seemed to bore Téa, and it wasn't long before she attacked the rarely-used punching bag in the center of the room. She hadn't bothered to wrap or dust her hands, and the constant stream of punches turned her knuckles a visibly bright red, no doubt her skin turning rough and raw.

Out of the corner of Mokuba's eyes, he noticed a screen displaying the front door opening and his brother entering. He'd just come back from KaibaCorp., where he'd had another executive meeting with his senior staff.

"Big Brother," Mokuba said, his fingers flicking over to the controls for the main entrance speaker, "you gotta come to the security room, right now!"

Not having a way to respond, Seto Kaiba stared at the mirror, his fingers effortlessly finding the button, not even waiting for the gears to finish their cycle before he ducked under the rising 'door' and rushed upstairs.

When he got to the security room, he was greeted by the amused smile of Charles—and the unwavering gaze of his little brother—though the smaller boy's eyes weren't focused on the entering Seto Kaiba at all. The elder brother didn't waste any time glancing up to see what held his little brother's attention so—and why he'd thought it an emergency, judging by the tone of his voice from a minute ago.

When he saw what was on the screen, his jaw almost dropped. Téa Gardner, practically demolishing his punching bag—going at it with an intensity and ferocity like he'd never seen in her before.

"She's been goin' at it for over an hour now," Mokuba finally said, "and I didn't see her wrap her hands like you always do, Big Brother. I think one of her hands is bleeding." He squinted, staring at the screen. Téa's movements now were too quick for him to make anything out.

Seto's trained eyes followed every movement, every position Téa launched herself into, focusing on her face. He watched it her eyes shine with determination, flicker with doubt, and then, though it was only for an instant before she turned away from the camera's view, tears tracking down her face.

"Don't you think we oughta go down there and help her or something?" Mokuba asked, finally looking away from the screen. Seto paused a moment, watching Téa grab a towel and wipe herself off before walking towards the front of the gym, her boombox set on a chair.

Téa stretched for a brief moment, giving the camera a perfect view of her limber body, clad in a white tanktop and black biker shorts. Seto found himself swallowing from a suddenly dry mouth, his eyes now fixated on the screen as Mokuba's had been.

"Wait." He stretched one arm out to Mokuba, who looked ready to dash down to the basement and stop Téa from whatever it was she was doing—whether it was simply working out or some form of self-torture, Seto Kaiba couldn't tell.

Music flared in the once-quiet room, filtering through the speakers in the security room, though they weren't that good.

"Transmit the audio from the gym into the headset jack on this console," Seto directed Charles, who swiveled in his chair, pressing buttons on the rear panel and quickly throwing his employer a headset.

_ **All the things she said  
All the things she said  
Running through my head  
Running through my head  
Running through my head  
** _

Meanwhile, in the basement, Téa took a deep breath and tried to keep herself calm. She knew she was being brutal to herself; she could feel the pain snaking its way up her arms from her hands. They burned, they itched, they bled and stung, but she had to keep going, because she wasn't tired yet, wasn't burned out yet, and still felt that ache in her chest…

The lyrics of the particular song her CD player had chosen at random didn't help with things any. The popular song, written by two Russian girls who called themselves "t.A.T.u," spoke to Téa in ways that no one could have interpreted.

_ **All the things she said  
All the things she said  
Running through my head  
Running through my head  
All the things she said  
This is not enough (enough, enough, enough)** _

_"…the affection you have for Seto Kaiba is not that of a sister for her brother."_

Téa couldn't get Chieko's words out of her head. Ever since she'd announced that morning that she'd known—for a while, now!—that she and Seto weren't brother and sister, a whole new plane of fright instilled itself in Téa's mind.

Chieko wanted a competition. For Seto. Because she knew that Téa liked Seto as more than a friend, as more than a 'sister.' She'd known all along, even while Téa was still denying it.

** _I'm in serious shit, I feel totally lost  
If I'm asking for help it's only because  
Being with you has opened my eyes  
Could I ever believe such a perfect surprise?_ **

Worse, Téa kept remembering Mai's words.

_"Once you stop lying to yourself about how you feel, it won't matter what other people think!"_

_'And that's all I've been doing these past two days. Ever since the trip to the beach…when Seto said he wanted me to be the only girl in his life. But this is—this is Seto Kaiba! Why? I don't…'_ Confusion muddled her thoughts, and it showed in her movements, as they became jerky and unfocused, almost slipping back into fighting moves.

** _I keep asking myself, wondering how  
I keep closing my eyes but I can't block you out  
Wanna fly to a place where it's just you and me  
Nobody else so we can be free (nobody else, so we can be free)_ **

It was a nice thought…to think that maybe, just maybe Seto liked her. But why would he?

_'I'm sure he's just been nice to me all this time. And while we've had fun, I can't pretend that I've been his friend for years. I wasn't lying when I told the guys that I barely know Kaiba. How can I even think I'm in love with him when that's the case?'_

** _All the things she said  
All the things she said  
Running through my head  
R_ ** _ **unning through my head  
Running through my head** _

All the thoughts were giving Téa a headache, and she swung her palms up to her head, letting them hover just off her brow, bobbing her head slightly as she danced, her movements sharp as knives. Precise movements cut the air, her arms straightening to slice through the room as if she were fighting an invisible opponent.

_ **All the things she said  
All the things she said  
Running through my head  
Running through my head  
** _

If anything was running through Téa's head at the moment, it wasn't her dance moves. It wasn't even Mai's words, or Chieko's words. Rather, she couldn't pull her thoughts from Seto Kaiba, and from how he'd come to mean to her, ever since her parents died. How he'd suddenly transformed in Téa's mind, once the reticent, introverted CEO, but becoming a silent, maybe even scared young man with a past. And a determination for the future.

_ **All the things she said  
This is not enough (more, more)  
This is not enough (all the things she said)** _

_'This _isn't_ enough,'_ Téa thought, feeling her eyes well with tears again. She was sweating droplets now, but she didn't care. Didn't stop, didn't want to bother with any of it.

_'I can't keep on lying, no matter what the circumstances. Maybe it's just lust, or maybe it's something more…and maybe it's one-sided, but if I keep trying to bottle this up, trying to deny what I really feel, then I'm only going to destroy myself from the inside out. And then…'_

And then what? Not even Téa knew. But she knew that it wasn't enough, just to keep pretending. To keep lying. Not just to herself and her friends, but to Seto as well.

_'I just want to keep going. To keep moving, to keep living…'_ She swung her body around to the music, bending to the techno chords of the song's bridge. This was the best place to do that: de-stress, think, relax, work out. There'd been a smaller room on the way to the gym, but it was in horrible shape, with no barres and a poor concrete floor. It had probably been used for storage.

** _And I'm all mixed up, feeling cornered and rushed  
They say it's my fault but I want her so much_ **

"Wait," Seto's navy blue eyes narrowed, seeing Téa's mouth move, presumably singing along with the lyrics, "Can you increase the microphone volume? Focus it on the ambient sound, rather than the music?" Charles played with the controls for a moment, but shook his head, "The speaker in the gym is too close to the source of the music for the pickup level to be altered, sir."

_'What is she saying?'_ Seto wondered, noticing that Téa's lips were not moving in synch with the song.

_'I'm all mixed up, feeling cornered and rushed,  
I know it's my fault, but I want him so much…'_ Téa replaced the lyrics in her mind, hardly aware that she was mouthing the words of her own imagination as she danced.

** _Wanna fly her away where the sun and rain  
Come in over my face, wash away all the shame_ **

_'Wanna fly us away, where the sun and the rain  
Come in over my face, wash away all this pain…'_

She wanted to tell him. More than anything, she wanted that hurt look in his eyes—the expression from that Sunday from the beach—to disappear. She wanted him to smile. To not search her eyes for something she couldn't provide him with…

** _When they stop and stare, it don't worry me  
'Cause I'm feeling for her what she's feeling for me_ **

_'Well, they'll stop and stare, and it'll worry me  
Yet I'm feelin' this way, does he feel it for me?'_

"Damn," Seto cursed aloud. She was impossible. Her movements were jagged, suddenly flowing and graceful, the next minute sharp and jagged—almost like she were fighting something none of them could see. She never stayed still long enough for Seto to even try and read her lips (an ability he had never **quite** mastered).

"Big Brother?" Mokuba questioned, still ready to dash outside and 'help' Téa.

Seto shook his head, "I don't think this is something either of us can help her with."

_ **I can try to pretend, I can try to forget  
But it's driving me mad, going out of my head** _

_'This isn't going to work,'_ Téa realized, suddenly catching her reflection in the mirrors that walled the gym space. She watched as if her body were out of her own control, twisting and moving as though she were merely a marionette on someone else's strings.

The headache was worsening, the memories intensifying, the ache increasing to a throb in her chest.

** _All the things she said  
All the things she said  
Running through my head  
Running through my head  
Running through my head  
_ **

_'All my friends…I wish I could trust them enough to tell them what I'm really feeling…that this isn't just some crush. This is–this is what I felt for Yami, initially. This is me already knowing about all of Seto's bad points, and this is me accepting him. Wanting–wanting more.'_

_ **All the things she said  
All the things she said  
Running through my head  
Running through my head  
All the things she said  
This is not enough (more, more)  
This is not enough** _

_'How can I keep living here, under his roof, as his _employee_, if this is the way I feel? If–if I can't even look at him without remembering what happened on the beach? Remembering how his hands felt on my skin…'_ As if he were almost there, right behind her, his hands on her, and she wasn't even wearing her tanktop anymore.

A shiver ran down her spine, freezing her in place.

_ **All the things she said  
All the things she said** _

_ **All the things she said  
All the things she said** _

_ **All the things she said  
All the things she said  
All the things she said** _

_ **All the things she said  
All the things she said  
All the things she said** _

_****_Téa swallowed, looking up at the mirror and suddenly feeling compelled to walk towards it, to see herself—her real self, with her feelings bared—for once.

_ **Mother, looking at me  
Tell me what do you see?  
Yes, I've lost my mind** _

Téa reached a trembling hand out to the mirror, for a moment, seeing her mother's reflection staring back at her. Sad blue eyes met Téa's own, a silent gesture of disapproval.

_'A dancer, Téa?'_ Her voice was filled with disappointment.

_ **Daddy, looking at me  
Will I ever be free?  
Have I crossed the line?** _

Téa swirled towards the mirror on the opposite wall, closing her eyes for a moment before touching her hand to the glass, seeing her father staring back at her. He was shaking his head, telling her no, that she was wrong, that **it** was wrong…

_'I've been so tempted to give up so many times…I've been on the edge of so many things, and now, I'm about to jump. Really take a chance, and risk it all. My friends, my sanity, God, even my heart! I don't want it to be broken again…'_

Losing her parents had hurt. More than realizing she couldn't love Yugi the way she had loved Yami, even though they were in one body. Maybe even one soul. And now, the possibility that she'd be throwing all that away—on a whim, perhaps?—wasn't it crazy? Wasn't she losing her mind?

_ **All the things she said  
All the things she said  
Running through my head  
Running through my head  
Running through my head  
** _

Téa swung herself back to the center of the area, opening her mind to the lyrics again and moving her body smoothly. She stretched one arm outwards, reaching toward the imagined spirit of Mai. Téa brought the arm back into her, touching her damp palm to her left breast and sliding it down her stomach. She turned on the balls of her feet, stretching her other arm out towards her vision of Chieko. On the beat, she brought both arms from her sides up to her head, closing her eyes as she bobbed her head, the throbbing inside pulsing to the beat of the music.

_ **All the things she said  
All the things she said  
Running through my head  
Running through my head** _

_ **All the things she said  
This is not enough (more, more)  
This is not enough** _

_'This_ isn't _enough. Won't ever _be _enough. I–I have to tell him. Someday…'_

_ **All the things she said  
All the things she said  
All the things she said** _

_ **All the things she said  
All the things she said  
All the things she said** _

* * *

Téa didn't waste any time once the song finished, to gather her things—the boombox and a moist towel—and headed upstairs. She didn't spare a thought as to the whereaboutsof either Mokuba or Seto, but she smiled, thinking that she no longer had a reason to hide from them anymore.

No reason to run.

_'I thought I wasn't ready to pursue Seto openly, but maybe that's just what I need to do. And maybe I'm crossing the line, maybe I'm chasing a shadow of hope…but it's worth the risk.' _From long ago, she remembered a rare Seto Kaiba smile. She wanted to see that again….

* * *

Seto Kaiba couldn't take his mind off her. Even though it had been a good half hour since Téa had left the gym—and he and Mokuba had emerged from the security room, their minds muddled—he still didn't know what to think.

He had been entranced by her movements, shifting from one form to the next. One moment, fluid and smooth, tempting in so many primal ways, the elder Kaiba didn't care to admit. The next moment, sharp and cutting, a jagged fighting style that seemed out of place with Téa as its user. Welcoming and inviting one moment, warning and abruptly destructive the next.

But what haunted Seto Kaiba the most was that moment—that one split second—when he'd seen her cry. First, he'd watched with amazement as she'd pummeled his expensive punching bag—with her bare hands, no less—and the next, dance her heart out, her emotions so raw and pure…

_'I wish I knew what she was thinking. What she was feeling…'_ Of course, had Seto Kaiba been able to do that, he would have called himself God's Gift to Women and lived the high life. But, since he was just a "normal" guy, he had to settle with finding things out the hard way—which was something Seto Kaiba did **not** like having to do.

* * *

Téa's eyes paused as she entered the living area from upstairs, her eyes catching on the CD player. She still had her other CD in there, and even after her shower, Téa still felt anxious. While her previous session of dancing hadn't actually given her the relaxed feeling she needed, Téa felt that she was in the right mood to at least try.

_'Besides,'_ she smiled, flicking the stereo controls on, _'At least I won't be getting sweatier. I'm all clean now, and I'll only dance one song…'_

** _Nobody on the road  
Nobody on the beach_ **

_'This song…'_ Téa closed her eyes and let herself flow with the song, willing her body—and her chaotic mind—to relax. Despite the tensing of her muscles from her workout, they'd relaxed somewhat in the shower. Not completely, of course…

Her current predicament was too clear in her mind.

** _I feel it in the air_ **

How could it not be, when all things Kaiba surrounded her, from every angle, every side? She lived with him. It wasn't as if she were his next door neighbor, or even his classmate anymore, or even the girl who saw him duel her best friends. They had an odd relationship, one that left Téa yearning for something more.

** _The summer's out of reach  
Empty lake, empty streets  
The sun goes down alone_ **

She remembered the beach. Only too well.

The last of the summer heat, the brilliant sun that never seemed to last long enough. Warm sun, soft sand…smooth hands running over her back, lulling her into a dreamless, albeit short, sleep.

** _I'm drivin' by your house  
Though I know you're not at home_ **

Téa spun in a circle, opening her eyes for a brief moment while her mind conjured up memories of what was most assuredly a happier time: a time when her emotions weren't so frazzled, and she wasn't so ready to beat herself into a pulp for wanting what she "couldn't" have.

That was when her blue eyes alighted on three pictures, innocently positioned above the mantle, the same ones Téa had seen the shadowed outlines of during her first night at the Kaiba mansion. She'd never taken the time to look at them. Though the song was still playing, Téa moved towards the pictures.

A young boy with chocolate-brown hair and the unmistakable midnight blue of Seto Kaiba's eyes. Him—as a youth, as a child. So wide-eyed to the world…

On one side, a smiling woman with a shining face, ebony hair tumbling down her shoulders in soft waves. Her belly was round with child—Mokuba—Téa realized. This was their mother. And on the other side of young Seto, a handsome, older man, with hair a similar shade of brown as his young son's. He too, was smiling, his arm wrapped around his wife's shoulders, while her own pale hands rested on her son's shoulders.

_'This was what Seto's life was meant to be like. He didn't deserve to have that happiness taken away from him at such a young age…no one does.' _

Téa amazed herself sometimes with her resilience—she couldn't ever see herself becoming what she'd always known Seto Kaiba as. She could never be ruthless, callous, or so blind to emotions that she'd block them out entirely—for years and years.

_'But he's _not _really like that,' _Téa knew, _'What happened to him shaped him into who he is…or was.'_ He had changed since Téa first met him. She didn't know how or why or when, but…

The next picture was just young Seto with his mother. He sat on her lap, despite the swell of her belly preventing the child from snuggling up against her as any other child would. But young Seto looked quite content where he was. Still, there appeared to be a trace of sadness in his eyes, in contrast to his childlike smile.

His mother was in a wheelchair. She looked paler, and her hair was stringier than it had been in the last photo. She still looked happy—proud—but there was hurt, weakness—pain—in her eyes.

_'She knew,'_ Téa realized, _'She knew that she was dying.'_

And maybe young Seto had known this as well, but as a child, so happy and free, he didn't want to believe it.

The final picture: it featured a distinctly sadder Seto, sitting in his father's arms. Nestled in the crook of the older man's arms, there was a small baby with bright blue eyes and a smattering of dark hair.

After that, there was nothing else. No other pictures, no trace that Seto had ever even had a childhood after that point. With a sinking heart, Téa remembered Mokuba's words from the first night she'd stayed in the Kaiba mansion; _"Mom died when I was born."_

The boy had been trying so hard to hold back his tears, to hide what was undeniably sadness. He'd never known a mother. Never had that comfort. And he'd only been three years old when he'd lost his father to an accident. His brother had to become his father, and everything had changed…

_'How can I pretend to be a part of this family? To be part of either of their lives?' _Téa sighed, closing her eyes and drifting back into the rhythm of the music_. _She knew that she didn't—couldn't, and probably wouldn't ever**—****belong** in the Kaiba home.

_ **But I can see you—  
Your bare skin shinin' in the sun** _

Did it matter where Seto Kaiba was, right at that moment? Did it really matter that so much of Téa longed to have his touch on her skin again? It was an insane, delirious thought. Bordering on hormonal. Téa had noticed cute guys before, admired male models, and been a normal teenage girl…but something was different about this. About now.

She remembered first seeing him after he'd pulled his shirt off at the beach and how, if the feeling had to be described, it was something like her heart leaping up from her ribcage and into her throat. A feat of biology and anatomy, to be sure.

_ **You got your hair combed back and your sunglasses on, baby** _

He was so different from the rigid, unfeeling boy—no, man—she'd grown to know the past year, from Duelist Kingdom up until Battle City. He was different at home, than he had been in duels, than he was at school….

_ **And I can tell you my love for you will still be strong  
After the boys of summer have gone** _

_'And it feels like that was so long ago…'_ Yet, it hadn't been. It was only two days ago. But it felt like months. There was a distance that had inserted itself between Seto Kaiba and Téa Gardner—one Téa had placed there on her own—and it stung with each passing day. Every day, Téa, returning to what had become her 'home,' but was undeniably not.

_ **I never will forget those nights  
I wonder if it was a dream  
Remember how you made me crazy?  
Remember how I made you scream** _

But what she kept going back to in her mind, over and over, even as she moved around, her arms rising as she danced, her body flowing to the music, was that night.

_"How can you…do that!? Pretend to be happy, or smile the way you do, after everything you've been through!? Have you forgotten that your parents are _dead_!?"_

Stinging words. Arrows aimed for her heart, dipped in poison that burned her from the inside. Or was that heartache, from something else?

_ **Now I don't understand what happened to our love** _

Perhaps it was from knowing that there was no 'our,' like the song said. After all, Téa knew that Seto Kaiba was devoted to his company, and devoted to his brother. He didn't take time out for silly things or silly people….

_'Like me…'_

_ **But babe, I'm gonna get you back  
I'm gonna show you what I'm made of** _

_'If I ever had his attention—maybe at the dance, maybe at the beach—if he _ever_ thought of me as something other than Mokuba's tutor, as some sort of friend, then I want to know. I _have_ to know.'_

_ **I can see you—  
Your bare skin shinin' in the sun  
I see you walkin' real slow and you're smilin' at everyone** _

Though it had been a long time ago, she remembered his smile. Something so simple had ended up being one of Téa's most precious memories.

_'Even after everything that's happened…all that I've lost and will never have again, I can't just forget that. This Seto Kaiba I know isn't the same as the one I first met. He's changed. And I really like this Seto Kaiba. I might not know a lot about him, but what I do know makes me want to learn more.'_

_ **I can tell you my love for you will still be strong  
After the boys of summer have gone** _

_'It–it doesn't matter when everyone finds out,'_ Téa realized, a smile blossoming on her face, even as she continu

ed to dance, stretching her arms out as if to embrace something—perhaps the invisible warmth of the disappearing summer heat.

The song had reached a bridge, with a fast tempo and trance-like instrumentals. Téa danced, her body curving and sliding to the music, even as the tempo slowed and the next verse started up.

_'If this–if this is really _love_ and I really end up going after him, then they'll understand. They're my friends, and we've always stuck by each other. No matter what. Nothing's ever torn us apart before. Not mind-control, not dueling one another…not anything.'_

_ **Out on the road today, I saw a Dead Head sticker on a Cadillac  
A little voice Inside my head said, "Don't look back. You can never look back."  
I thought I knew what love was  
What did I know?  
Those days are gone forever  
I should just let them go but—** _

Yet something inside Téa reminded her of him.

A painful image of his figure, lean and imposing beside her, radiating with an intimidating aura that her best friend couldn't ever possess.

"He" was Yami. "He" was also Yugi, but somehow, in some way…**not** Yugi. He was her best friend, but not. For while her best friend was sweet, endearing…painfully shy, and perhaps too sympathetic towards others, his other half was incredibly mysterious. He didn't know himself at all. Only that he was the spirit of an ancient pharaoh.

And being that Téa had fallen for **him**, and not her best friend, presented problems.

It had hurt, watching him duel, watching the plot thicken and the web tangle. More and more people wanted something other than star chips or rare cards. They wanted the puzzle, they wanted Yugi's soul, they wanted…

_'Something I can't even begin to understand.'_

_ **I can see you—  
Your bare skin shinin' in the sun** _

What Téa did understand, though, was that it was something other than mere attraction that had led to her feelings for Seto Kaiba. She'd noticed him of course, but had never thought of hm **that ** way…not until now.

Not since she'd gotten to know him, started to recognize the touch of his hands on her skin….

_ **You got the top pulled down and radio on, baby  
And I can tell you my love for you will still be strong  
After the boys of summer have gone** _

Téa froze, closing even as she brought her arms to her sides and her legs together again. She could feel it again.

Feel **him**.

How could such a mundane sensation as touch have such a rippling effect on her whole mind, body, and soul?

_ **I can see you—  
Your bare skin shinin' in the sun  
You got that hair slicked back and those Wayfarers on, baby  
I can tell you my love for you will still be strong  
After the boys of summer have gone** _

She could still see him, from that day at the beach.

Could smell the sunscreen on his skin, even as her hands ran over his back.

She could still hear his words, hear the desire laced in his voice…from that night after the Ball.

Could still taste the alcohol on his lips, crushing against hers.

Trembling fingers brushed against her lips, but Téa made a quick and silent resolution not to think about **that**. It was a secret…only Mai really knew the truth. But Téa was doing her best to forget about it, because Mai had been right: it hadn't been how Téa wanted her first kiss. Not with anyone, and certainly not with Seto, whom Téa found herself becoming more and more attracted to by the day.

She swung her body around again, one hand reaching up towards the ceiling. Her abdomen protested painfully, a reminder of the bruise Téa noticed there during her shower. She wasn't sure how she'd gotten the purple mark, as she knew Joey hadn't hit her back during their 'training,' and she hadn't fallen or been hit by something hard enough to bruise.

But she hadn't thought about it much. As the song drew to a close, the vocals fading into the instrumentals of the earlier bridge, Téa struck her pose, years of dancing practice allowing her to remain still even after the song finished.

Téa was startled out of her post-dance reverie—and the thoughts the song had invoked in her—by applause.

Blue eyes snapped open as she whirled around, hairs clinging to her moist neck, damp with sweat.

"Se—" Téa started to say, surprise plain on her face—but she stopped. They weren't speaking. Well, they hadn't been, for almost two days now. She'd avoided him well enough on Monday, but now…

"Still not speaking to me?" Seto asked, leaning his elbow on the back of the couch. He sighed slightly, averting his gaze from Téa's. She blinked, looking down sadly. She was afraid and she knew it. She knew she had to tell him—tell him that she **wanted** to be the only girl in his life, wanted to explain why she'd been so foolish in trying to set him up with Chieko, but…

"I'm—" Téa began, immediately catching his attention. She wasn't sure what she'd been about to say. Words had been on the tip of her tongue, but the moment his eyes met hers, they failed her, disappearing into the fading day.

There was a pregnant pause between the two teens, just staring at one another, blue clashing with blue.

"You're good. At dancing, I mean," Seto finally said.

Téa blushed at the compliment, remembering his sudden and genuine applause. "I–I want to dance, when I'm older. I mean, join a company or something…"

"I remember," Seto nodded slightly, sliding around the armrest of the couch to sit on it, eyes meeting hers, "You—or someone—saying something about New York."

Téa smiled slightly, "Juilliard. My dream."

"Still going to go for it?" Seto asked curiously. New York was pretty far away, not to mention the schools there—especially Juilliard—cost a fortune. Not to say tuition in Japan was cheap—it **wasn't**—but American schools had been undergoing a financial crisis as of late, and Seto Kaiba was glad he didn't have any parents dictating that he go to one, unlike the unfortunate heir to the Maple Hotel chain.

Téa swallowed, remembering the illusory faces of her mother and father from downstairs in the gym. Disappointed. Sad.

_'I–I was just imagining things!'_

"Yeah!" She smiled brilliantly, thinking _'They would have wanted me to be happy, wouldn't they?'_

"I am!"

There was a mutual feeling of pain between Seto and Téa then, though neither admitted it aloud.

Téa realized that it had always been her dream to dance. It had lasted the years, lasted the trials and troubles that had been thrown her way. The larger-than-life destinies of her friends, their battles and duels…It would last no matter where Téa lived, who she lived with, or who she loved.

_'Above all else, it's dance I love. More than anything…more than anyone.'_

Seto's ache came from the sudden realization that, no matter what his chaotic thoughts about Téa said, he would never have her. Even if his jealousy really was, in fact, attraction, and even if that attraction turned into something else, he couldn't have her. Not the way he wanted. She had dreams—bigger than himself, bigger than the house, even bigger than Tokyo. Her dreams were someplace else.

Not with him.

"Your hands," Seto Kaiba said, breaking the silence, rising from the couch. Even after her shower, it looked as though Téa hadn't tended to her hands, and her now-bruised knuckles had begun bleeding again.

Téa glanced down at them, slightly surprised, and even more startled when Seto gently grabbed her one hand and led her into the kitchen, pulling a first aid kit from one of the lower cabinets.

His hand still held hers, even as they sat down at the kitchen table and Seto used his free hand to rifle through the small box and pull out some gauze and medical tape, searching for some alcohol swabs.

"Doesn't it hurt?" he finally asked, eyes meeting hers.

Téa found herself staring into the endless fathoms that were Seto Kaiba's eyes, unable to form a coherent answer. When—better yet, why—had Seto Kaiba gained such control over her? Over her every sense, her every thought?

She only nodded dumbly, eyes widening as Seto brought her knuckles to his lips and gently kissed them. His eyes never left hers, blue meeting with blue. His eyes weren't moving, not searching for something as they'd always seemed to before.

_'Oh my god, what does he think he's doing?'_ Téa swallowed, _'What is he thinking? What am I…'_ Fire raced through her veins, the pain in her hands suddenly a distant memory. Her whole body heated up, and she was sure her cheeks were bright red by then.

But by the time Téa's thoughts had worked themselves into some semblance of sense, Seto's gaze had dropped from hers. The romantic—almost intimate—moment had disappeared into time, and now he was holding her hand up while wrapping it with some bandages.

"Next time you decide to punch the living daylights out of a punching bag," he said, no trace of emotion in his voice, "Wear wraps. It's not smart to ruin your hands."

Téa nodded dumbly, swallowing the lump that had formed in her throat, "I'll do that."

Once her hands were wrapped, Seto stood up from his chair, his hands abruptly sliding off Téa's. Her hands felt the immediate lack of warmth, and her skin—the whole of her body—protested mightily.

"Wait!" Téa finally managed, pushing herself out of her chair as well, catching Seto Kaiba's attention just before he exited the kitchen and rounded the corner into his office.

"Um, I…" Words failed her again.

_'What was I going to say? Would I have had enough courage to ask him, when I had the chance, "What are you thinking?" when he kissed my hands? Enough courage to admit that I…'_ But of course not. How could she ever tell him—to his face?

"I was wondering. I–I've got…this bruise," Téa hesitantly lifted her tanktop, revealing the oddly-shaped purpling bruise on her firm stomach, "I don't know where I got it from. This is an odd question, but…"

"The beach," Seto said simply, as he turned around to face Téa. She blinked in confusion.

"What? I don't get it. All that sand you piled on me wouldn't have made a weird bruise like this…" She traced her finger on the bruise, and realized with sudden embarrassment that she was barely concealing anything from Seto Kaiba anymore. Anything physical, at least. She dropped the hem of her tanktop and prayed she wasn't blushing as hot as she felt.

"No," his voice dropped a level, "when that wave hit us, you almost drowned."

_'I almost lost you.'_

"You were unconscious. You'd swallowed water, so I had to…force it out."

Téa's eyes widened. "What do you mean?" she asked, brows furrowing.

Seto couldn't bring himself to tell her that he'd hit her—tell her that he'd even said "hate me for this later." What if she did? He didn't know if he'd be able to live with that. Whatever it was he was feeling for Téa…he didn't want it to result in her hating him. The very thought scared him.

So he demonstrated the action, keeping his distance from Téa though, and dropping his gaze so he wouldn't have to see her face when she put two and two together.

And put two and two together Téa did. Quickly.

Curiosity and confusion turned into abrupt horror, and she cried out, "You **hit** me? Haven't you ever heard of the Heimlich maneuver?"

Seto did look up at that, a cynical expression on his handsome face. He rolled his eyes, leaning forward as he spoke, sarcasm plain in his voice, "That's for choking victims." But he wasn't about to tell her what one did to save the life of someone who swallowed water. You weren't supposed to whack them in the stomach like he had, at any rate…

"Well, whatever it's called for unconscious people that swallowed water—" Téa began, but was cut off by Seto's voice—though it had dropped in volume to an almost-whisper.

"Mouth-to-mouth," he said, eyes fixated on the floor now, an abrupt change from when his stare had penetrated her very core. "And I didn't want you to misinterpret anything—"

_'Didn't want to kiss her before you were both ready, that's what you mean, you _idiot_.'_ That annoying voice in Seto Kaiba's head was back. He hated it. He **never **questioned his instinct, always did what he had to do. He followed his gut, and thought himself stronger for it. But of course…

_'Where's the choir?'_ Seto wondered, rolling his eyes, though Téa couldn't see. Where was the synchronous trilling of voices, proclaiming what Seto Kaiba already knew too well: that where Téa Gardner was concerned, things were confusing!

Not even just a "little bit" anymore. A lot. A whole lot. A lot of aching, a lot of desire, a lot of unspoken words and confusing gestures…

"Didn't want me to misinterpret it as a kiss?" Téa shot back, crossing her arms over her chest. Why **now** was Seto Kaiba as easy to read as a book? Why not earlier, when–when…

"I didn't want to do anything before we were ready!" Seto practically shouted, his eyes meeting hers, even as they sparked with anger. He wanted to clamp his hand over his mouth, shoot himself in the foot for admitting what he'd been thinking.

How could she possibly misinterpret that? He'd practically come out and said that he wanted to kiss her, and yes, he did, but he hadn't wanted to **tell** her that!

Of course, her response wasn't what he expected.

"It's a little late for that!" And she abruptly stormed past him, her shoulder just barely grazing his arm as she ran past him, tears in her eyes.

She was already upstairs by the time Seto turned around to where she had been, his eyes marred with confusion.

"W–what?"

* * *

And so the game continued.

Its manner of play was simple: he avoided her; she avoided him.

Seto Kaiba remained inexorably confused, and for one reason or another, came up with various reasons not to speak to Téa and get the answers to his questions.

Like the one foremost in his mind ever since she'd said it…

_"It's a little late for that!"_

_'What did she mean?'_ Seto Kaiba mused absently. His thoughts tended to wander as of late, especially when there was hardly anything new happening where Téa was concerned. They avoided each other so diligently, had one not known better, any semblance of a relationship between the two—even living together—would have been called into question.

That one person, however, seemed to like the turn of events.

After all, Chieko smiled, it meant things were going in her favor.

* * *

It wasn't long before the day of the school festival arrived. Téa had been busy the past week, planning with both Chieko and the rest of the second year, class B students—at least, the ones that wanted to take part in the festival. Seto Kaiba was not one of them.

Part of Téa was disappointed—he knew how much work she was putting into the festival, and he hadn't gone his first year. Even if they weren't talking to each other, the least he could do was show up, right?

The second year, class B students had chosen their wildly successful idea from last year—carnival games. This time, though, they decided to have a wider variety of games, especially since the results of the previous year's festival had given them a bigger budget to work with.

After much convincing, Joey agreed to play the part of the pirate-in-the-barrel again, while Tristan lent his air rifle once more, though this time, boys in the woodshop had helped construct a board, painted as a clown, with falling teeth to shoot at. Duke agreed to have a Dungeon Dice Monsters-based game, in which players rolled dice on a blue-and-red painted board, trying to get certain crests to land on certain squares, to win points, and then prizes. The final game was a simple ring toss—using the school's massive collection of glass bottles as targets.

However, since Téa also had to juggle running the newly-formed dance club's booth as well, she left Yugi in charge of the Class 2B booth, switching shifts with other classmates every now and then.

Thankfully, it was free-dress that day, meaning you weren't required to be in uniform. Téa smiled, seeing many girls gather around the dance club booth, many in flared skirts, catsuits, and one—Miho Nosaka—in a kimono. For herself, Téa had chosen a sleeveless navy shirt, with lighter blue stripes crossing the fabric horizontally at her chest, and a pair of black capri pants with embroidery at the hems.

"Are we ready to get this started?" Téa winked, moving towards the stage the club had set up. With the hard work of several dedicated dancers—Chieko included—the girls had managed to set up a stage large enough for five or so people. The drama club had been kind enough to allow the usage of the auditorium speakers, which Téa hooked up to the stereo system in the fore of the stage.

On the left side of the stereo, a small table had been set up, with tables for four judges. On the right side of the sound system, a large box had been set up, with a roll of paper and a pen nearby. The table was set up for the judges—the gym teachers, Ms. Misao and Mr. Norimachi, the principal, Ms. Kawaga, and the vice-principal, Mr. Ryohoshi. And the box? For the fifth "judge"…the other students!

Each girl participating had taken a Polaroid earlier in the day, writing their name on the base of the photo. Each of these pictures was attached to a white board duct taped to the stereo system's cart, so that the student voters could look at the dancers and write down the name of those they thought were the best for each piece.

The winners of each round would continue to compete until there were only two dancers left, and the winner of that would win a prize. This was considered fair, even by the other dancers, knowing that Téa and Chieko had set everything up. After all, they were being voted on; it wasn't as if they could rig it to have them win.

"Hey, Domino High!" Téa jumped on the stage, taking a cordless microphone with her. "We're the brand new Domino High dance club, providing this festival with some fresh tunes and some hot competition! And we're about to get started!"

To Téa's surprise and pleasure, a cheer erupted from her schoolmates, many of whom looked enthused over there being music at the festival for once. Though it was an open festival, where anyone could visit, most attendees tended to be Domino High students. If they weren't involved in one club or another, they toured the whole festival, while the more active kids—like Téa—ran booths and tried to have fun.

"We have four wonderful judges, Ms. Misao, Mr. Norimachi, Ms. Kawaga, and Mr. Ryohoshi! The mysterious fifth judge is…**you**! Each round, we'll have five dancers on-stage competing in improvised dance to a random song! You pick the best three out of five, and they continue on to the next set! The final two dancers compete against one another for a big-time prize! And between rounds, we have individual dancers strutting their stuff to their own music!" Téa grinned, watching the girls of the dance club cheer.

Many were into ballet, while others preferred tap. Miho Nosaka was one of the rare modern school girls interested in the traditional art of enka dancing, or the rigid Japanese style of dancing in a kimono to koto music, oftentimes using a fan. Téa, Chieko, and several others liked many different styles, and planned to have fun, regardless of whether they won or lost.

It wasn't long before the judges pulled the first five names out of the bag they'd put the name-slips in—Téa and Chieko weren't among them. The five girls whose names had been pulled giddily got on stage, while Téa manned the stereo and waited for the song to begin.

* * *

Téa and Chieko got their names called in the second round, shortly after they'd both returned from the Class 2B booth to see how it was doing. While the dance club booth attracted a lot of attention, few people hung around for very long to watch an entire round, given that it tended to be at least 10 minutes long, and it wasn't exactly fun standing in place for such an amount of time, especially with the lure of games and food at every corner.

However, with the Dance Club president Téa and Vice President Chieko both on stage, peoples' attention seemed to get riveted. Yugi managed to catch a break from the carnival games booth long enough to wander over to the dance club stage, just as the song was beginning.

A guitar riff opened the unfamiliar song, and Téa grinned to Chieko, at her side. The blonde seemed to recognize the song just as well as Téa.

"Shall we invite one of our dear classmates to dance?" she asked, swinging her hips to the intro music.

Téa grinned, turning her attentions to the audience.

_ **Hey! Hey!** _

Téa shouted in unison with the music, extending an arm out to point. A familiar head of hair—attached to an equally familiar face—was walking by, and Téa wanted to get him on-stage.

** _Uh-uh-huh_ **

The boy blinked in astonishment at Téa, even as she gestured at him to come forward and onto the stage.

** _Hey!_ **

"You're going to regret this," Ryou Bakura smiled devilishly as he climbed on-stage, wearing black pants and a light blue T-shirt.

"Why's that?" Téa grinned, "Going to step all over my feet?"

"Quite the opposite, Téa," Bakura smiled, taking a position between Chieko and Téa on-stage, "but you'll see for yourself."

** _Uh-huh-huh_ **

_ **What I like about you** _

"You know the song," Téa murmured under her breath, as Bakura started to dance—the sole boy on-stage., though with the way he moved, he didn't look a bit out of place.

"I do," he responded, quickly placing his hands on Téa's waist as the next line came up.

_ **You hold me tight  
Tell me I'm the only one  
Wanna come over tonight?** _

Téa spun out of his light grasp and wagged a finger at Bakura, urging him to come closer to her. The boy could dance!

_'So this is what he meant when he said "quite the opposite," earlier…'_ Téa thought, still wearing her bright smile. _'Maybe it wasn't such a bad idea after all to get Bakura on-stage. And here I thought he was a wallflower in need of some attention! After all, when he's not all evil, he's pretty quiet…'_

Téa's smile didn't fade, but she did remember with rapid clarity that Bakura's "Yami" half could take over whenever he pleased. Was it possible she was dancing with him and not her classmate, the real Ryou Bakura?

_ **(yeah)** _

_'Doesn't matter,'_ Téa grinned, _'I'm having fun!'_

_ **Keep on whispering in my ear  
Tell me all the things that I wanna hear** _

She crooked her finger towards Bakura again, urging him to come to her, even as Chieko stretched out her arm and wound the white-haired boy towards her. Téa leaned forward, still moving her body, but this time she curved her hips towards Bakura and put her hand behind one of her ears, cupping it as if she wanted to hear some sweet whispers.

Playing along with the song, Bakura moved towards her again, but was quickly spun away from her by Chieko, who mimicked Téa's moves as if there were a competition between the two for Bakura's attentions.

_ ** 'Cause it's true (what I like)  
That's what I like about you (what I like)** _

Téa remembered her real competition with Chieko—the first to "get Seto to open up."

_'He's probably not even here,'_ Téa thought crossly. For a fraction of a second, she frowned, but dismissed the thought, _'I'm here to have fun!'_

Across from the stage, a good fifteen feet away, someone paused.

He felt awkward, out of place there. Loud music, bright colors—everything that made a festival **festive**. Why was he even there? Seto Kaiba could have been at KaibaCorp., working on one project or another, but for some reason, he'd felt compelled to stay for the festival that day.

Mokuba had urged him to go, actually, pointing out how dedicated Téa was to it, and, no matter what "stupid fight" (Mokuba's words) they'd gotten into, she'd appreciate knowing Seto cared enough to show up.

Not that he was about to announce his presence to her, especially with the fact that she was on-stage. Busy.

With Ryou Bakura.

Seto Kaiba's left eyebrow twitched.

_ **What I like about you  
You really know how to dance ** _

Téa pulled Bakura towards her, bending slightly at the knees and pointing a bent arm at Bakura. She winked at him, and on the second line of the new verse, Bakura slid an arm around Téa and bent her backwards, allowing her to stretch a slender leg up in the air, over his shoulder.

_ **When you go  
Up  
Down  
Jump around** _

It was only a flash of a movement later, and both of Téa's feet were again, planted on the ground as she moved along with the music, rising on the balls of her feet, bending down on her knees, and then springing into the air on cue, Bakura pressed against her, copying her movements exactly.

_ **Talk about true romance** _

Téa spun away from him, a hand on his chest acting as her force of movement, while she used her other hand to fan her face as if she were raging hot from their brief interlude. Judges and audience members alike laughed at Téa's skit, even as the other dancers continued._**  
**_

_ ** _ **Keep on whispering in my ear  
Tell me all the things that I wanna hear  
'Cause it's true (what I like)  
That's what I like about you (what I like)** _ ** _

Chieko spun by Téa's side now, allowing Bakura the chance to move with the other dancers. A few girls looked downright embarrassed to be dancing with one of their classmates—especially one who had seemed so quiet and introverted, and yet, was grooving on the stage with the best of them, clad in tight-fitting pants, no less!

It boggled the mind.

Especially Seto Kaiba's mind. The jealousy was back again, but this time, it wasn't directed at Téa. Rather, it was at Bakura, who continued to move across the stage as if he belonged there just as much as the girls.

The young CEO's gaze remained fixated on the stage, so much so that he didn't notice his own arch-rival Yugi Moto appear beside him.

** _T_ ** _ **hat's what I like about you  
(What I like about you) That's what I like about you  
(What I like about you) That's what I like about you** _

Yugi, like Seto and many other audience members, was quickly entranced by the dancing on-stage. A spark of jealousy flared within him, seeing Téa move against Bakura. For a moment, Yugi remembered Téa's admission of a crush.

_'It couldn't be Bakura…could it?'_

No, Yugi quickly amended to himself, not a chance. Téa was friendly to everyone, maybe even to people that didn't "deserve" it so much in Yugi's eyes, but who was **he** to tell her who to dance—or not dance—with?

_ **uh-uh-huh ** _

_ **hey! hey! hey! hey!** _

Téa and the other dancers faced the front now, singing along with the song and shouting out to the audience members as they moved. Still, it didn't seem as though she'd noticed either Yugi or Seto Kaiba, as far from the stage as they were.

_ **What I like about you (you, you, you)  
You keep me warm at night** _

Bakura was easily sandwiched between Téa and Chieko, with the former girl behind him. He extended both arms around the girls, a more difficult task for Téa, given that Bakura's arm could only bend backwards so far. They shimmied up and down briefly, then turned, allowing Bakura to grasp both girls around their shoulders.

_ **Never wanna let you go  
Know you make me feel all right** _

Yugi tore his gaze away from the stage, glancing up at Seto Kaiba. He still hadn't noticed Yugi. His eyes were riveted to the stage, Yugi realized. No, not on the stage…

On Téa.

** _Yeah…_ **

She had swirled around, a single hand held by Bakura, who pulled her into his embrace and just as quickly released her, allowing her to make a coy pose and lure the boy to her side, her hand cupped behind her ear.

_ **Keep on whispering in my ear  
Tell me all the things that I wanna hear** _

_"I–I have a crush!"_ Yugi remembered Téa's words, her admission accompanied by a faint blush on her cheeks and a smile tugging at her lips.

The picture of beauty.

Téa urged Bakura forward, Chieko by her side. The other three girls on stage stood behind the two leads, acting as "backup."

_ **'Cause it's true (what I like)  
That's what I like about you (what I like)** _

_'It…couldn't be!'_ Yugi thought, noticing that, for the first time, Seto Kaiba appeared to have an actual expression on his face. Clenched teeth, knit eyebrows…a distinct frown. He didn't like what he was seeing, but he wasn't about to look away. Not yet.

_ **That's what I like about you  
_**That's what I like about you**_  
_**That's what I like about you**_** _

Téa raised her head, smiling widely. The happy expression on her face didn't slip, even as she realized that her friends were in the distance, watching her. Yugi, standing a short distance from Seto….

Those impossibly dark blue eyes fixed to her body. Téa would have flushed with embarrassment, had she been standing still, but she kept moving, concentrating on her dancing.

_ **you you you** _

Téa grinned as she spun around again, extending her arm out and pointing to each of her friends—Joey, Duke, and Tristan appearing behind Yugi. They must have all taken a break from manning the Class 2B booth, she realized. She was glad to have their presence, their support.

_ **_**That's what I like about you**_…** _

** _Hey! Uh-uh-huh! Hey! Hey! Hey! Uh-uh-huh Hey!_ **

** _That's what I like about you _ **

** _Hey!_ **

The song came to a close, and the tired dancers clambered down the side stairs attached to the stage, smiling to one another. The judges were busy writing down their scores, while students clambered towards the "judge box" and voted for their favorite dancers in the second round.

Yugi, not noticing his own friends behind him, wormed his way into the crowd, hoping to get away from Seto Kaiba before the CEO realized that he'd been standing beside him.

_'There's no way,' _Yugi thought, pushing through the masses of people, _'Why Seto Kaiba!?'_

* * *

"T-Téa," Bakura smiled as they exited the stage, "I…"

"What is it, Bakura?" Téa was panting, her arms and legs stiffening as cramps set in.

"I…wanted to thank you. For bringing me up there."

"No problem," the brunette smiled. "Besides, you weren't kidding, you really **can** dance!" he winked. "Thanks for not stepping on my feet."

"I went clubbing…quite a bit in London," Bakura explained with a shy smile, "but there is something else I want to tell you."

"Hm?" she asked, sitting down on a few metal chairs scattered by the stage. She, and the other dancers from the second round, were awaiting the judges' final ruling on who would continue and who would not.

"It's been years since I danced. Since I **wanted** to dance." Bakura's eyes drifted to the ground, and Téa realized he looked a bit sad. "You remind me of someone,  
he finally said, looking up at Téa with a timid smile, "Her name was Amane."

Téa blinked. _'Bakura had a girlfriend?'_ She didn't know the white-haired boy enough to ask such a question aloud though, and waited for her classmate to continue. "She is—**was**—" Bakura corrected himself, his eyes drifting down again, "my sister."

Téa's eyes widened. _'_WAS_?!'_

"She passed away in a car accident many years ago. It–it's been hard, without her," he finally said, "but I've been getting by. I suppose she's the reason why I've been so obsessed in the occult," he chuckled wryly, while Téa sweatdropped.

"Thankfully, I've had my friends to help me through things," Bakura smiled up at Téa, "and I can't thank you enough for that."

Téa was silent a moment, pursing her lips as she tried to come up with the right words to say. Bakura cut her off before she could utter a word, however, placing a gentle hand on her shoulder, "She loved to dance, Téa. It was her dream. I wanted to see her realize that dream more than anything, because I knew it made her happy. And maybe now I realize that I can't ever get her back, but…I can still help others be happy, and realize their dreams."

_'He–he's talking about _me_, isn't he?'_

"You are a strong girl, Téa. I envy your strength. I envy your smile." Téa blinked, suddenly imagining Seto Kaiba sitting where Ryou Bakura was. But she knew he wasn't really there; she'd thought, for a moment, she'd seen him earlier, while she was dancing, but…

She blinked, dismissing the image, and the memory of Seto saying almost the same thing—that he wanted what she had—to her.

"I envy your dancing skills," Téa grinned, "But thank you. For–for everything. I know that stuff's always been weird," she gave Bakura a pointed look, referring to his Yami half within his Millennium Ring, "but we're friends."

"Always, Téa." Bakura rose to his feet, helping Téa up as the judges started to stand. "Good luck." They shared a brief hug and then Ryou Bakura disappeared into the crowd.

* * *

"Man, way to make things even more confusin'." Joey Wheeler groaned, shoving his vote for Téa into the box. Tristan, beside him, stroked his chin thoughtfully, nodding.

"Out of all people, Bakura? You don't think she really likes **him**, do you?" he asked, eyes widening. They'd been so sure earlier, when Téa admitted she'd been acting odd because of a crush she had on someone—a friend they all knew—that her crush was Yugi. But what if Yugi had been right, doubting himself the way he always did…and Téa's crush wasn't Yugi at all?

"Nah. S'not like she sees him enough or nothin'," Joey twisted his lips, thinking back. Earlier, while Téa had been dancing, Joey, Duke, and Tristan had come from the nearby Class 2B booth to see if she and Chieko were dancing. And dancing they were—with hundreds of eyes on them, judges, classmates, and visitors alike.

Yet Téa hadn't seem fazed in the slightest by the eyes of so many people on her. She'd just kept dancing, kept moving…with Ryou Bakura as her dancing partner.

It just made things more complicated.

"There's something I just remembered," Tristan interjected, "Back at the mall, Téa was awfully adamant about defending her boss, wasn't she?"

_"It's not like that! He–He's not like that at all. He's…nice."_

Joey nodded in agreement, "Yeah…that was kinda freaky, but didn't she say that he wasn't the reason she'd been actin' weird?"

"Could have been a simple excuse to throw you off," Duke spoke up, after shoving his own vote into the judge box. "You don't really think there's something going on between her and her **boss**, do you? That's sort of…sick."

Alll the boys had pictured Téa's boss as a fat, balding businessman in his late forties, with a rambunctious son that needed tutoring and attention from someone who could actually give it to him. True, the guy had helped Téa out during a tough time, giving her a home and a job, but…was their friend really the type to fall for someone like that?

"We don't even know who her boss **is**," Tristan pointed out, "Didn't Téa say **Kaiba** introduced them?"

Joey frowned, "That just makes things worse."

Suddenly, Duke looked enlightened, "Waitasec…why was Téa trying to set Kaiba up with Chieko in the first place, if she was crushing on her boss, and not Yugi?"

Joey and Tristan both turned to look at him, confusion plain on their faces.

"What I mean," Duke explained, "is that if she was so preoccupied with her crush, why was she trying to set Kaiba up with Chieko in the first place? What do either of them have to do with her crush?"

"Well, if she really **is **crushing on her boss," Tristan trailed off, trying to make sense of it all, "maybe she's trying to return Kaiba's favor of introducing them by setting him up?"

"Unlikely," Duke shook his head, "but I can think of another possibility." He grinned slightly, but faltered. Joey and Tristan wouldn't like this possibility very much. Duke didn't like it much himself either, but…

"Well, what is it?" Joey asked urgently. If Téa really **was **crushing on someone else other than Yugi and it was stressing her out to the point of wanting to fight, wanting to hurt others—or even herself!—then they had to know. If not for Yugi's sake, then for Téa's as well. Maybe the girl loved a bit too indiscriminately, and the pushy, overprotective girl they'd known their first year at Domino High was gone…

"What if her boss **is** Seto Kaiba?"

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> **OY VEY! It's out, dammit, it's out! I need a vacation…Or maybe that's my muse talking. In any case, my brain hurts.**
> 
> **Hey, I've figured out when this takes place: after Battle City, but before the Noah arc. I know that doesn't make any sense, but just pretend Battle City continued without the gang ever running into Noah. I'll bring him in later…maybe…*evil snickers* After all, how could it be a great Seto fic without Short, Evil, and Minty Fresh making a guest appearance? Mwahaha.**
> 
> **Okay, another reason this took so long to get out (aside from being a general pain in the tail) is that I came up with several other fic ideas…"Dragon Lore," Chapter 1 should appear soon, and an as-yet-untitled Noah-arc fic. Both S/T fics, of course. So once again, sorry!**
> 
> **Songs in this chapter: **
> 
> *** Boys of Summer - Don Henley/DJ Sammy/The Ataris (changed some lyrics to fit)  
> * t.A.T.u. - All The Things She Said (English Radio Edit)  
> * Lillix - What I Like About You (this was a a pain to get the right lyrics for) **
> 
> **I don't own the Chicken Soup series, of course, and I don't even know if there is a "Chicken Soup for the CEO's soul." That was a joke, obviously.**
> 
> **THANK YOU!!!!!!!!!**
> 
> **I love my reviewers so much, I name them all and respond to what they had to say personally. So please review! All my review replies are posted on my LiveJournal!**
> 
> **Have I mentioned how cool it is when I find out that my reviewers are also authors, and not just borin' ol' run -of-the-mill fic authors, but _GOOD FIC AUTHORS_?! YOU GO GUYS! (AND GIRLS)**
> 
> **~Azurite**


	8. 7B: Happy Birthday, Seto Kaiba

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> The school festival has finally arrived, and with it, some mysteries!

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> What Doesn't Kill You  
> Chapter 7B: Happy Birthday, Seto Kaiba  
> Version 3.5 - Song lyrics fixed, Yumminizer applied to fake French food, formatting fixes**  
> A Yu-Gi-Oh Fanfiction**  
> **By:** Azurite - azurite AT seventh-star DOT net  
> **Site: **seventh-star DOT net  
> **Conceptualized/First Written:** 10/26/03  
> **Completed/Posted:** 12/8/03
> 
> Sorry, Kaiba-sama!   
> Happy UBER-BELATED Birthday! Don't kill me!
> 
> **EDITED:** 7/18/04, 8/17/04, 12/5/05, 4/9/10
> 
> _ **Rated PG13/T for a bit of swearin'…** _
> 
> **Notes:** I finally got around to changing "Tea" to "Téa." I'll eventually get around to doing this for all the chapters; as it stands right now, I've made several revisions to ALL the chapters, but few of them are plot-wise. Still, if you're nitpicky or simply want to reread to get your facts straight, the revised versions should be up soon.
> 
> Visit my web site, subscribe to my Yahoo! Group to get faster updates, and remember, I don't own Yu-Gi-Oh!
> 
> * * *
> 
> **RECAP:** They've been keeping secrets, hiding their feelings, and avoiding each other. With the school festival in progress, Téa's friends are getting more and more suspicious of Téa's feelings for her mysterious crush. And with Seto Kaiba constantly on her mind, will Téa be able to crush her competitionor lose Seto forever?

** _Get a load of me, get a load of you, walkin' down the street, and I hardly know you. It's just like we were meant to be._ **

It was the third round of the dance club's competition, and Téa had opted to wander around the festival while she had the chance, the music flaring in the distance. She found herself half-wondering if she really **had** seen Seto Kaiba earlier, midnight blue eyes fixated on her as she danced.

A brief blush crossed Téa's cheeks, and she shook her head quickly.

"I need a drink," she mumbled under her breath, heading over to a drink stand. A short wait and a few tickets later, Téa walked away from the booth with a cup of lemonade in hand, her eyes searching the surrounding crowd.

** _Holding hands with you, and we're out at night…Got a girlfriend, you say it isn't right. And I've got someone waiting too…_**

Unbeknownst to Téa, someone was searching for her. But it wasn't who she would have thought. It wasn't Seto Kaiba. Rather, it was Yugi Moto.

He was terrified that what he suspected was true—that Téa's crush was Seto Kaiba.

_'Téa and I have been friends for years, and…we've told each other almost everything!'_

But could Yugi really be upset over Téa crushing on his rival? She was her own person, and she'd been through a lot recently…He'd kept his own share of secrets from Téa, so wasn't it fair that she keep her own as well? Despite their long friendship, she was never obligated to tell him anything…

_'But all this time…I've been waiting. Hoping that maybe she'd see…'_

** _But this is just the beginning—We're already wet, and we're gonna go swimming! Why can't I breathe whenever I think about you? Why can't I speak whenever I talk about you?_ **

Téa smiled, watching a group of small visiting children attempt to catch goldfish in a rice-paper 'net' before it dissolved. The goldfish kept flopping away, or the rice-paper kept falling apart, but they kept trying. They didn't let their frustration get the better of them—they just kept going.

_'There's a strange sort of sense in children, an intelligence that adults can't have. When you're young, things are simple, easy…And even if you're called naive, stupid, or blind, children see things in a way older people can't.'_

Téa remembered how, at her parents' funeral, Mokuba had looked up at her wordlessly, and climbed onto her lap. She'd needed that. Needed someone to hold, someone's shoulder to cry onto.

She'd grown to love the little boy like he was her own sibling, but she knew she could never come close to the bond the ebony-haired boy had with Seto.

_'Seto.'_ Thinking of him caused Téa's breath to catch in her throat, remembering his intense gaze. It never seemed to be anything but. It was as if he could look right **through** her; see her very soul…

** _It's inevitable, it's a fact that we're gonna get down to it. So tell me: Why can't I breathe whenever I think about you? Whenever I think about you?_ **

It was confusing. Her muddled thoughts, her complicated desires…even Téa herself wasn't entirely sure what she wanted. She wanted Seto to understand, she knew that much.

_'If—if he's really here…I should apologize for that time. He doesn't even know why I'm so upset over that stupid kiss…'_

But she couldn't just forget it. She wanted to, though, because then she'd be able to start over, and have things the way she wanted. Maybe her brain wouldn't be so hyperactive whenever she was around Seto Kaiba then. And she wouldn't be so edgy around her friends, constantly recalling Seto Kaiba's passionate, forceful kiss. And how, though it had startled her, confused her…she'd enjoyed it.

How could she possibly tell her friends that?

** _Isn't this the best part of breakin' up? Finding someone else you can't …_**

And, as if Destiny had some sort of twisted plan set out for them, it was at that moment that Téa glanced up—and blue met with blue. Seto Kaiba stood, not three meters away.

Swallowing hard, Téa kept her gaze on him and walked forward.

"I wanna say sorry," she said firmly. Her eyes wandered to the ground, littered with tickets, confetti, and broken prizes. "and I'm sick of us going on these avoidance sprees. I want us to be friends. To…talk again." She sucked in a breath, looking up at Kaiba as she waited for a response.

"…Me too." he finally said, cracking a slight smile, "Truce?"

Téa grinned broadly, feeling as light as air once Seto smiled at her, "Truce!" And she shook his hand firmly, both of her hands gripping his, promise in her eyes.

** _It's an itch we know we are gonna scratch. Gonna take a while for this egg to hatch. But wouldn't it be beautiful?_ **

_'It might not be anything now…but once we both get comfortable with all this…I'll be able to explain everything to everyone. And I'll see…that if Seto **ever **had any feelings for me. And we can go from there.' _

** _Here we are, we're at the beginning—we haven't done it yet, but my head's spinning!_ **

Chieko Sagusa sighed, watching Seto Kaiba and Téa Gardner walk away together. Despite both of them possessing a dynamic nature, they didn't seem to attract much attention, being together. Not yet, anyway.

Perhaps it was because they clicked in a way that the blonde transfer student couldn't even begin to understand. Perhaps it was because her own heart had never actually been in the "fight" for Seto in the first place.

When she'd first seen him, she'd been taken—he was handsome, enigmatic, rich…A chord of kinship had been struck, reverberating in Chieko's soul. She'd grown up alone, lonely…not like her classmates.

A CEO's daughter, of mixed heritage, and a complicated background. With dreams of being a dancer, a designer, a star—not some sort of financial analyst. She had an innate desire to always be filled with emotion, to always have someone to watch over and protect, someone whose smile she'd live for.

** _Why can't I breathe whenever I think about you? Why can't I speak whenever I talk about you? It's inevitable, it's a fact that we're gonna get down to it!_**

He was out of her reach. Of course, she'd known that from Day One, but she'd had fun watching Téa and Seto interact. Had circumstances been vastly different, it might have been Chieko in Téa's shoes.

_'But I wouldn't wish what happened to her on anyone…circumstantial or not, it's Téa's life to live.'_ Téa was her friend. The rivalry between the two was merely in fun. Chieko seemed to see what Téa, Seto, and even their friends wouldn't—that the two were falling in love with one another.

_ ** So tell me: Why can't I breathe whenever I think about you? Whenever I think about you?** _

"So," Seto Kaiba began, somewhat uncomfortably, "about that thing…"

"What thing?" Téa glanced up at him curiously, blinking when she realized he wasn't looking at her, and was instead concentrating rather hard—trying to come up with the right words to say without embarrassing himself.

"What did you mean," he finally said, stopping and turning to face her, "when you said 'It's a little late for that?'"

Téa's eyes widened, and she glanced off to the side, flushing. They'd called a truce. They'd both agreed that ignoring one another didn't solve any problems. In so many words…

"Well, I…"

"Here to get your fortune told?" a smooth voice interrupted Téa before she could speak. Both teens whipped around and faced Bakura, who wore a handsome—if not devilish—smile on his face. Seto frowned slightly; he remembered how close the normally-quiet, white-haired youth had been to Téa on-stage.

** _I'd love for you to make me wonder where it's goin'…_ **

"Um, sure, Bakura! Why not!?" Téa laughed nervously, and wandered towards the metal seats Ryou had positioned in front of a table. Seto stood for a moment, seeming to contemplate whether he should sit or not, but he finally relented and sat, legs and arms crossed.

"It's only five tickets," Bakura explained, bringing out a deck of tarot cards, "It's been quite busy today."

"I take it when you passed by the stage then, you were on your only break?" Téa smirked, watching her classmate shuffle the ornately-designed deck, flipping the cards.

"Something like that," he smiled. "Now, both of you put your hands on the cards, and focus on a question to you want answered. Nothing like 'Will I eat yakisoba today?' but something that requires actual thought. No 'yes or no' stuff."

Kaiba looked at Ryou Bakura as if he'd turned into a Kuriboh.

"You don't expect me to believe in all this, do you?" Bakura's smile didn't slip for a single moment as he responded, "No, not really, but you're here to have fun, aren't you?" Bakura, unlike the cheating "Lord Kokurano" from their freshman year, seemed to have genuine abilities—at least where the occult was concerned.

Perhaps this had something to do with his possession of the Millennium Ring, or maybe…

Téa put her hand on the deck first, closing her eyes and breathing in deeply, _'I know I'm not supposed to make a wish or anything…I have to ask a question. So I want to know if there really is something between Kaiba and I. If I'm not imagining things…'_

Kaiba frowned, but eventually withdrew one hand from where he'd crossed his arms over his chest, placing it on top of Téa's. She didn't move or flinch in the slightest, and eventually, he too closed his eyes.

** _I would love for you to pull me under. Somethin's growin'… _ **

_'Is—is there something? Between us. Téa and I. Or am I being ludicrous…'_ Kaiba didn't even know why he was thinking what he was, but ever since Téa had dashed out of the kitchen, on the verge of tears, Kaiba hadn't been able to get her words out of his head. _'What did she mean?'_

His latter question remained unanswered—for the time being, anyway. Bakura removed the deck after they'd concentrated on it, and now began dealing out the cards in a Celtic Cross pattern, with six cards in a circle shape, one in the middle, and four cards to the right of the first set.

** _…outta this that we can't control. Baby, I am dyin'—_**

"The first card briefly describes your situation," Bakura intoned, flipping the first of the ten cards in the odd formation over. The Eight of Swords. A brown-haired girl was bound and blindfolded, with eight ornate swords surrounding her and preventing her from moving.

Bakura raised his eyes, but not his head, glancing up at Téa, "You feel restricted. Bound. This card represents conflict. The girl on the card is alone. Perhaps you feel that way too," a pause, as Bakura noted Kaiba's eyes glancing hesitantly towards Téa, "but you don't **want** to be that way. You want to be free, but know that danger lies ahead if you make the attempt."

** _Why can't I breathe whenever I think about you? Why can't I speak whenever I talk about you?_ **

"The second card: your problem. Obstacles you must face," Bakura flipped the card over, a slight smile tugging at the corner of his lips, "the Knight of Wands."

The card depicted a golden-armored knight, ribbons of red and green winding around his helmet, atop which was perched a dragon ready to pounce. He rode a horse and carried a wand—which actually resembled a really long stick with a blossom at he top.

"Is–is it supposed to be upside-down, like that?" Kaiba queried, referring to how the picture and text on the card were reversed. "Yes," Bakura responded, somewhat glad that he'd been asked, "the cards can appear right-side up or reversed…and their meaning changes. That is why I flip the cards from the side, not the top or bottom."

"The Knight of Wands can represent an actual person in either of your lives…" he paused, wondering if there would be any further questions, "or he can simply be the representation of your situation."

"What does he represent?" Téa asked, almost afraid to hear the answer. Though Bakura had only drawn and interpreted one card so far, that one card had been dead on. How much did Bakura know?

"Right-side up, he represents departures, advancements, undertakings."

Téa blinked. "And, upside-down?"

The white-haired boy smiled. "Emotional problems," he paused, "with friends."

Blue eyes widened, urging Bakura to continue.

** _Why can't I breathe whenever I think about you? Why can't I speak whenever I talk about you?_ **

"The third card: The Star." A naked girl with alabaster-white skin and brilliant blue eyes stood waist-deep in azure water. Water spilled from her hands back into the lake from whence it had come, while the girl's gaze was fixed to the sky, where several brilliant stars gleamed down at her.

"The position of the past. The basis or cause of your situation. A good card." Bakura nodded, "It is odd though, how the cause of your problems…seems to be something good."

"What do you mean?" Kaiba asked gruffly. Not that he believed any of the occult or mystical fiddle-faddle—he'd seen enough of that ridiculousness during Battle City, and yet…no, it was all just tricks. Tricks and games.

"She represents hope. Satisfaction, contentment—but more appropriately for you two," Bakura emphasized, gesturing vaguely to the two seated in front of him, "she is a new person with a favorable influence on your life." Bakura leaned back in his seat, an eyebrow raised at the two as they mulled over the cards, "In this instance, I believe The Star represents the two of you."

"Huh?" Téa looked up, confused. Kaiba's eyes remained glued to the card. Even if it was some silly game…something about the card—about the girl…

_'Blue eyes?'_

"You are The Star to Kaiba, while he is The Star to you," Bakura explained. "While he isn't exactly 'new' in your life, you are looking at him in a different way, are you not?"

_'This is nuts!'_ Téa thought wildly, _'How–how does he know _that_?'_

But it was true. He **had** influenced her life favorably, since getting involved with her personal affairs as he had. And if it hadn't been for his offer, Téa didn't know where she would be at that moment. Maybe not even going to Domino High.

And if she hadn't moved in with him, seen him in a place outside of school and duels…she might not have ever fallen in love with him.

** _It's inevitable, it's a fact that we're gonna get down to it—So tell me…_ **

"You didn't come to this festival last year, did you, Kaiba?" Bakura asked suddenly, capturingthe young man's attention.

"No…" His brows furrowed. Bakura hadn't been a student at Domino High back then, "How did you know that?"

Bakura only smiled as he tapped the side of his head, "I know these sort of things. But it's all the more proof—you being here now, sitting here and listening to me 'tell your fortune,'" Bakura imitated Kaiba's "I don't believe it for a second" voice, "that you've changed. That you've **been** changed. By her." He directed Kaiba's gaze towards Téa, who blinked and then blushed, turning her gaze back to the spread on the table.

"The fourth card," Bakura flipped it over, "is the card of your past. That which is behind you. It influences and directs you, yet must remain where it is: in the past." He glanced down at the card, "The Wheel of Fortune." A red disc immediately drew Kaiba and Téa's attention. On the rim, odd characters were inscribed—some looked like Greek, others like Hebrew, while the ones in the very center of the disc didn't look like any language to either Kaiba or Téa.

Atop the disc was an Egyptian Sphinx, wearing a traditional headdress with a cobra emerging from the forefront. To the left of the sphinx, an angel reading from a book. An eagle perched on another book to the sphinx' upper right. A two-headed snake beside the red circle on the left, while the black head of a jackal—Anubis, Kaiba and Téa both realized—stared out at them. Below the wheel, a bull and a lion, the former emerging from the pages of a scarlet-covered book, while the lion came from a golden-covered book.

"Your past consists of success followed by failure and success again, in a cycle. Life is a cycle, constant in this manner. Full of good things and bad equally. However, it is a fortunate card to have in your spread regardless. Ultimately," Bakura placed his finger on the card, "it indicates happiness and fortune in your favor. Being in the position of the past, it seems to say that your share of the worst incidences has passed," Téa sighed deeply at this, "and that better things lie ahead. Usually, it also means fortune will come your way without much effort," Bakura frowned, "but the downside is that your decision to change—and welcome this good fortune into your life—will be bad for others."

** _Why can't I breathe whenever I think about you? Whenever I think about you?_**

"The fifth card…" Bakura paused, his brown eyes glancing over the card before he'd fully turned it over. "This is interesting." Kaiba and Téa both leaned forward in curiosity.

"Well, what is it?" Kaiba demanded.

"I thought you didn't believe in these sort of things," Bakura smiled, pulling the card closer to him and away from his patrons.

Kaiba rolled his eyes, "That doesn't mean you can gyp Téa out of her five tickets."

Bakura laughed heartily. "Always the economist," he chuckled. "The fifth card is the card of your goals, aspirations…hopes. Indeed, an interesting card to have in this place." He flipped the card over, waiting for the two to read the text themselves.

The Lovers.

Téa's face went crimson and she immediately shifted in her seat, refusing to face either of the boys. Still, she was tuned in and listening, wondering what Bakura would say next.

"Some cards aren't to be interpreted by their name or picture," Bakura said, earning a glance from Téa. "This card," he chuckled, "is **not** one of them. It is what it says it is."

The card showed two young people—ironically enough, a girl with flowing brown hair and bright blue eyes, and a young man with darker brown hair and equally dark blue eyes. The girl had one arm wrapped around the young man's head, pulling his face close to hers. Her other hand was joined with his, fingers intertwined. Their eyes were riveted to one another, and they could see nothing but their lover, not even the angel in the sky above them, peeking down at the two from the clouds.

"This card represents the beginnings of an adventure. Love affairs, desire. You both are seeking this, and yet…" Bakura's fingers danced over the previous cards in the spread, "yet neither of you take any action, though things would go in your favor. I wonder why that is?" Of course, Bakura's question was purely rhetorical, and only served to get both Seto Kaiba and Téa Gardner fidgeting in their seats further.

"And now," Bakura's smile faded from his face, "the sixth card. The future. Immediate future, if things remain as they are, and you do not change your actions." He flipped the card over, his eyebrows shooting up.

"The Devil."

* * *

"Hey, Mr. Joey!" Joey Wheeler turned at the hail, wondering who would be nuts enough to call him "Mr. Joey." It was no surprise when he saw Chieko Sagusa dashing towards him, beads of sweat forming on her brow. She'd been dancing in the last round, but Joey, like Tristan and Duke nearby, couldn't stick around to watch. They'd had to get back to the class booth and do their jobs.

"Have you seen Téa?" Chieko asked breathlessly, panting as she rested her palms on bent knees. Tristan and Duke arrived at Joey's side, having picked up some freshly grilled shish-kebobs from one of the other class stands.

"Nah, haven't seen her since that first round," Joey shook his head, glancing to his other two companions. They too shook their heads in the negative, indicating that they hadn't seen their friend.

"Oh dear…the judges have selected the final five girls for the finals. After that, it will be eliminated to two. Téa is one of those five, so I must find her quickly!" She smiled at the boys and dashed off, looking for Téa.

"Huh. She wasn't dancin', and she's not at the booth," Joey looked around as he watched people playing all the games Class 2B had set up. Téa was allowed to have fun at the festival too, of course, but…ever since Duke had suggested that Seto Kaiba could have been Téa's boss, Joey'd had an uneasy feeling in his stomach.

_'Nah, there's no way. It just couldn't be. Téa wouldn't lie to us like that.'_

And so he kept telling himself that, even as he slid on the oversized Bluebeard mask and proceeded to get sprung out of a barrel.

* * *

"Someone inhumane, cruel, and uncaring. Someone selfish, who pursued money for money's sake," Bakura said, frowning as an odd feeling blossomed in his chest, "someone you would rather forget." Téa didn't seem to understand, not having anyone that fit that particular description in her life. She anxiously glanced over to Kaiba, whose eyes had narrowed.

_'Does he know someone like that?'_

And know someone like that—**just** like that, in fact—Kaiba did. And he **did** want to forget all about him. Gozaburo Kaiba. His adoptive father.

"If your actions do not change, such a person may make an unwelcome reappearance in your lives," Bakura said after a moment, "disrupting all the good fortune that is due. But where evil lies, good does as well." He pointed to the two humans—a man and a woman—on the card, naked and chained together. In the background, a demon—the Devil—stared down at the two with blood red eyes, wielding a hammer of fire, bearing it down on the man's back.

"These two might not deserve the suffering they are receiving," Bakura explained, "and must learn to take action, fight back," Brown eyes glanced up to meet blue, "or misfortune will follow."

Silence prompted the fortuneteller to continue, which he did.

"The Magician," Bakura said, a grin forming on his face. "The card of creativity, originality, confidence, and skill. You, Seto Kaiba." Seto had been about to protest, sick of his supposed 'connection' to a past-life where he was some sort of magical High Priest or some such.

But Téa nudged him, smiling, "He's right. That does sound like you." And any protest Kaiba had been about to make died in his throat.

_'I guess…it's a compliment. Or maybe just stating the obvious.'_

"He also represents those traits, whether you find them in yourself or in others," he motioned to Téa, "You too, possess some of these characteristics." Téa blushed mildly, but nodded, signaling Bakura to continue. "This seventh card is that of your present self, with traits that you likely do not exploit as often as you should to achieve your…goals."

Bakura's eyes wandered back over to The Lovers card, smirking as he did so.

"To obtain what you desire, you must view yourself completely, but still be open to change, to adapt. Look at all your talents and abilities as possible approaches to gaining what your desires. Only then will what you want come your way." Téa was nodding slowly, ideas forming in her mind as Bakura spoke.

"The eighth card," Bakura continued, without missing a beat, "is the card of your outside environment. Also the card of your fears, and others' expectations of you. The Six of Cups."

Two, young, round-faced children stood in a courtyard, admiring various cups of flowers. A simple cottage was in the rear. It looked like a happy childhood scene.

A pang went through Téa; her childhood was long gone. With her parents gone, it only reinforced that fact more. She could never have that sweet naïveté again. Even her dreams—which had kept her going for so long, had shaped her into the person she was—were starting to fade, ever so slowly…

"This card seems to lean more towards your fears than anything else," Bakura finally said, startling Téa. He gestured towards Kaiba, "Your childhood has a powerful influence on your life as it is now." A pause, "Your birthday's coming up soon, isn't it?"

Kaiba looked surprised, and was about to ask why, but he knew that any such question would be answered with more of Bakura's secret smiles.

"October 25th," he finally murmured.

"Perhaps then, it should be a time of facing your fears and confronting what it is in your past that haunts you so, even to this day." Bakura dropped his gaze, "So that you can concentrate on the possibility of a brighter future, and happiness with those you love."

Kaiba glanced up at Bakura, and brown met with blue. Though no words were exchanged, Seto Kaiba felt sure that Ryou Bakura knew everything that was going on in his mind. So far, his 'fortune-telling' had been right on the money. So much so that it was almost scary.

"The card indicates a fear of one's past, but the need to return to the simple wisdom youth brings. You will find yourself enjoying things as you did back then, and bringing happiness to others in the same way," Téa smiled slightly; she remembered seeing the innocent children from earlier, trying to catch goldfish in their rice-paper nets. And trying, over and over, even when they failed…

"By stopping to admire the simpler things in life, you will come to realize their importance, their significance. Such things do not last forever, and may slip out of your fingers if you don't try to catch them." Kaiba's gaze had wandered to his hands, folded in his lap, while Bakura met Téa's gaze, smiling reassuringly.

"The ninth card. The guiding key factor that will bring about the future." He flipped the card over. Strength. A young woman with closed eyes held her hand dangerously close to the maw of a great lion. A crown of leaves held some of her hair back, while an oddly-shaped circlet of light hovered above her head.

"The symbol of infinity," Bakura pointed to the sideways-eight above the woman's head. "The card of a Leo. Are you, Téa, by any chance, a Leo?"

Téa shook her head, "No…I'm a Sagittarius. But," she furrowed her brows, "I was nearly born about four months premature, on August eighteenth. And my ascendant is Leo."

Bakura smiled. "You know a lot about astrology, it seems."

"One of my hobbies," Téa said with a grin.

The white-haired youth continued, "One must have strength to attempt what others perceive as reckless, dangerous…perhaps even stupid." The last word sounded odd, rolling off the sophisticated Ryou Bakura's tongue.

"Your hopes and fears are guided by this card. The two of your both possess an incredible amount of strength, perhaps kept hidden and silent. People do not see your true nature all the time. The card indicates that you must make an honest effort to strive towards your goals, for only then will they be recognized. There can be no triumph without loss, no victory without suffering, no freedom without sacrifice."

"You stole that line from 'The Lord of the Rings'," Kaiba commented blandly.

Bakura shrugged, "But it's true, isn't it? The cards are telling me that it is something that binds you both—preventing you from having what you want. You must face your past, return to it and recognize the lessons there. Even if it will be a painful venture, it is one you must make. Or those less welcome will return from your past, and I assure you," he flipped over the final card, without shifting his gaze from either Kaiba or Téa, "it will not be pleasant."

The final card…was Death.

* * *

"Téa!" The brunette turned around quickly at the sound of a voice calling her name, smiling when she saw Yugi Moto weaving his way through the crowd of people to meet her. Seto had just disappeared around the corner, as Téa had to head back to the dance club stage and see whether she'd made it into the finals, with the final five girls competing before it got eliminated down to two competitors.

Téa had a feeling that she **had** made it—and so had Chieko. Would it really come down to a final competition between the two?

No, more prominently on her mind was Bakura's reading. After flipping over the Death card, he'd quickly explained that it didn't mean someone would **die**—rather, the Death card implied powerful change. It could be good or bad, sudden or progressive. But, he'd said, given the other cards in the spread, it seemed more likely that change would occur regardless of whether the two teens took action or not. It was a matter of whether the change would be in their favor, helping them achieve what they wanted or not.

_'Could it really be possible that he…that Seto…'_ Images of The Lovers card flitted past Téa's mind, and she swallowed hard. Parts of Bakura's fortune seemed to apply to her alone, while others applied to Seto. And some…seemed to fit them both. Was it true? Regardless, Téa couldn't shake the feeling.

"Hey Yugi! Having fun? How's our class booth doing?" She smiled, walking with the shorter boy back to the dance stage.

"Oh, it's okay…lots of people. Joey traded off as Bluebeard with one of the other guys, and now Kashiwagi has to experience the pains of being popped out of a barrel." Téa chuckled, and Yugi flushed. He forced all thoughts of earlier—of seeing Seto Kaiba stare at Téa, almost jealously eyeing the way she moved against Bakura…as if he'd wanted to be in the white-haired boy's place.

_'It just _can't_ be,'_ Yugi told himself, over and over again, _'There's no way she'd lie to us like that.'_

But then, had Téa really **lied** to them? She'd said she had—earlier, when referring to how she'd gotten her friends entangled in a matchmaker scheme with Seto Kaiba and Chieko Sagusa…but she'd never explained what either of them had to do with why she'd been acting oddly—her crush. Was it possible, that merely based on what he'd seen, that Téa was crushing on Seto Kaiba—and the feelings were mutual!? Or could it be…that she had feelings for someone else?

A glimmer of hope existed within Yugi, hoping that **he** was the one Téa was crushing on. He hadn't yet worked up the nerve to confess his feelings for her yet, but he knew that if he waited too much longer, he'd lose Téa for good. And he wasn't willing to take that chance. So…

"Say…uh, Téa?" Yugi glanced up at her, "want me to buy you a treat?" They were passing the sweet area of the festival, lined with booths selling ice cream, cakes, cotton candy, and chocolate-dipped frozen fruits.

"Man, I'd love to," Téa sighed mournfully as someone walked by with a chocolate-covered frozen banana, "but I have to get back to the stage now, and if I have to dance, I'd get a cramp for sure."

"Oh…" Yugi sighed, disappointed, "okay. I'm sure you'll make it into the finals, and I'll be sure that all of us," he was referring to Joey, Tristan, and Duke, "are there when you win!"

Téa smiled, hugging Yugi briefly, "Thanks, Yugi," she smiled genuinely. "It means a lot."

* * *

Indeed, Téa had made it into the final five, and she, along with Chieko, Miho, and two others girls, were anxiously waiting on-stage. The judges cast a glance up at the five girls, each smiling reassuringly as the stereo finished its cycle of random songs and stopped on one. __

_ **Don't look back, look back, look back, look back…** _

The opening, echoing words were the cue to the dancers, who immediately grasped the tempo of the song and struck their poses.

_ **Just let go, stop livin' for now, it's better than it's been before…** _

Téa smiled, letting herself fall into her own rhythm, that special world between reality and music. Dancing brought her into a state of hypnosis almost, freeing her from all her troubles_**. **_

_ **Trust your heart, you'll make it somehow. It's everything you're looking for…** _

She brought a hand against her chest, closing her eyes and then raising that same arm in a motion of strength, flexing her arm. She stretched it outward, palm to the skies, her eyes opening to settle on a familiar face in the distance.****

** _A little bit of joy to ease the pain…_ **

Seto Kaiba. In the past two months or so since she'd moved in with him—truly gotten to know him—her opinion of him had changed drastically. While before, she'd thought him determined and ruthless, albeit misguided in his attempts, he was still human. Try as he might, he could never deny that, no matter how much time he spent around his 'machines.' And he'd understood her in a way none of her other friends could have, easing the pain of losing her parents.

_ **Try your best to forget yesterday! A little bit of sun without the rain—Now there's nothing in your way!** _

She remembered his applause, when he'd caught her dancing. Remembered his brief, but genuine smiles. His smirks. His midnight blue eyes, sparkling with light. Mischief, even…

_ **Don't look back, keep straight ahead… ** _

If she just kept going, kept living, doing what she loved…then things would be easier. If Téa could just be herself, and not be afraid of anything life threw at her…

_**You know what is right; out of mind is out of sight! ** _

_'It was one thing when I was still in denial over whether I liked Seto or not. I was so afraid of what the guys would think! I thought that maybe, if I set Seto up with Chieko, I'd forget my feelings for him. But, it didn't turn out that way.'_

No. Seto Kaiba had only wormed his way deeper into Téa Gardner's heart.

** _Don't look back, keep straight ahead! Learn to read the signs, out of sight is out of mind! _ **

_'And maybe I can't be sure whether he really likes me or not.'_ Though Téa couldn't really say he **hated** her—he did kiss her, after all. _'Even if it didn't count,' _Téa grinned, turning her head slightly and then whipping it face-front again.

_ **Now life's too short so let's make it last; now it's time for moving on…** _ ****

_'I guess in a lot of people's eyes, I've really just bounced back from my parents' death, but the truth is…'_ A cold feeling enveloped Téa as she thought, her emotions swaying as she danced, trying to focus, _'I've never felt so alone in my life.'_

_ **Things can change, some throw it away. Forget it all, what's done is done…** _ ****

_'I can't just forget my parents…forget everything they taught me! They're the reason I am who I am, even if they didn't always agree with me. And they always taught me that life changes, things happen…and you have to go with the flow. You can't change the past.'_

_ **A little bit of joy to ease the pain…Try your best to forget yesterday!** _

Téa reached her hand up to the sky, drawing that same arm down to her heart, shaking her head sadly as if to demonstrate joy easing pain away. A sad smile blossomed into a happy one, bright blue eyes sparkling.

_**A little bit of sun without the rain; Now there's nothing in your way! ** _

In all honesty, nothing was stopping Téa. She'd been afraid before, afraid that she really WAS falling for Seto Kaiba. Afraid, once she'd realized the truth, that her friends would shun her. Afraid that she'd lose Seto -before she'd even "had" him- to a stranger, a newcomer. The only thing in her way…was herself.

** _Don't look back, keep straight ahead! You know what is right; out of mind is out of sight!_ **

Téa moved her head as if she were looking back, but stopped herself, stretching an arm forward and walked forward, pointing out to the audience and then positioning a splayed hand in front of her eyes, her movements matching the lyrics perfectly.

_ **Don't look back, keep straight ahead! Learn to read the signs; out of sight is out of mind!** _

The other four girls on-stage had developed a sort of synchronization with their dance. While each had their own individual style, it seemed that if they all had the same technique in mind, they looked better, worked together better, and felt great about it in the end. Though the contest was only supposed to have one winner, most of the girls had admitted they'd entered just for the experience and fun.

After all, the prize was only a CD store gift certificate…

_**A little bit of joy to ease the pain… A little bit of sun without the rain…A little bit of joy to ease the pain…. Ooh— ** _

Meanwhile, out in the audience, eyes were riveted to the stage.

Violet. Blue. Emerald green. Chocolate brown. Hazel.

Different people, in different places, yet all eyes remained set on the movements of one Téa Gardner, the sole link between them all. This girl—their friend, their class representative, their role model, their cheerleader, their companion, their strength—so many things to each of them, in each of their minds and each of their hearts…

_ **A little bit of sun without the rain…Don't look back, keep straight ahead! You know what is right; out of mind is out of sight!** _

_'It'd be nice to pretend the bad things in life simply didn't happen. But it's those experiences that make us who we are. That define us. They shape us—for better or for worse. I'd like to pretend that I wasn't still aching every moment…that I wasn't missing my parents. I'd like to believe that I _could _leave the Kaiba household on my eighteenth birthday, and never look back. But I'd only be kidding myself.'_

_ **Don't look back, keep straight ahead! Learn to read the signs; out of sight is out of mind! Don't look back, don't look back, keep straight ahead! You know what is right; out of mind is out of sight!** _

Only half of Seto Kaiba's mind was on the lyrics of the music playing. It was English, so he understood it, and, judging by the way Téa moved to it, synchronizing her dance to the words, she too, understood the song. At least, in part.

Encouragement. A song that seemed to fit Téa's former personality to a tee. The song pushed its listeners to keep going regardless of the past, regardless of pain. Joy would always come after pain, the sun would always come out after the rain.

But Seto Kaiba knew—possibly better than anyone else there—that it usually didn't seem so guaranteed.

Still, even as the song came to a close, she was smiling. After all she'd been through, and all she'd seen—all that had changed in her life—she kept doing what she loved.

_"Still going to go for it?" _Seto remembered asking Téa, when he'd spied her dancing in the living room. He'd heard the music from his office, and emerged, curious. She'd danced with passion, with emotion obvious in every move she made.

She'd remained oblivious to his watchful eye until they very end of the song, but hadn't seemed to care about it in the long run. Even though he'd seen the kind of pain she'd put herself through, down in the basement, he realized that she was likely experiencing a myriad of emotions singular to her—and some exclusive just to womankind, and she'd kept going—kept dancing, even though it reminded her of her past, of her parents and what they'd really wanted for her….

She kept smiling. Believing. Going for what she really wanted.

_"Yeah! I am!"_ Smiling so brilliantly, it almost hurt to look at her. Even if her happiness wasn't entirely genuine…Even if she put on an act—if not for him, then for her own sake—she still kept going…She truly **was** tough, truly **was** everything Seto Kaiba had wanted to be, when he'd lost it all…

* * *

"Well!" It was Ms. Misao who stood up and cleared her throat, capturing the attention of the chattering students and visitors gathered near the dance club's stage. Despite the club's newness, everyone seemed to have had a good time—dancers, audience members, and judges alike.

For the first time in festival history, there had been music and dancing. With an open, friendly competition that everyone could participate in, many seemed eager to find out just which two dancers had been lucky enough to make it to the final round.

"The judges and I have finally reached a ruling—as have you audience members," Ms. Misao grinned, gesturing towards the judge box. The group of judges had emptied the box and sorted out the number of votes for each dancer. "There was an overwhelming response from you for the same two dancers that the judges and I voted unanimously for…" A dramatic pause, "This is no surprise, ladies and gentlemen—the two girls that started this all—Chieko Sagusa and Téa Gardner!"

Both girls grinned at one another and moved towards the stage, the crowd cheering them on.

"You might just have an unfair advantage with this, Téa," Chieko murmured, as the two girls loosened their muscles prior to the music's start.

"Why?" Téa asked, stretching her legs out, "because it's my CD?"

Chieko giggled slightly,"Well, that too. But more because the audience has already fallen in love with you." Chieko had chosen her words carefully, and the brunette reacted to them just as she'd predicted—she glanced up from her stretches briefly, scanning the audience for the one person she **really** wanted to love her.

And he was there. In the back, not very visible…but there, nonetheless.

Seto Kaiba's imposing frame, along with that studded white trench coat of his -couldn't be easily missed. Téa smiled wider now, "Let's do this."

The two girls nodded to the judges, one of them pressing the play button on the stereo. The final round of the Autumn School Festival's Dance Club Competition had begun.

* * *

The start of the song trumpeted out, the two girls striking sudden poses and freezing them for the beats. When the violins and drums cued in the remainder of the non-vocal intro, the two girls spun, halting just as the lyrics began.

** _I know she wants, I know she wants you! I know she wants, I know she wants you! I know she wants, I know she wants you! I know she wants, I know she wants you! _ **

Téa blinked at the intro vocals to the song.

_'Too ironic,'_ Téa decided, shifting her body to the upbeat music. She eyed Chieko, who was smirking as well. So. The final round was a true competition between them both.

_ **Boy, I know you better than you think you know yourself; I know where you're coming from…** _

Chieko took center-stage, stretching a slender arm out and pointing directly at Seto Kaiba, no shame or embarrassment on her face as she did so. She brought that same arm in to touch her chest, and then tap her head, in time with the lyrics.

She was Chieko Sagusa, daughter of a wealthy CEO…part of a world where she wasn't understood. When Téa had initially tried to set her up with Seto, and deny her own feelings for him, she'd known that Chieko and Seto had at least their background in common.

Whereas Téa didn't know a thing about business or wealth, both Seto and Chieko were rolling in it.

_**Seeing you together and I swear I can tell there's something going on… ** _

Chieko glanced towards Téa, a playful smirk disappearing before her expression melted into one of angry suspicion. She gestured towards the brunette, narrowing her caramel-colored eyes. Chieko ran a hand past her eyes, keeping her glare firm and her body lithe. That same hand slid downwards and then stretched up to point, almost accusingly, at Téa.

_ **I've seen her expression when she looks in your direction: It's there…in her eyes. You say there's no connection, you don't think that's her intention…Baby, you must be blind! ** _ ****

Téa whipped her head around as Chieko danced in circles around her, the blonde stroking the air beside Téa's face, dancing away quickly and pointing at her again, towards her companion's expression.

For the sake of the stage, Téa adopted a hurt face, glancing out to the audience: out to Seto. She wasn't outright saying anything, just going along with the music. But one could see that the emotions reflected in her eyes—desire, jealousy, hurt—were genuine.

_ **I know that she wants you, she wants you, she wants you; I know it instinctively! I know she wants you, she wants you, she wants you; you say you're in love with me!** _

This time, Téa joined in the dancing more actively, battling Chieko with the movements of her body. The two girls both stood at the fore of the stage, gesturing outwards and then spinning to face one another, bringing their arms in to their chest and out again, their dance becoming synchronous.

_ **Boy, you think I'm crazy, you say she don't mean a thing—that I'm the one for you.** _

It didn't take much for Téa to remember the day after the beach, when Seto had come outright and said that he didn't need another girl in his life: that Téa was the one he wanted.

They'd come so close, so many times, yet something had always held Téa back. But it wasn't as if she were still denying her feelings anymore…it was something else. Her friends? Her fear? Not even Téa was sure.

_**She just wants your body, baby, she don't give a damn what I've been going through! ** _

Téa's expression became intensely angry, thinking that if she'd just gone for what she'd wanted—from the very beginning—then she wouldn't be in the mess she was. There'd be**** no competition with Seto. She would have asked him outright, and if he **did** like her, maybe then…

Téa threw her arm out in Chieko's direction, casting a mad glare her way, mouthing along the lyrics. She ran her finger over her body and pointed out towards the audience, keeping her gaze fixated on the blonde.

** _She wants satisfaction, to be center of attraction—It's clear to me… _ **

The brunette dancer ran a palm against her side, from her collarbone to her navel, curving her hips as she did so. That same hand rose out and in front of Téa, and she stepped toward it, as if that one hand were resting on an invisible pane of glass.

_ **She needs no invitation, she's got such determination, Baby, you still don't see!** _

Téa cast her glance back at Chieko, narrowing her eyes as she she gestured 'no' with her arm, turning her gaze back to the audience as she flexed her other arm up in a pose of strength and determination. Her first parted into a splayed palm, covering her eyes as she shook her head.

_ **I know that she wants you, she wants you, she wants you; I know it instinctively! I know that she wants you, she wants you, she wants you; you say you're in love with me!** _

Téa took that same palm and brought it to her stomach, then up to her heart, just above her left breast—instinct. Gut feeling. That inner knowledge that can't be dismissed so easily. A delicate finger rose from her hand to tap against Téa's head, then she extended it out, pointing out towards Seto—but spinning around and dropping her hand before anyone could follow the direction of her finger.

** _You understand: you take my hand, you're proud to be my man, and I'm not lettin' you go!_ **

The vocals changed slightly, sounding a bit more robotic than before. The instrumentals faded into a simple beat, with both girls moving towards the front of the stage, holding their hands out to the audience. They both stretched hands out, pointing out at random guys in the area, and bringing the same hand, fisted, to their chests.

_ **You understand: you take my hand, you're proud to be my man and I'm not lettin' you go! I know she wants, I know she wants you, I know she wants, I know she wants you, I know she wants, I know she wants you, I know she wants, I know she wants you!** _

They switched positions, Téa moving to the left of the stage and Chieko to the right, keeping their footwork light and bouncy, even as they repeated the same movements from the previous verse. When the instrumentals and vocals returned to how they'd been at the beginning the two girls resumed their playful "accusations," swiveling their bodies to face one another and point.

** _I've seen her expression when she looks in your direction; it's there in her eyes…. You say there's no connection, you don't think that's her intention; Baby, you must be blind! _ **

Chieko seemed almost insistent in getting her "message" across, pointing towards Téa with one arm while she bent down near the fore of the stage, the two forefingers pointing at her caramel-colored eyes. Chieko's other fingers soon rose to cover her eyes in a play off the lyrics, just before she bounced on the balls of her feet and moved backwards.

_ **I know that she wants you, she wants you, she wants you; I know it instinctively! I know that she wants you, she wants you, she wants you—You say you're in love with me! I know that she wants you, she wants you, she wants you; I know it instinctively! I know that she wants you, she wants you, she wants you, You say you're in love with me!** _

The two girls continued their accusations, though Téa's glance drifted every few seconds to Seto. She couldn't see his face—he was too far away—but she wondered what he was thinking. He just stood there…watching.

For a moment, her eyes felt riveted, and she knew if she didn't tear her attention away from Seto Kaiba, she'd trip up. It didn't matter whether she won the competition or not, but she wasn't exactly jumping at the chance to be embarrassed in front of so many friends. She had to focus!

Soon, the song came to an end, both girls freezing in place. They heaved, trying to catch their breath, as one of the judges stopped the stereo. A thundering of applause awaited the girls only moments later, as they descended from the stairs on the side of the stage. They both smiled at one another, nodding, "That was fun."

"I think you won," Chieko grinned, wiping her brow with a nearby towel.

"You were pretty damn good yourself," Téa acknowledged as she swilled some water. "Don't put yourself down."

Chieko only smiled mysteriously, "I'm not."

"Téa, there is something else I must tell you later," she glanced back to the judges table, Ms. Misao rising to her feet to announce that the judge box would close in a moment. Students had been busy crowding the box, ripping pieces of paper and scribbling down their final decisions.

Téa searched through the crowd, wondering if Seto had come closer, but she couldn't spot him. However, her eyes **did** catch on a familiar head of blonde hair.

_'Mai!'_ Téa thought excitedly. She hadn't talked to the older girl in a while, and looked forward to having an open girl-talk with her friend about recent events.

"Okay everyone! The time for voting is closed! Now we find out who has won the first—and hopefully **annual**—" Ms. Misao grinned at the new sweating girls, "Domino High Autumn Festival Dance Competition!"

The judges emptied the box, sorting out the scraps of paper and verifying that what they said was legible and legitimate. A good ten minutes later, they'd sorted out the scraps and come to a conclusion.

"Well," Ms. Misao announced, glancing back at the judge box and the mounds of paper, "This is amazing. It looks like we have a tie—" Ms. Misao was cut off as one of the judges reached into the judge box once more, checking to see if there were any more votes.

And, from the bottom-most corner, Mr. Norimachi withdrew a folded scrap of paper. Unfolding it carefully, his face blossomed into a huge grin. He handed the paper to Ms. Misao, who read it, and smiled, "We officially have a winner! Congratulations—" She glanced towards the two girls, who were almost leaning forward in anticipation, "Téa Gardner!"

A loud cheer arose from the audience, the two competing girls hugging briefly before Téa sprang up to the stage, swiveling her hips and winking as she accepted the gift certificate to the music store. Shortly thereafter, Ms. Misao announced that for the remainder of the festival, it would be free music, and anyone could get up on the stage and dance, or even make requests for songs.

Téa descended from the stage, a bright smile on her face. Chieko greeted her at the base of the stairs, "Come on."

"Huh…what?"

Chieko grinned, "Aren't you curious as to whose vote the tiebreaker was?" She pulled Téa towards the judge table, where Mr. Norimachi handed them the infamous last vote. Chieko held it, a smile spreading across her face as she opened it.

"People aren't going to write **their** names on the paper," Téa pointed out, knowing that the votes were anonymous. But that didn't stop her from wondering what Chieko was thinking.

"The tiebreaker was for you," Chieko murmured, "I believe that whoever's vote it was, they left us a pretty apparent clue."

Téa didn't believe Chieko for a second, but she amused the blonde by glancing at the paper. Her eyes widened as she recognized the handwriting on the tiny scrap.

The blonde was grinning, "You recognize the handwriting, too?"

Téa nodded slowly, "It's—it's Seto's. I didn't think—I didn't think he'd vote for this kind of thing. I was surprised he even came today, and then stuck around as long as he did…"

"Well, now we know without a doubt who he prefers more," Chieko said with an assured nod.

Téa blinked, clutching the scrap of paper, "Chieko, it was just a dance competition…"

"You have gotten him to open up in more ways than I ever could," Chieko said smoothly, cutting Téa off with a quick movement of her right hand. "Besides, it's not like I was really putting any effort into it, you know. We spent most of the past week preparing for the festival. If I had been serious about pursuing him, rather than getting you two to see how much you cared for one another," Chieko winked, "then something tells me that **that** scrap of paper would have my name on it." Chieko sounded awfully sure of herself, bordering on arrogant, but there was a smile playing on the corner of her lips.

"The truth is—" she began, but this time, it was Chieko who was cut off.

"Hey Téa! Great job! I knew you'd win!" Yugi grinned, and glanced up towards Chieko, "Sorry, did I interrupt something?"

"No," Chieko smiled down at Yugi, and quickly realized his other friends were approaching. "Please, everyone. I have something I need to tell you."

Téa glanced at Chieko worriedly: what was the girl going to reveal? Chieko had admitted some time ago that she'd known all along that Téa and Seto weren't related, but she still didn't know why Téa had tried to deceive he —and her own friends—the way she had. Was she going to announce to the guys that Téa liked Seto?

Téa swallowed hard, ignoring the burning lump in her throat.

"I have a fiancé," Chieko said simply. All present blinked, and then blinked again. When Chieko's words finally reached them, jaws dropped.

"Wha—but I thought you were into Kaiba or somethin'!" Joey asked, confused, "You…you ain't engaged to **him **are ya?" Joey stared, leaning forward on his elbows, "Er, no offense if ya are…"

Chieko laughed, "No. That was just…" she glanced at Téa, "an experiment. I wanted to tell you because I've been deceiving you for too long. And I have come to see you all as my very good friends, which I very much appreciate. My changing schools has never been this easy or fun before, especially now that I'm in a different country altogether." Chieko smiled in that innocent way of hers, though it didn't exactly catch.

"B-But…a fiancé?" Téa ducked her head slightly, "Why were you pretending to go for…Kaiba, anyway?" she caught herself before she referred to Seto by his given name, knowing that her friends would latch onto such a detail.

"I have never met my intended," Chieko explained, surprising her classmates further, "but I have heard a great deal about his character. He is supposed to be quite rich, enigmatic, and supremely arrogant."

The boys sweatdropped, "Well, that **does **kind of sound like Kaiba…" Yugi muttered under his breath. Téa suppressed a grin.

Duke asked her question before she could speak, "But an arranged marriage? I thought those kind of things died out years ago."

"Well, it seems to be getting more popular lately. My parents are friends with my fiancé's parents, and well…I suppose aside from the personality similarities between Kaiba and my fiancé, I wanted one last chance to 'play the field' before I got tied down."

"Yo–You're getting married soon?" Téa asked dubiously, blue eyes widening.

Chieko shook her head, "Not that soon. When I get out of high school, I imagine."

Téa sweatdropped. "That's still pretty soon, isn't it?"

"Well," Chieko grinned, "not if I meet him and he turns out to be the love of my life." She tilted her head purposefully towards Téa, implications laced throughout her voice, "If that's the case, I wouldn't be able to wait until it's 'standard.'"

Everyone nodded, though few present could really empathize with Chieko's situation. But they did feel somewhat more informed—perhaps since Téa and Kaiba had been getting closer as of late—since the funeral and all—Chieko had turned to her in the hopes that she'd learn more about Kaiba—and be able to pursue him. Or at the least, understand him, so she would know her own fiancé better. Was that why Téa felt the need to pretend she and Kaiba were brother and sister? Was **that** the connection between Seto Kaiba and Téa's mysterious crush?

Such questions raced through Yugi's head as he glanced between the two girls. He still didn't believe that Joey and Tristan could be right—that **he** was Téa's crush. After all, he'd seen the way Seto had been staring at Téa earlier, but maybe it was a one-sided crush on **his** end? Was it possible? It certainly didn't sound like Seto Kaiba—to be crushing on a girl, let alone the best friend of one of his established rivals….

But…

* * *

The festival only had a good hour or so left in it, and the boys had to rush back to the Class 2B booth to check on things, and make sure everything was running smoothly. Téa wanted to find Seto again—see if he was still wandering around the festival—but she didn't dare voice her thoughts aloud.

Thankfully, Chieko seemed to know exactly what was on her mind, and the two girls excused themselves from the other boys with the hurried pretense of being hungry. Once they had split from the others, their pace decreased, Chieko glancing at Téa from the side.

"You wish to find him, don't you?"

Téa stopped in her tracks, glancing up at her blonde companion with a rueful smile, "You know me too well."

"Very well," Chieko smiled, "but since we have some time left before the festival ends, I'd like one last fun dance—my pick. Say, twenty minutes from now, at the stage?"

Téa nodded her assent, smiling gratefully at her. "Deal."

Not five minutes later, Téa wandered the festival alone, occasionally glancing at the trinkets, food, and games her other schoolmates had set up. As per usual, there were yakisoba and okonomiyaki booths, a karaoke booth, the manga club's doujinshi sale, and miniature competitions ranging from table tennis to mini golf.

Téa had circled the first three rows, her eyes catching on Ryou Bakura, who sat at his booth, telling fortunes to a gaggle of starry-eyed girls.

_'All the things in Bakura's fortune were pretty accurate,'_ Téa thought to herself, _'He even knew that Seto's birthday was—' _Téa's thoughts abruptly derailed.

_'Oh no, his birthday! It's in a week! What am I going to do!?'_ Suddenly, Téa had forgotten all about finding Seto, and instead set on figuring out what to get for him. Her thoughts were all a jumble, flashing back to when she'd caught sight of Seto watching her dance earlier—when she'd finally run into him, and they'd had their fortune told—and then, seeing his familiar handwriting with **her** name on it, choosing **her** as the winner of the dance club competition.

She was so distracted that she didn't even think to move out of the way of a pair of approaching girls, and bumped right into them.

"A little spaced out, aren't we?"

Téa glanced up, her blue eyes widening in surprise, "Mai! Serenity!" The two girls smiled, the younger of the pair reaching to hug Téa.

"I thought I saw Mai earlier, but Serenity, what are you doing here?"

Serenity grinned, "Well, I **am** coming here next spring. And what better way to get to know the campus than to show up at the open festival?"

Téa nodded, "Does this mean you're going to start shadowing me soon?" she grinned. Though Joey was rather overprotective of his sister, Téa doubted he'd be able to 'protect' for Serenity forever, especially considering that in the next spring, she'd be a full-fledged high school student, just as they were.

"Totally!" Serenity grinned, starting to walk again, "You were heating up that stage earlier, Téa."

Mai nodded her agreement, "I'll admit, you have moves—and guts, too." The blonde smirked, "What say the three of us tear up that stage since it's free music hour?" Téa blinked and grinned back.

Maybe what she needed the most at that moment was to hang out with the girls. They were far easier to talk to than the boys, and better, they'd be able to give her some advice as to what to get for Seto for his birthday.

"Sounds great!"

* * *

Mai wore a wide grin on her face, waving a sky blue CD in front of her two companions. Téa caught sight of the album title and laughed aloud.

"Are you kidding me, Mai? I never thought you were a fan of Britney Spears."

"She's not half bad," Mai replied, grinning, "but I know some boys that would love to see **us** imitate her moves from that first music video of hers." Téa and Serenity both nodded, knowing exactly what Mai was referring to: the infamous "Baby One More Time" video, where Spears had dressed up as a Catholic school girl and made the outfit undeniably sexy, especially with the way she tied up her blouse and hiked up her skirt.

At first, Téa, like many of the other girls in her school, had disliked Spears for all the attention she got—but eventually, Téa started to study the girl's dance moves, realizing that the American singer's choreography wasn't half bad.

"I have an even better idea," Téa's eyes lit up, her smile mischievous. "Come on." She dragged the two girls away from the stereo near the dance stage, and into the dimly-lit school building.

The white hallways were devoid of all light, filled with the dim shadows of the festival booths, people milling about outside, and the trees lining the campus. Rather than appear as the bustling academic institution it was, Domino High appeared to be a ghost campus, without a bit of movement within.

That was, of course, excepting the triad of girls skittering through the halls.

"Where are you taking us, Téa?" Serenity questioned, being tugged along by the elder brunette.

Téa only smirked, tossing Serenity a glance, "You'll see in a second." Soon, they arrived before a closed door with no marking on or near it; Téa rummaged through her pocket and withdrew a set of keys that opened the door.

"It pays to be the class representative," the brunette smiled at her companions, flicking the room's light on. Serenity and Mai peered past the door frame, their eyes widening, grins blossoming on their faces.

* * *

Seto Kaiba wasn't sure why he was sticking around the festival. He'd seen Téa, and they'd finally devised a sort of truce to get them talking again. But…he still didn't understand what she'd said back then…

_"It's a little late for that!"_

And then there was Bakura's fortune. It had been eerily accurate. And what was more, the white-haired youth had indicated that if neither Seto or Téa took action, things wouldn't go in their favor. Someone from the past would disturb their happiness…

_'It's impossible, though. Gozaburo…he's dead!'_

Still, Seto couldn't shake the odd feeling that the Devil card had somehow been related to the man.

And, lost in thought as he was, Seto Kaiba remained at the school festival, merely watching as kids played games, his classmates ran booths, and people ate, drank, and were otherwise festive and merry.

He somehow found himself back near the dance stage. It wasn't as crowded as earlier, now that the competition was over, but…

He hadn't even realized it, but his eyes were searching for someone. Her. Téa…

But she wasn't anywhere in sight. Seto sighed, pivoting on the ball of his foot to turn away. His normally cool composure broke when he found himself face-to-face with Joey Wheeler, the shorter blond having crossed his arms over his chest and not looking a bit happy with Seto Kaiba's presence.

"What do you want, Wheeler?" Seto said with little enthusiasm.

"I gotta few questions to ask you, **Kaiba**," Joey glared, his dislike for the CEO apparent.

"Joey, where the hell—" Tristan stopped running, having found his friend on the brink of a confrontation with Seto Kaiba.

"Joey, what are you doing? You have to get back to the booth, you know Kashiwagi can't stick around for much longer…" he trailed off, purposely ignoring Seto Kaiba's presence. He was sure that Joey, like himself, couldn't get Duke's earlier theory out of his head.

_'It's just not possible, right? Seto Kaiba _couldn't_ be Téa's boss. It…'_

"Hey! You know what Duke said earlier? Well, what if he was right? And this guy is really—" Joey thumbed towards Kaiba, shooting daggers at him with his eyes. Tristan clamped a hand over Joey's mouth, intending to muffle whatever he was about to unnecessarily blurt.

However, the blond's eyes shifted slightly, widening to the size of saucers. Tristan curiously followed Joey's gaze, and his jaw dropped, his hand quickly sliding away from his best friend's mouth.

Three girls, oddly dressed in school uniforms, complete with winter sweaters and long-sleeved blouses, were heading up to the stage. From where the three boys stood, they looked vaguely familiar, but given that the girls weren't facing them directly, it was difficult to recognize them.

That was, until the music started blaring, and the three girls faced front.

Britney Spears' "Baby One More Time" flared on the speakers, the three girls' identities revealed for all to see: Téa, Serenity, and Mai! The three girls stepped forward, sashaying their hips in time with the song and one another, all while people turned and started to watch, a crowd quickly gathering.

It wasn't long before the song reached the end of the chorus, at which point the three girls pulled off their cardigan-sweaters and revealed their tied-up shirts. Wolf whistles immediately sounded from the crowd, the three girls grinning as they spun and continued to dance.

"M-Mai!? What da heck is **SHE** doin' here?!" Joey's eyes were still wide, but they remained fixed on the blonde in the triad—the Domino High uniform fitting her voluptuous frame all too snugly.

"Isn't that your **sister** up there too?" Kaiba pointed out wryly, though his own attentions were focused on Téa. He'd seen her dance before, seen her down in the basement, seen her in the living room, but never–never so…

He couldn't describe the feeling, the sensation: that same dark feeling curling in the pit of his stomach, winding its way down…

"Serenity!" Joey and Tristan gasped at the same time, their eyes widening further.

It was one thing to see Mai up there, shockingly in a school uniform. With Téa, at least, they could understand, her dancing—even if it was in the Domino High uniform, a practice which was surely forbidden by the deans—there was no denying that the brunette radiated 'sexy.' At least with her and Mai, it was somewhat **expected**! But…Serenity?!

The young girl had gotten her sight back less than six months ago, but in that time, she'd developed a strong bond with Téa and Mai—which was apparent from the way she moved with them, grinning and dancing despite the catcalls they got from the boys in the audience.

Serenity had a slight blush on her cheeks, while Mai and Téa merely smirked, keeping their movements fluid and synchronous. It was amazing how the three of them, without any previous practicing, managed to dance together in unison, each mimicking the others' movements.

Once the second verse started, the girls started to lip synch to the words, even daring to lean down towards the audience and draw some of the drooling boys closer.

Though the stage was a good distance from where Seto, Joey, and Tristan stood, when the ebony-haired ponytail of Duke Devlin appeared near the fore of the crowd, accented by Duke's choice red clothes, Tristan immediately raced to the front.

"Damn that Duke, there's no way I'm letting him near Serenity!"

"Hey! That's **my** sister you're talkin' about!"

Joey and Tristan were off like shots, quickly forgetting about whatever Joey had been about to confront Kaiba about. And as for Kaiba—well, he too had forgotten whatever Wheeler had been about to annoy him with.

_'If he just up and left like that, it couldn't have been important,'_ Kaiba thought distantly. But Kaiba's attention was divided and any curiosity he may have had over Joey's would-be confrontation faded away as he watched the lithe, moving form of one Téa Gardner.

_'She moves like water…' _Kaiba's thoughts had little rhyme or reason to them—all he knew was that he hadn't blinked in the past two minutes, and he had no desire to any time soon.

The song was quickly coming to a close, the trio of girls grinning madly as they took their bows and scampered off stage, just before any teachers nearby could catch them "altering" their school uniforms in such daring ways—or, in Serenity and Mai's case, wearing uniforms that weren't even theirs!

Breathless, Téa, Serenity and Mai entered the cool, dim hallways of the school, having escaped the crowd. They'd spotted Joey and Tristan trying to worm their way through the crowd (with little success), and quickly ducked beyond their line of sight, nearly brushing by Duke as well. But thankfully, they'd escaped all of the boys, and were now right back where they'd started: in that uniform room Téa had unlocked.

"That was fun!" Serenity grinned, "I really like dancing, Téa."

"Yeah?" Téa smiled, still trying to catch her breath from their dancing and dashing, "It's great exercise. And fun too." She remembered all the catcalls and wolf whistles, "Fun for everyone."

Mai smirked, "Did you see the look on Joey's face when he realized his precious sister was up on stage grooving in a tight school uniform?" She winked a violet eye at Serenity.

"Oh, I don't know about that…I think he was staring at you!" Serenity nodded towards the blonde, "or maybe at your shirt, and how **small** it seems…"

"Not my fault, Sugar," Mai frowned in distaste, "I haven't been in high school for five years now. The uniforms barely fit me then, and they don't fit me well now. But I guess that was the point, wasn't it, Téa?"

Téa nodded, "Total blast. But we have to get back out there, before anyone catches us in here." The girls nodded, Mai and Serenity trading their borrowed uniforms for the clothes they'd worn to the festival.

* * *

"A gift, huh?" Mai tapped her chin with a perfectly-manicured finger, violet eyes lifting to the sky as the pondered Téa's predicament.

"It's always so hard to shop for Joey," Serenity murmured.

Mai nodded her agreement, "Boys as a rule are a pain to shop for. I don't know how you put up with so many of them, Téa." The blonde winked at her younger friend, who promptly blushed.

"You make it sound like I have a harem of them," Téa grumbled.

Serenity and Mai laughed, the older girl clapping her hands together, "Well, one could look at it that way. After all, you are the lone girl in a bunch of guys. Serenity and I don't go to this school, and you've known them all the longest…"

"Mai's right," Serenity nodded, "even though Joey and I were inseparable as kids, there was a long time when we had to go without seeing or even talking to one another. It's only been recently, with my surgery and Joey's breaking into Dueling that we've been able to be together…"

There was a moment of uncomfortable silence. It seemed that Dueling had brought them all together—and caused more problems. They made new friends and new enemies. One mystery got solved, but another unfolded in its place. Relationships started and ended….

Everything was on fragile ground.

"You know what?" Mai finally said, "I don't think we can help you with Kaiba's gift."

Téa blinked, "Why not?" She was at a loss for any decent ideas—everything she thought up as just too stereotypical to give to someone like Seto.

Boxers? Too embarrassing. A wallet? He probably had fifty of them.

There wasn't a single Duel Monsters card that Téa could possibly get for Seto that he didn't already have.

And clothing?

_'As much as I'd love to redo Seto's wardrobe, that's a project for another day—when I have more time and more money!'_

So what was left?

"I think whatever you get for him should be from **your** heart," Mai explained. She wrinkled her lips, "It sounds weird coming from me, I know, but it's the truth. If you want to get something meaningful that he'll really like, then it has to be something **you** thought of."

"Yeah," Serenity agreed, pointing her popsicle stick at Téa, "you don't want to get him something generic, right? You want him to know how much you care, and how much he means to you."

"Since when are you two the Espa Roba sisters? Yeesh, I hate it when I'm not right," Téa grumbled. The other girls laughed, knowing Téa agreed.

* * *

"Téa!"

The brunette turned towards the source of the voice calling her name. She, Serenity and Mai weren't far from where they'd been snacking in the "food court" area of the festival, where most of the booths were set up around a series of tables, benches, and chairs.

"Chieko!" Téa grinned, "I was wondering where you went. Are we still on for that 'last fun dance?'"

"You bet!" Chieko nodded in affirmation, then turned her gaze towards Téa's two new companions.

"Hi," Chieko smiled at Téa's companions, "I am Chieko Sagusa. I saw you dancing on-stage earlier. You two have talent." Serenity blushed, while Mai regarded the other blonde with a mild smile. Téa had told her about Chieko—including her most recent revelation that she had a fiancé and hadn't intended to go after Seto Kaiba at all—and Mai didn't like the girl much. She wasn't **bad** though…

"Mai Valentine," Mai introduced herself, briefly shaking the other girl's hand.

"Serenity Wheeler," the younger redhead grinned, "I'm sure you know of my brother."

Chieko nodded, laughing, "Indeed I do. I knew he had to have a sister, he's the least crude of many of the boys here."

Téa, Serenity and Mai all sweatdropped in embarrassment, wondering how Chieko could ever think that Joey was politer than "most of the boys" at school.

"The other girls from the club all thought we could rope you three into one last dance before the festival ends for the day," Chieko continued, "would you like to join us?"

The three girls exchanged a glance. They'd danced quite a bit, run around even more, and then eaten. But…

"You're on!"

* * *

"Domino High!" Téa had gotten hold of the microphone again and shouted out to the crowds. Faces turned in her direction, people filtering back to the empty area that had been set up for the express purpose of the dance club's competition.

"There's only about ten minutes left of today's festival, and us girls from the dance club," Téa grinned, gesturing to the cheering members of the dance club, "and any other interested parties," she winked at Bakura, who had since closed his booth and stood on the fringe of the gathering crowd, "can come up and join us for one last dance! We'd like to thank all the guests that have helped support our school today, all the dedicated students who stuck around running booths, and all the teachers who are nice enough to let us party like this!"

A loud cheer erupted from the crowd, and it took Téa stepping towards the stereo and starting the music to quiet people down at all.

_ **You spin me inside outside, and then you hold me so tight…We'll dance and party all night, Mambo Mambolé!** _

The song already had people clapping and cheering in the background, and once everyone heard the poppy melody, they joined in as well. The girls spun on stage, wrapping their arms around themselves and then unwinding. They curved their hips up and down, and then rolled their hands around one another, waving to the audience as they backed up, all in one line.

_ **So kiss me in the moonlight, you know it always feels right, we'll dance and party all night— Mambo Mambolé! ** _ ****

The girls all pointed up towards the bright autumn sky, towards the moon that shone a brilliant white against the blue of the sky. They blew kisses to everyone in the audience, eliciting a round of laughter and catcalls, while they grooved to the beat.

Towards the end of the verse, the vocals dropped out, the instrumentals building to a rolling call that Téa imitated, stepping forward from her place in the center of the line, sounding like a Warrior Princess about to attack.

The girls all stepped forward at the same time, joining Téa with wide grins on their faces. They waved their hands in the air, urging crowd members to dance, or join them on-stage. People cheered as girls and boys alike filtered through the crowd, moving towards the front area to dance with the others.

_**You're on my mind every day you are with me, and every night boy you dance in my dreams! We dance united, together we are one…I'll take you there baby, come home with me! ** _

The girls tapped the sides of their heads and then pointed out to the audience, many of the girls pointing to their boyfriends or best friends out in the crowd. It was no coincidence that Téa's finger pointed straight to Seto Kaiba —who unfortunately found himself smack in the middle of the crowd, rather than on the fringes—while Serenity pointed toward Tristan, and Mai toward Joey.

The three boys—along with countless others, including Yugi and Duke—had appeared to see the final dance of the day at the festival. Most booths were closing, or were closed already, so it seemed as though the entire school population was there to watch.

The girls drew their hands back in towards their chests and thrust them out again, their forefingers raised to indicate "one," just as they all grinned at one another, leaning down and motioning with those same fingers for the boys at the fore of the crowd to come on-stage.

_ **You spin me inside outside, and then you hold me so tight…We'll dance and party all night, Mambo Mambolé!** _

The boy Téa found herself dancing with was none other than Ryou Bakura, who spun Téa towards his chest and out again, squeezing her shoulders as he brought her back in. The two separated from their chaste embrace as they shimmied up and down with the other dancers, laughing and grinning all the while.

** _So kiss me in the moonlight, you know it always feels right, we'll dance and party all night—Mambo Mambolé!_ **

Mai and Serenity had each hooked up with other guys, much to the disdain of Joey, Tristan, and Duke, still in the audience. But rather than let the guys lead, both Mai—and shockingly, Serenity as well—took the leads and dipped the guys backwards, almost as if they intended to kiss them. They didn't, of course, and arched back upwards just as quickly, extending their forefingers to the same guys they'd separated from and wiggling them at the blushing boys. They brought their hands to their chest, waving them up in the air after a beat, and grinned, shouting out the last words to the audience.

There was an instrumental verse for a brief period, the noise of a standard whistle sounding off in the background, the girls stepping forward and wiggling their hips to the beat.

** _I fell in love with your voice and your laughter. And just one smile always makes me believe! Our destiny—curious if you are mine…Oh, won't you tell me that we're meant to be?_ **

Téa, Serenity, Mai and Chieko quickly dominated the stage, their movements synchronized and full of emotion, as each of the girls wore a brilliant smile on her face, eyes twinkling.

They each pointed out to the crowd again, drawing their hands back in to touch their throats as they laughed, following the first line. They took a step backwards and turned slightly to the side, angling their profiles to the audience as they smiled mischievously. The four girls splayed their palms up to the autumn clouds, waving them at the audience as they brought their hands back to their chests, smiling as they stepped forward and back again, forefingers waving as the girls' smiles grew wider.

** _You spin me inside outside, and then you hold me so tight…We'll dance and party all night, Mambo Mambolé!_ **

"She's really pretty," a voice commented.

Seto Kaiba knew that voice—he glanced downwards, his eyebrows raising when his gaze fell on his little brother, Mokuba.

"What are you doing here?"

"I could ask you the same question," Mokuba smirked, taking a bite out of his cotton candy. He grinned briefly at his brother, before the two of them turned back to the stage, watching the girls dance.

"Who are you talking about?" Seto finally asked of his younger brother, eyeing him out of the corner of his eye.

"Téa, of course!" Mokuba responded, his tone almost incredulous. Were Seto to read between the lines (which he did), he could easily tell that what Mokuba **hadn't** said aloud went something like this: _Who _else_ would I have been talking about!? _

In all truth, Seto Kaiba would have chuckled at such words…but as they remained unspoken, and Mokuba's gaze remained trained on Téa's vibrant form, Seto realized something.

A quick glance down at his brother.

A definitive scarlet hue coloring his face, his eyes darting back and forth as he watched Téa closely.

_'He–he _likes_ her.'_ Seto realized suddenly. And it wasn't the sort of childlike "like" between friends. And not even the "like" between siblings. (Mokuba did, after all, call Téa 'Big Sister,' a fact which amused Seto to no end.) Mokuba had a crush on Téa—and from the looks of it, a bad one.

Mokuba glanced curiously up at his brother, feeling the penetrating gaze on his back. Seto quickly averted his gaze, wondering how to react to this sudden truth.

** _So kiss me in the moonlight, you know it always feels right, we'll dance and party all night—Mambo Mambolé!_ **

For the repeat of the chorus, the four lead girls jumped down from the stage, the audience allowing them dancing space. Many eager boys filtered through the crowd in the attempt to dance with the foursome, but the crowd was so thick that few could even come close. Instead, Mai, Serenity, Téa, and Chieko danced with the same boys as before; random classmates, save Bakura, whom Téa had danced with previously for the first round in the dance competition.

** _Mambo Mamboleo, Mambo Mambolé! Mambo Mamboleo, Mambo Mambolé! Mambo Mamboleo, Mambo Mambolé! Mambo Mamboleo, Mambo Mambolé!_ **

Once again, an instrumental bridge, and then the fading out of the clapping and cheering.

** _When you dance with me boy, I know you feel my equal!_ **

There were two rolling "Whoops" that Téa again imitated, much to the amusement of the audience. And then, a crescendo that Téa called out, "Ayiyiyi!" sliding forward on her knees and holding both her arms out towards the audience.

** _When you dance with me boy, I know you feel my equal!_ **

"I'm going up to get a better look," Mokuba spoke up, tossing the now-blue cotton candy stick into a nearby trash bin

"Big Brother?" he glanced up at Seto.

"Yeah?" Ocean blue met with with midnight blue. Mokuba. His brother. A child…? He had a wisdom that sometimes even Seto believed surpassed his own intelligence. He was wise beyond his years, and it showed in the younger boy's eyes.

One day, Seto knew, he'd have to stop being Mokuba's father and brother. Mokuba would grow up, would get a life of his own…Seto just wanted to make sure it went well. That Mokuba was happy. And, well…Téa made him happy.

Seto sighed, causing Mokuba to wonder what was going on in his older brother's head.

"Try to have fun. You never got to as a kid…" Mokuba looked away, almost shamefully, "you grew up too fast."

And with those odd parting words, he disappeared into the crowd, ducking between people's legs to get closer to the stage.

** _Mambo Mamboleo, Mambo Mambolé! Mambo Mamboleo, Mambo Mambolé! Mambo Mamboleo, Mambo Mambolé! Mambo Mamboleo, Mambo Mambolé! You spin me inside outside, and then you hold me so tight…We'll dance and party all night, Mambo Mambolé!_ **

Tristan, and Joey resumed their struggle in getting through the crowd, each of them hoping to prevent Duke from leaping on-stage and dancing with Serenity—at least, as closely as Téa was dancing with Bakura. For the brief moment they stopped to watch the brunette and the white-haired boy dance, they got jostled backwards in the crowd, hundreds of visitors and classmates dancing.

They all sighed, resignedly, and had to try and dance their way through the crowd—a sight that made the four girls at the fore of the stage laugh while they grooved.

** _So kiss me in the moonlight, you know it always feels right, we'll dance and party all night—Mambo Mambolé! _ **

"That Téa girl really is beautiful, isn't she?" Seto Kaiba glanced out of the corner of his eye, wondering who was speaking. It wasn't as if he were jealous of someone else **looking **at Téa…one couldn't help it, the way she took center-stage…

The only feature Seto noticed on the person that had appeared beside him was a mop of oddly-colored hair, almost aquamarine in hue.

"Don't you agree…" a pause, "Mr. Kaiba?"

Seto sucked in a breath; the person **had** been speaking to him! But he refused to tear his gaze away from Téa for any reason. Perhaps it was because he was enchanted by Téa's graceful movements, or perhaps he simply desired to be as transfixed as he was…

"Ah, but beauty is so fleeting…" Had Seto been looking towards the young man beside him, he would have been startled by the uncanny resemblance between them. The only noticeable difference was in the stranger's odd hair color…And the malicious smile that had appeared on the aqua-haired boy's face.

"As is human life."

At that, Seto turned, whipping around almost violently—but whoever had spoken was gone. Amongst the huge crowd, not a single head of aquamarine hair could be spotted. Few people, if any, even seemed to be leaving the grounds. Everyone had gathered to watch the dancers perform one last time…

_'Had to be my imagination,'_ Seto told himself, turning back towards the stage. Téa was up there, dancing her heart out, radiating such real emotion…An odd ache formed in Seto Kaiba's chest, watching her dance like that.

After such heartache in her life, such pain and such loss…she still had something left to be passionate about. To love with all her heart, and chase after, even when her dreams seemed fleeting.

_'I–I never had anything like that. I didn't even want to be in this position. Maybe Mokuba's right…I grew up too fast…'_

How would his life have been different—had Seto's birth parents lived? Had his mother not died giving birth to Mokuba? Where would Seto be now, had he never become the "protégé" of Gozaburo Kaiba?

** _You spin me inside outside, and then you hold me so tight…We'll dance and party all night, Mambo Mambolé! So kiss me in the moonlight, you know it always feels right, we'll dance and party all night—Mambo Mambolé!_ **

Everyone had gotten into the spirit of the song, almost everyone in the crowd dancing to the poppy, fun music. The dancers on-stage encouraged more movement and smiles, grinning from ear to ear. They glowed, sunlight reflecting off the thin sheen of sweat on all their necks, smiles playing across each of their lips.

The girls spun in place, their partners squeezing their shoulders as they were brought back in. They all broke apart, injecting their own brand of dance moves into the celebration, then following the lyrics again and blowing kisses at the audience.

_ **La la la la la la la la la la la la la!** _

The singular, repetitive syllable was the cue to all the dancers that the song was coming to a close. Most of them took their bows, and the dancers in the crowd stopped, catching their breath and starting to clap for the exiting dancers.

** _La la la la la la la la la la la la la!_ **

Finally, Serenity, Mai, and Chieko exited the stage, leaving Téa alone by the end of the song. She took one final bow, the applause and cheering almost thundering in her ears. She grinned despite her short breath, and waved as she left the stage.

The tremendous crowd slowly began to filter from the school grounds, the few students in the area trying to worm their way through the masses to clean up the booths and tables.

Téa could just barely make out Joey, Tristan, and Duke, being jostled like rag dolls in the middle of the crowd. It was apparent that the boys were struggling their hardest to get to the front of the line—and, as Téa glanced down to the base of the stage, she realized why. Joey was likely heading for Mai, who was speaking with the object of Tristan and Duke's affections—Serenity. Chieko stood beside them, glancing out at the crowd through tired eyes.

Téa smiled, grabbing the towel she'd tossed on the stage-side chairs and wiping her brow with it.

"They're like fish trying to swim upstream," Téa commented as she stood beside Mai and Serenity. The two girls laughed, noting the boys struggle. "Come on, let's go grab something to drink before the booths close completely."

Serenity looked unsure, though she still wore a smile, "And leave the boys…?" Mai only winked, and soon, the four girls disappeared through the crowds, the three boys that had been trying to reach them stopping in their tracks and blinking in confusion.

* * *

"Excuse me, are you Téa Gardner?"

Téa, Chieko, and Serenity all turned around, the crowd milling about them. An older woman with shoulder-length locks of curly red hair was approaching them, a smile on her face.

"Yeah…that's me," Téa responded slowly, her face a mask of confusion and wonder, "Who are you?"

The woman chuckled slightly, the smile never leaving her lips, "The name's Francesca Lohrs, but you can call me Fran. I'm from the Domino Performing Arts Company," Fran paused, her smile curving into a smirk. "You three are awfully talented young ladies."

Téa's blue eyes widened—this woman was from a performing arts **company**? In Domino!?

_'What could she possibly want with us?'_ Téa wondered, cocking her head as she listened to the woman speak.

"I'm scouting for new talent for the new season. I didn't expect to hit the jackpot at a school festival, but I seemed to have done just that."

Three sets of eyes widened, Téa looking from Chieko to Serenity, "Um, I…well…"

"The other girls in the dance club told me I might find you here, and that if I was interested in scouting people from your school, I'd best talk to you and—Chieko Sagusa, is it?" Fran turned towards Chieko, who nodded, extending her hand in a polite, but firm handshake.

"Téa and I are the dance club presidents," Chieko explained, "and this is our friend, Serenity Wheeler. She doesn't go to Domino High yet, but she will in the spring."

Serenity nodded, shaking Fran's hand brightly.

"Um, wasn't there a fourth…young lady with you?" Fran looked around, and it was then that the three younger girls realized that Mai had dashed off. Where had she gotten to?

* * *

_'That was a close one,'_ Mai heaved a sigh, clutching at her chest while she caught her breath. She hesitantly glanced backwards, where she could just barely make out the back of Téa's head, likely talking to Fran.

_'She's the last person I need to see right now.'_ Mai grumbled to herself, gathering her composure and rising fully. When her violet eyes glanced up, she gulped—_'No, one of _two_ people I really don't need to see right now…'_ But there was no running now: Joey Wheeler was approaching, Duke Devlin and Tristan Taylor shortly behind him. Mai made no attempt to dash off this time: she wasn't the type to run away from **every** problem. Perhaps with Joey, there wouldn't even **be** a problem. Perhaps he was still clueless about Mai's involvement in Téa's problems, and wouldn't think any less of her…

For some reason, Mai couldn't stand the thought of Joey turning away from her. The young man had wormed his way into her heart, and now…

_'Stupid! I'm not supposed to trust men! They'll all just stab you in the back anyway.'_ But Mai knew, in her heart of hearts, that such wasn't the case with Joey. Somehow, he was different. From all the rest…

"Mai!" Joey glanced up in surprise, his cheeks reddening as he took in Mai's form. She wore her usual attire now, rather than a Domino High uniform—but of course, Joey couldn't get the image out of his head. The way she'd tied up the shirt, the folds of the fabric creasing and knotting snugly over her chest…

"What are you thinking, Joey?" Mai raised an eyebrow as Joey's cheeks reddened, "You better not be picturing me in some sort of naughty get-up."

Tristan and Duke snickered, Tristan whispering to Duke beside him, "No problems with that. She already dressed up in one today."

"I heard that," Mai snapped at them. But her anger was brief; she didn't want to be upset at Joey. Besides, it was…kind of cute. The way he was so utterly…**obvious** around her.

"That was some pretty hot dancing," Tristan finally commented, catching Mai's attention, "I didn't even think you'd show up to these kind of things, but there you were, on-stage with Téa and…" Tristan swallowed, suddenly remembering Serenity dancing gaily on-stage as well, auburn hair flowing behind her.

"Yeah, why **did** you and Serenity show up today?" Duke questioned, leaning forward on the balls of his feet. Mai was about to answer, saying that she and Serenity had arranged to go to the festival over a week ago, when Joey had let slip about the event to his sister, but Duke continued speaking.

"Just one of the many weird things I've been noticing today. What with Téa dancing with Bakura, we thought **he** might be the one Téa's crushing on," Duke shook his head, not noticing that Mai was rolling her eyes, "but then, we remembered what Téa said at the mall."

"Yeah," Joey was scowling, remembering Duke's words from earlier, and how Seto Kaiba had ducked away from their 'confrontation,' (okay, so that wasn't how it really happened, but that's how it had played out in Joey's mind), "she was pretty stiff about defendin' that boss of hers. And then we remember that **Kaiba's** the one that introduced them?!"

"So," Duke continued smoothly, "I got to thinking…if Yugi's really **not** the one Téa's crushing on," he exchanged a brief and somewhat worried glance with the other boys, "then maybe it's Kaiba. And maybe **he's** her boss."

Mai's eyes widened, violet glancing from each boy. She had to think fast, if just to protect Téa's secret. It was obvious she hadn't come completely clean with them yet, and the true identity of both Téa's crush and her boss was still a mystery to them.

"That's ridiculous," Mai interjected, trying to sound as forceful and sure as she ever had, "Kaiba? Téa thinks he's the most arrogant blowhard to walk the Earth. She'd never crush on him, let alone **live** with him." she paused, forcing her trademark playful smirk, "and believe me, I know. From all our girl talks."

Joey looked unconvinced, "Really, Mai? I mean, you and Téa seem like you're gettin' closer an' all that, but…"

Mai mustered all the courage she could, about to tell the biggest lie in a long while, "Trust me."

* * *

Days later, the school had finally 'recovered' from all the excitement and mess the Autumn Festival had brought with it. The student council and class representatives finally had a chance to relax, all the paperwork and finances having been taken care of.

But of course, there was still much on Téa Gardner's mind.

Like, for example, the offer Fran had made her, Serenity, and Chieko. That and, more prominently, what in the world she could get Seto for his birthday.

It had been three days since the festival—leaving only four days for Téa to come up with something. And she was **still** drawing a blank.

"What's up, Téa?" Yugi smiled at her, joining the brunette as they walked down the hall and to their shoe cubbies. School had let out for the day, and Téa, Yugi, Duke, Joey, and Tristan had all arranged to grab a bite to eat at the local diner.

They'd started a tradition with the first time they'd gone there, to cheer Téa up all those months ago…and eventually, Duke had joined the party, turning the event into a weekly gathering of friends—in a comfortable, stress-free environment.

There were no duels, no class work, no rivalry…

Well, almost none. Duke and Tristan regularly bickered about Serenity, and as a result, Yugi, Joey, and Téa had come to the silent agreement that Serenity would stay out of their after school lunches—at least until she became a Domino High student herself in the spring. Having her around would only fuel the fire between Duke and Tristan, who seemed so possessive of Serenity, it was bordering on childish.

"Gah…Yugi, what do you get for someone when you have **no** idea what they want or even **need** for their birthday?" Téa sighed, exhaling deeply.

"Birthday?" Yugi looked confused, "October, October…Tristan's April 19th, Bakura's September 2nd, Joey's January 25th…Grandpa's birthday was on the 4th…" Yugi scratched his head, "Who are you talking about, Téa?"

Téa swallowed.

"Um, well…" She scratched behind her ear, a nervous habit she'd had since she was a child. And one Yugi recognized all too well.

He stopped walking and looked at his friend, an eyebrow raised in amusement, "You can tell me, Téa."

"It's Kaiba!" Téa finally blurted. Her voice dropped a level when she noticed a few of her classmates glance at her oddly, "I mean, he's just done so much for me in the past few months, and we've all known him for so long now…I just think it'd be nice to get him something. But I can't think of a thing!"

Yugi looked thoughtful —a bit surprised at first, but…

_'That has to be it. Téa doesn't _like _Kaiba that way, she just wants to thank him for all he's done. And…her crush is someone else. It–it has to be.'_

"Well," he scratched the back of his head briefly, trying to think, "do you know anything that he likes?"

Téa gave Yugi a flat stare, "This is Kaiba we're talking about here. He's about as impossible to figure out as…" Téa eyed the Millennium Puzzle briefly, very tempted to name Yami as her subject, but she refrained, "a Rubix Cube!"

Yugi only sweatdropped in response to that; Rubix Cubes were some of the first puzzles Yugi had mastered as a child, and he had a collection of finished ones lining a bookshelf in his room.

"Well…we have hung around him for a while," Yugi murmured. 'Hung around' probably wasn't the best choice of words, but what else could he say? That'd he'd dueled him multiple times, and almost lost his life and his sanity in doing so? That probably wasn't the kind of answer Téa needed to hear.

But regardless of how long they'd known Seto Kaiba, he was still as enigmatic as the first day they'd encountered him at Domino High. Though Téa seemed to have cracked his shell some, what with the way he seemed to **like** her and all.

Yugi frowned, remembering the jealous expression on Seto Kaiba's face at the festival. He hadn't told anyone what he'd seen, least of all Téa. How could he, when he was still clinging onto the hope that maybe Seto's obvious affections -or whatever they were- for Téa were not shared? That maybe, just maybe, the crush she'd spoken of **wasn't** her boss, **wasn't** Seto Kaiba or Ryou Bakura or anyone else…but him? Yugi! He who had loved her for so long…

"Huh, all the duels…" Téa furrowed her brows, briefly glancing into her cubby to check her hair and make sure it was straight. The days since the festival had been awfully windy, and Téa's hair tended to flip every which way.

It was a mere three seconds later when Téa's eyes widened, and she shouted in happiness.

"I got it!" she exclaimed, a grin blossoming on her face.

"What? What have you got?" Yugi looked bewildered, Téa's shout startling him from his brief reverie.

"Blue eyes, Yugi!" Téa pointed to her own eyes, brilliant and cerulean in color, eyes that Yugi could find himself lost so easily in…but of course, that wasn't what Téa was trying to get across at the moment. Yugi shook his head vehemently and asked her what she was talking about.

"The Blue-Eyes White Dragon!" Téa explained, "The one card, the one concept, the one **creature** that Seto Kaiba himself is bound to!"

Yugi nodded slowly, beginning to see where Téa's thoughts were going, "How does that translate into a gift?"

Téa wasn't sure; it wasn't as if she could get him a Blue Eyes White Dragon **card**. He **had** the only three that were in existence!

But…there had to be something else. A way to take that wonderfully inspirational thought and turn it into the perfect gift. Téa just had to think of what.

* * *

"Ugh…" Téa groaned in an exaggerated fashion, as she arrived home and promptly flopped down on the kitchen counter, exhausted from her day's efforts.

She'd tried finding something "Blue Eyes White Dragon" for Seto, but nothing had come to mind. She'd gone to all the major shopping districts, trolled through **every** mall, and still…nothing.

Nothing had screamed out at her, called to her, said, plainly and simply "This is meant for Seto Kaiba." And his birthday was drawing ever-nearer, and Téa felt that she was getting backed up against a wall.

The kitchen door swung open, and Téa glanced up from her pillow-of-arms, one eye half-opened to see who the intruder in her quiet space was.

Mokuba.

"Hey Mokuba," Téa grumbled.

The younger boy blinked at her, pausing not a decimeter away, "What's wrong, Téa?"

"Ugh," she groaned, turning on her stool and leaning backwards on the counter, her hair splayed over the clean, white tile, "I've been trying to figure out what to get Seto for his birthday for **day** now. I'm having no luck, obviously."

Mokuba hid a disappointed frown: he'd hoped that whatever problem Téa might have been having, it had nothing to do with his big brother. Though it seemed highly uncharacteristic for the boy, there were some things that Mokuba wished his brother wouldn't set foot in, and one of those "things" was actually a person: Téa.

A few months ago, had someone asked the younger Kaiba if he thought his brother would have anything to do with Téa Gardner, Mokuba would have immediately and firmly replied, "Not a snowball's chance in hell!" And he probably would have been telling the truth.

But now, after everything that had happened, it was hard to tell. Even Mokuba couldn't be sure of his older brother's feelings for Téa. All Mokuba knew was that **he** liked Téa, and he didn't want to lose her to Seto.

For the first time in his life, Mokuba realized that he wasn't agreeing with everything his brother said and did. Rather, he wanted to compete—he wanted something that Seto **also** wanted…right?

Still, a small shred of hope existed within Mokuba's heart, that maybe, just maybe, Seto didn't care for Téa….

_'The way she cares for him? That isn't very nice of me to think that way…'_

Mokuba frowned, desperately trying to push such thoughts out of his head, "I'm going to make him something," he responded, "maybe you could try that?"

Téa pushed herself up from the counter, "I would, kiddo, but I'm about as adept with glue as I am in Duel Monsters," Mokuba raised an eyebrow, "which means **NOT AT ALL**!"

The younger boy laughed, "I don't know about that."

"Well, it's a thought. And you might have just given me an idea," Téa mused, "Something handmade, right? Maybe I could get Seto something—" Téa's thought was cut off as the kitchen door swung open, Seto Kaiba standing in the doorway. He glanced from Téa to Mokuba, an eyebrow raised in query.

"Did I interrupt something?"

Téa smiled innocently ,"Noooope." She rose from the stool and winked at Mokuba, causing the younger boy to flush crimson, "Thanks for your help."

Seto only looked at Mokuba, his expression curious.

* * *

Three days left. Thanks to Yugi, who had mentioned duels, and Mokuba, who had suggested a handmade gift, Téa was much more selective when it came to what stores she went into.

Handmade gifts…

Purses. Jackets. Hand-painted pottery.

Seto Kaiba didn't need any of it. Téa wanted her gift to be practical, but it was awfully difficult to find something special for Seto Kaiba that was also **useful**. Especially a useful, special something that he didn't already have, stashed somewhere in that gigantic mansion of his.

Quite unexpectedly, Téa found herself headed towards a break between storefronts, a small alley lined with trash cans, tied-up garbage bags, and dirt-covered dumpsters.

Under normal circumstances, Téa wouldn't have even considered glancing down such a forbidding alleyway. But…

A wave of heat pressed against Téa's skin, the sudden sound of metal clanking against metal drawing her deeper and deeper into the alleyway.

Suddenly, Téa found herself glancing into a workshop of sorts, tools hanging down from every single nook and cranny. A brilliant orange fire glowed from within a furnace, just barely visible amongst the scattered tables and workbenches.

And, on every tabletop, on every windowsill, hanging down from every rafter…

"Beautiful…" Téa found herself stepping into the place, her eyes catching on every piece of glasswork displayed in the workshop. She hardly noticed that the clanking sound that had drawn her to the place had ceased, and footsteps signaled the approach of someone coming in her direction.

"They are, aren't they?" A voice spoke up. Téa glanced down, embarrassed that she'd been caught intruding in someone's personal workspace.

"The way the light shines through them…And the glass can take so many forms, so it never looks the same, regardless of who looks at it, or what position it's in…"

"Hi," Téa smiled, tearing her gaze away from the glass objects littering the place, "I'm Téa Gardner. I–I was looking for a present for someone, and I just happened on this place…"

The middle-aged man who apparently worked there nodded, a smile cracking his stubble-covered features, "Not many people 'happen' on a place such as this when they're out gift-shopping," he grinned, "but the few that do manage to find their way here are usually in for something special. What can I help you with?"

Téa blinked, somewhat startled at the man's forwardness, "Well, I…Do you do custom work?"

The man laughed, the sound echoing off the skylights and reverberating off the glassworks throughout the room, "It's all custom, Miss Gardner. No two things alike in this workshop here."

"Um," Téa chuckled, her face flushing in embarrassment, "Would you be able to do…well, a dragon?"

The man turned towards her, a bushy eyebrow raised in amusement, "Never gotten a request like that before. Vases, plates, even jewelry…but never a dragon. Could you be a bit more specific?"

"Well," Téa scratched behind her ear, "Have you…" Had the older man even **heard** of Duel Monsters? Why was it so difficult to describe a dragon? The very name of the creature dictated its appearance: Blue Eyes, White Dragon!

"Have I what?" The man's eyes were twinkling, his smile broadening with each passing moment.

"Ever heard of Duel Monsters?" Téa finally blurted, her cheeks coloring. She was beginning to wonder if the heat rushing to her cheeks had anything to do with the furnace in the corner, or if she really **was** just embarrassing herself over and over again.

"Heard of it? Of course I have, dear! I'd have to be living under a rock not to have!" the man exclaimed, disappearing around the corner. He reappeared with a small box in his hands, about sixteen centimeters high.

He set it on a workbench, opening it carefully. Téa leaned closer to get a better look. Her blue eyes widened in astonishment as the figurine was revealed.

"Flame Swordsman," the man murmured softly, pride evident in his voice. "A special request. These figurines usually take a while to make, since I have to blend the different glasses together, shape them. It's a very difficult and time-consuming process, but always worth it," he glanced up at Téa, "Not to boast, but I'd have to say I'm the best glassblower in Tokyo. Not another one for a good hundred kilometers could pull off something like this."

Téa's eyes remained riveted on the glass Flames Swordsman figurine. The furnace light reflected off the elegant purple glass, glowing brighter through the bright orange-red glass of the sword. It was…amazing.

"Could you–could you make a Blue-Eyes White Dragon?"

The man chuckled, much to Téa's surprise, "I had a feeling that's what you'd be asking for."

Téa blinked, confusion evident on her face, "How–how could you have known?" She cocked her head to the side, "You aren't psychic, are you?"

The old man grinned, "Nope. But…" He looked at Téa carefully, "You seem to have that spirit. That same…I'm not sure how to describe it. The Blue-Eyes fits you."

"Oh! It's–it's not for me! I mean, I'm–I'm looking for a special gift for someone…else."

"I know that," the man said. "When you came in here, you said you were looking for a present for someone. But obviously, if you managed to find this place…and you want this gift to be as special as you say, then your spirit must be in it. It's not a run-of-the-mill gift, is it?"

Téa shook her head. "You're right, it's not."

There was something about the man's words that nagged at the back of Téa's mind, but she couldn't put her finger on it. Spirit?

She dismissed the thought before it could fully form, smiling at the man again.

"I–It's a gift for someone that means a lot to me. And the Blue-Eyes White Dragon means a lot to him, too. It symbolizes a lot of things for him, and his brother…" The man's eyebrow raised, but he kept silent. He knew now just who Téa was getting the gift for. He knew a lot of things, doing what he did. Few found his place, and even fewer ever bothered to ask how or why he did or knew the things that he did.

"Then I have the perfect design in mind," the man responded, heading over to a workbench. He brushed aside some papers, revealing a large white newsprint sketchbook. He pulled a few soft-lead pencils from a glass holder, sketching out a design.

Three dragons curled around a short cylindrical base, two of them having their necks wound around one another, while the third appeared smaller, looking up at the other two with an interesting expression on its face.

Téa ran her fingers over the image, careful not to smudge the artwork, "It's perfect…" she breathed. It was if the man knew exactly what she'd been envisioning. Beside her, the man smiled, brilliant blue eyes gleaming.

"Good. I'll make it, say…this big?" He gestured with his hands, "and I can fix it to a silver base." He nodded towards Téa, "Would you like anything engraved on it?"

Téa paused a moment.

A special gift. From her to him. Something that only **she** could give. A gift from **her** heart, **her** spirit: something that would tell him how much she really cared for him…

"Yeah." And with a bright smile and flushed cheeks, Téa leaned towards the sketch, writing down what she wanted engraved on the base.

"Excellent." The man nodded, "It'll be ready in about two days, so you can come back then."

Téa looked hesitant, "Shouldn't I pay for it now?"

"That's quite all right, dear. I want the piece to be your satisfaction before you hand me anything." Téa nodded brightly; she hadn't brought a whole lot of money with her that day anyway, and she suspected that such a gift would be costly.

"Thank you, thank you so much." Téa smiled gratefully at the man before heading towards the workshop doors, "See you in two days!"

"Indeed," The man waved back at her before turning back to the sketch and the words Téa had specified she wanted engraved on the base. "Indeed, Miss Gardner."

* * *

"Did you get something?" Yugi asked Téa as they walked down the hallways towards their first class.

Téa nodded, a satisfied smile on her face, "It's going to be perfect!" Her smile dropped slightly, "Well, I hope so, anyway. I hope he likes it."

"He who?" Joey asked, appearing behind the two and slinging his free arm around Téa's shoulder, "Gettin' a gift for your mysterious crush?" He winked down at Yugi, who flushed in embarrassment and looked away.

"No!" Téa turned scarlet, even though Joey was right, "It's—well, Kaiba's birthday is coming up, and…"

"Kaiba?" Joey blinked, dropping his arm from Téa's shoulder to his side. He remembered Duke's theory , and how Mai had shot it down without a minute's hesitation. Joey realized that he hadn't known Duke or Mai for very long, and he didn't exactly know why **** he was inclined to believe Duke this time….

He hated not trusting Mai, though. But why would she have lied? How could she have known differently, anyway? It was true, she was getting closer with Téa in recent weeks…but did that mean the blonde was privy to **all** of Téa's secrets? Joey couldn't force the idea out of his head, but he had to try. For Téa's sake…he just had to believe Mai. There was no way that Téa liked Kaiba **that** way.

"What happened to him being the most arrogant blowhard in the world?"

Téa blinked, confusion etched in her eyes for a minute, "Well, I don't know if that's changed much," the boys chuckled at Téa's response, "but he **has** been awfully nice to me these past few months. If it weren't for him…" she trailed off. She didn't need to be vivid in describing how different her fate would have turned out if Seto Kaiba hadn't interfered. True, the boys didn't know **how** much of a hand Seto had had in saving her from foster care, but…

"Yeah," Joey stretched his arms behind his head, offering a nod towards Duke and Tristan, approaching them from the other direction, "and I guess the guy's been through enough with us to warrant a little somethin'…"

Téa's eyes widened, "Are you guys going to get him something, too?"

"Him who?" Duke asked, yawning.

"Kaiba," Yugi replied, though his voice was laced with sadness. "His birthday's coming up. What day did you say it was, Téa?"

"The 25th," Téa murmured.

"What? That's in only two days!" Joey exclaimed, "Man…now what the heck am I gonna do?"

Téa stared at the blond in surprise, "I didn't think you were serious in getting him something, Joey."

Joey laughed, "Serious about a gift, sure. But that doesn't mean the gift is gonna be serious." He winked conspiratorially at the other boys.

Tristan groaned, "Dude, hand-me-down porn videos aren't Kaiba's thing, I'm sure…"

Joey flushed, "**Hey**! Who said anything about forking down my collection—"

Téa fixed at Joey and Tristan with an unamused stare, despite the smirk creeping up the corners of her mouth, "GUYYYYS!"

* * *

"This is hopeless," Téa groaned.

Though the festival had gone off well—and Téa had found out the truth from Chieko—Téa's mind was far from clear.

She remembered the offer the woman from the dance company had made; she remembered Bakura's eerily accurate Tarot reading and the things it predicted; she remembered Seto admitting that his birthday was on the 25th.

The 25th! Just over a week! Téa had gone crazy trying to come up with things to get Seto, and when she'd finally decided on something…

Téa Gardner sighed, cupping her chin in her palms as she leaned on the kitchen counter. Seto had been gone all day. According to Mokuba—and Téa's own experience living with the young man—Seto wasn't the type to simply up and disappear, even if it was his birthday, and he had every reason to celebrate.

So where had he gone—all day?

With a lot of prying, Téa had found out what Seto's favorite food was, and went to great length to prepare the dish—a complicated and difficult meal called beef foie gras in sauce, or a specially marinated and cured French beef. A veal cutlet, to be precise. She could have ordered it from one of the expensive French restaurants in the city, but it wouldn't have been the same.

_'Besides,'_ Téa thought, glancing at the small white box in which her gift to Seto was contained, _'that's just a dinky present…not enough, hardly anything in comparison to everything Seto's done for me, has _become_ to me…'_

And so, she'd spent the entire week since the festival practicing with every spare minute of her time, reading cookbooks, testing her recipe out on smaller pieces of beef, and even going to the lengths of having one of the school's French teachers taste a sample Téa had prepared in Home Ec during her free period.

And they'd all said it was good.

Whether Seto thought the same would be known only in a matter of time…

_'Of course, if he never comes home, then all this work will be for _waste_!'_

Of course, the thought provoked a steadily disturbing chain in Téa's mind. If he **never **came home? What had happened to Seto Kaiba on that day, his own birthday, that caused him to not come home? What if it **had** been something terrible, and Téa wouldn't find out until…

She swallowed hard, shaking her head. Tears gathered on the edges of her eyes, threatening to fall, but she managed to hold them back. _'No! I can't think that way. I'm sure he's fine. Probably gone to Kaiba Corp. The guy never takes a break for himself, even on his birthday.'_ Of course, he was lucky because his birthday had fallen on a Saturday—he'd only had to go to school for half a day, but had disappeared the moment the bell had rung.

Téa, at the time, had thought it for the better. She'd still had to pick up his present, get ready for dinner, and…

In the distance, a door slammed.

Téa blinked, the loud noise startling her. She realized the sound had been the sound of the garage door shutting, but by the time she'd gotten up for her place beside the counter, Seto Kaiba was nowhere in sight. Téa frowned at the door of his office, the lights inside flicking on suddenly.

_'So he thinks he can just come home and not say a word! I know it's his birthday and everything but the least he could say is "I'm home" or something…'_ Téa humphed to herself, and started gathering things—the tray with Seto's dinner on it, along with several gifts from the guys and herself, and placing them on a cart she'd found in one of the kitchen closets.

She paused outside Seto's office door—just for a moment—wondering what she should say. Finally, an idea came to her, and she adopted a smile, knocking briefly before opening the door.

It was no surprise to see Seto already sitting at his desk, computer on, as though he planned to work on one thing or another for the remainder of the night—instead of celebrating, like most eighteen-year-olds did. He'd turned to face the opening door once Téa had knocked, about to say "Come in," but Téa had entered even without his saying so.

Not that he minded. Rather, his curiosity was piqued. Namely by the huge mound of gifts -and a dinner platter- on the tray she was wheeling into the room.

"Forgetting something?" Téa grinned, gesturing down to the presents and the tray.

"What is all this?" Seto asked, somewhat dubiously. Surely she hadn't gotten **all** those things for him…

"Gifts. From the guys—and me, of course…" Téa blushed slightly, her eyes drifting towards the single white box, the smallest of the bunch, sitting on top of all the other gifts. She'd scribbled on it last minute "Open me last!"—though it wouldn't delay the inevitable by much. It wasn't as if she could just refuse to give him a gift; it had taken her long enough to decide what to get him, and then…

Seto's eyebrows shot up as he stood, taking one of the boxes and shaking it.

Téa stared at him oddly, "What are you doing?"

She was on the verge of giggling when Seto sniffed the box, "It's not going to explode or anything," Téa rolled her eyes. "Haven't you ever seen a birthday present before?"

"You can never be too sure," Seto replied, half-serious. Téa blinked, wondering if the CEO ever **had** received exploding birthday presents before. That sure wouldn't have been fun.

_'Understatement of the year, genius,'_ Téa thought, her gaze wandering towards the silver platter on which she'd put Seto's dinner. She'd gone to great lengths to get everything right—and had rummaged through the kitchen and dining room to find nice enough plates and trays to serve everything with.

"Um…" she nudged the tray forward, almost shyly, "I made you dinner." Seto blinked, looking at Téa, then the covered tray, then Téa. "Happy Birthday," she murmured softly, a very slight smile curling the corners of her lips.

She turned to leave, but remembered something suddenly, "Don't shake the small white box, okay?"

"Why? What's in it?" Seto asked, eying the aforementioned gift. He glanced at the "Open me last!" written in bold letters, scrawled over the top of the box, one of his eyebrows raised in query and amusement.

"It's…a surprise. Just don't shake it, okay?" Téa grinned, her hand on the doorknob, "Goodnight, Seto. I'll come back later…for the tray."

Seto nodded slowly, already fingering one of the gifts. He'd never seen so many before—each one different from the other. Of course, he'd gotten presents before…from company associates and the like. Usually boring things, in boring paper. Things like engraved pens, ties, or business card holders. All very useless and meaningless to a 'dynamic, up-and-coming CEO' such as Seto Kaiba.

Curiosity got the better of him, and he lifted the first box—a bright green and black striped one—and pulled the paper off. At first, he was methodical about it, tearing along the folds and being very careful about it all—but patience gave way to the near-giddiness building up in the eighteen-year-old. Without a second thought, Seto Kaiba ripped the paper off, tore the box open, and looked inside.

* * *

Some forty minutes later, Téa was so anxious that she concluded Seto **had** to be done with his dinner by then, and she should go back into his office to fetch the tray. She was also curious whether or not he'd opened his gifts yet, and, of course, what the guys had gotten him….

_'I didn't think they'd actually do it,'_ Téa mused,_ 'But they did. Every one of them got him gifts. Something tells me at least one of them will be a gag though,'_ Téa chuckled.

When she reached Seto's office door, she hesitated. She was still nervous about the engraving on her gift to Seto—worried, paranoid…so many things at once, but regardless, her heart was racing. Her hand barely scraped the wood of the door at first, but finally, she sucked in a breath and knocked, waiting for a reply this time.

"Come in," Seto's voice came. At first, Téa thought his voice sounded a bit odd, and entered the room, a confused expression on her face. She looked at Seto, surrounded by empty and torn-apart boxes, shreds of wrapping paper and tissue paper, and several cards and envelopes. He had a huge smile on his face, which looked very nearly out of place on the usually stone-faced CEO…but it warmed Téa to her very core.

The tray on which Téa had brought Seto his dinner was completely cleaned, and she blinked in surprise, double-taking.

"You…liked the dinner?" She waited for an answer with bated breath—she'd tried so hard to get the recipe right, and even if he said it was "okay," she would be relieved. As long as he didn't turn green or throw up…

"It was delicious," he smiled up at her, pausing in his foraging through the gifts. "You knew beef foie gras was my favorite, didn't you?" He pronounced the name of the French dish with ease, a near-perfect French accent sounding when he spoke. But that, of course, was to be expected—French was only one of the few languages Seto spoke fluently.

"A little horse told me," Téa grinned, making a pun of Mokuba's name.

Seto grinned as well, "Thank you."

Téa blushed and smiled widely. "It was no trouble. Besides, it's your birthday and all…I wanted to do something nice."

"This is the best birthday I've ever had. I hope you know that." His smile wasn't as wide now, but the expression on Seto Kaiba's face was remarkably serious.

_He means it,'_ Téa thought, elated. _'He really…wow.'_

"So…" Téa trailed off, gazing at all the boxes, "what did you get?" Seto chuckled, and reached into one of the smaller boxes, pulling out what looked like a brown ball of fuzz.

"From Wheeler," he said with a smirk. He moved his hand slightly and revealed that the puff was a tiny brown dog, a toy one. He flicked a switch on its base, and set it down. Moments later, the little dog started yapping in a high-pitched bark, wagging its tail madly. It flipped in the air once, landed soundly on its paws, and proceeded to bark again.

Téa giggled, petting the little thing on its head, even while it barked and wagged its tail. Seto chuckled, "I think he likes you."

Téa laughed, "I think he likes everyone!"

Seto took the dog and turned it off, "Well now, I'll always have a constant reminder of Wheeler right here in my office." He was referring to how he constantly called Joey a 'mutt,' (or some variant thereof) and how even Duke Devlin had taken advantage of the unwanted nickname, forcing Joey into a dog-suit when he lost a match of Dungeon Dice Monsters.

Seto removed the other gifts from their boxes; from Duke Devlin, he'd gotten a special Blue-Eyes White Dragon Dungeon Dice Monsters starter set, while Serenity—surprisingly giving Seto a gift of her own, rather than including her name on the card that had come with her brother's gag gift—gave Seto a book.

"'Chicken Soup…for the CEO's Soul'?" Téa read, her eyebrows raised.

Seto smirked, "She's got good intentions."

Tristan had gotten him a subscription to a magazine—the name of which Téa hadn't caught—while Yugi had gotten what Seto considered the oddest gift of them all—a game called 'Cranium.'

"Oh, that game is a blast!" Téa grinned, remembering when she'd played the game with the guys at Yugi's house. It had been a while since she'd gone over to to the Turtle Game Shop; it felt like so long…

"Then we'll have to play it sometime," Seto said with a smile.

"There's just one left." Téa's blue eyes widened. Her eyes drifted over to the cart, where the lone, unopened box sat. Her gift. The tiny white box…and suddenly she felt the need to stall. She snatched the gift out of Seto's reach before he could grab it, chuckling nervously as she whipped it behind her back.

"Um, wait! What did Mokuba get you?"

Seto cocked an eyebrow up at her in question, "Afraid you got the same thing?" Téa shook her head, _'That's next to impossible,'_ she thought to herself, but her apprehension didn't fade.

"This," Seto carefully drew out what looked like a picture frame—assembled from cardboard, colored pipe-cleaners, and popsicle sticks. Mokuba had arranged everything in such a manner that the popsicle sticks, painted blue, had a fuzzy Blue-Eyes White Dragon made from the pipe-cleaners perched on their top, rightmost corner, staring out from the frame with googly eyes.

"Cute," Téa smiled. "He must have worked hard on it."

"I have to find the right picture to put in there," Seto smiled, looking thoughtful for a moment. "Can I have my present now?" He faked a pout, and hesitantly, Téa handed him the box, their fingers touching for one brief, electric moment.

Half of her wanted to dash out of the room, and escape like a bat out of hell while the other half remained firmly planted to the floor, regardless of what she **thought** she wanted, her legs as heavy as stone.

Unlike the other gifts, Seto opened Téa's carefully—not just because she was right in front of him, but because of her earlier warning. He surmised that there was something fragile inside, which already made her gift vastly different from everyone else's.

"…Wow…" he breathed, removing a statuette from the tissue paper-filled box. The statuette was that of a blown glass Blue-Eyes White Dragon—more precisely, three of them. Two of them sat atop the sterling silver base, while one wound around it. The two that sat perched on the base had their necks linked around one another, their eyes staring right at one another. The third dragon, and the smaller of the triad, was looking up at the other two from below, almost in curiosity.

Great detail had been put into the sculpting of the statuette, as the dragons had scales, wings, and even differently-colored eyes, reflecting back a deep, sapphire blue. Seto turned the gift in his hands several times, admiring it, before his gaze caught on some words engraved around the rim of the base.

_'Happy 18th Birthday, Seto Kaiba. Love, Téa.'_

Téa swallowed hard. She knew he'd noticed the engraving, she'd watched him read it. There was no going back—there **hadn't** been any going back, not since she'd decided that she **wanted** those words engraved on the base, several days ago.

Seto glanced up at Téa curiously, and she was sure he was going to ask her about the "Love" on the base. She mustered all the courage she could, ready to admit her feelings then and there if need be—

"Thank you," he whispered.

Téa almost heaved a sigh of relief, but managed to smile brightly instead, "Of course, Seto! I mean, it was the least I could do! It's just a silly paperweight, really, but…"

"I love it," Seto interrupted her smoothly. For a moment, Téa had been sure he was about to say something else—something further—but he'd stopped. Téa knew then that it was time to leave: she'd done what she'd set out to do, and made Seto happy on his birthday. That was all that mattered. She turned to go, about to push the cart with the tray and all the empty boxes out, when a hand reached out and grabbed her arm.

Before she knew what was happening, she'd been whirled into Seto Kaiba's embrace, his arms wrapping around her easily. She could feel his warm breath on her neck, and after the first initial moment of surprise and shock, Téa put her arms around Seto as well, hugging him back.

"Thank you, thank you, thank you," Seto whispered softly, tendrils of Téa's hair flying upward and brushing against her left ear.

_'I want to tell him!'_ Téa thought suddenly, her heart aching. She squeezed Seto tighter, wordlessly, and allowed him to do the same. What few minutes they spent in each other's arms seemed to stretch into an eternity, a silent moment of bliss for Téa.

And for a split second, the world around them froze. Téa could hear her heartbeat pounding in her head, sounding unnaturally slow. She pulled back only slightly, slowly, her eyes closed as thoughts raced through her mind. She wanted to do it, she **needed** to do it. If she could, it meant she could stop bottling up all her feelings….

Blue met with blue, her eyes a bright cerulean, while his were fathomless pools of navy. Breathing and heartbeats quickened, both sure something was about to happen, though neither could say for sure what.

Without realizing it, Téa found herself searching Seto Kaiba's eyes, looking for the answer to her unspoken question—the one she'd kept locked away in her heart for so many months now, screaming to be said, most especially in the past week.

_'Please, tell me he feels something—_anything—_for me…'_ Téa found herself wishing, hoping, dreaming. Even as her eyes shifted, memorizing every curve of Seto's face, they alighted on something else.

On a bureau behind Seto's desk, a picture frame: a picture of Mokuba.

The young boy was smiling widely, his elder brother standing stoically beside him. The faintest traces of a smirk could be seen curling the corners of Seto Kaiba's lips in the picture, but only if one looked very closely and knew what they were looking for.

_'What am I thinking!?'_ Téa thought suddenly, _'How can I be so selfish as to not see…Seto's priority is his brother! I can't–I _couldn't_ ever come between them, and that's just what I'm trying to do! How dare I?'_ She was almost on the verge of tears, forcing herself to close the gap that had formed between herself and Seto Kaiba.

She wedged herself into the nook of his shoulder, where she'd initially fallen, when Seto had whirled her into his embrace. Téa squeezed her eyes shut, willing time to resume its normal course so she could get out of there—out of Seto's arms, out of his presence—as soon as possible. It was becoming increasingly difficult **not** to act on her emotions, her inhibitions, her desire.

With the whole of her body protested against kissing anything but his lips, Téa shifted slightly, gently brushing her lips against his cheek. She'd wanted so badly to kiss him in that moment, to feel his **lips** moving against hers. But then, she'd seen that picture, and everything became all muddled again.

"I…" Téa paused, licking her lips as she loosened her arms around Seto and forced herself to look away. "Happy Birthday." And with a flurry of movement, she sprung out of his arms and out of the room, shoving the cart out with her.

A full minute later, Seto Kaiba blinked, his arms still splayed as though Téa were still within their confines. But she'd left.

They'd been so close, and…

Two fingers brushed against the spot on Seto's right cheek, where she'd gently kissed him.

_'Dammit!'_

* * *

Against Téa's will, she awoke early the following morning, a cool, overcast Sunday. Her thoughts were, as per usual since she'd moved into the Kaiba household, jumbled.

She knew Seto was likely awake already, and despite her initial mental protests to seek him out, she found herself doing just that. But of course, she didn't want to **seem** like she'd been searching for him, and so she just wandered about the house, coming downstairs and circling the living and dining areas before entering the kitchen. There was no sign of him.

_'He hasn't disappeared on me again, has he? I never _did_ get around to asking him where he spent all day yesterday…'_

Téa glanced into his office, but the wooden room was cold and empty.

She spared the picture frame on the bureau—the one that had interrupted her thoughts so utterly the night before—a single glance before sighing, wondering if she was truly regretting what could have been, or if she was just being her stubborn self when it came to accepting the past and moving on.

At the precise moment Téa closed her eyes and clicked Seto's office door shut, she heard the door from the garage into the laundry room open. Téa walked briskly over to the aforementioned door, blinking in surprise when her eyes met with Seto Kaiba's.

Her gaze shifted quickly, and that was when her eyes alighted on the motorcycle **behind** Seto Kaiba. Its parts gleamed like polished silver, the reflection of the chrome sparkling in the early morning light filtering through the small garage windows.

A silver and blue design—dragons?—was apparent on the Honda Shadow Sabre's covered parts, though it the morning light didn't touch the metal as brightly as it did the chrome parts.

Téa's jaw dropped.

"Ride…me!" she squeaked, her eyes never straying from the sleek new vehicle parked in the garage. She gestured wildly from the cycle to herself, blue eyes as wide as plates.

She'd always wanted to ride on a motorcycle—see the world blurring past her, nothing ever sticking long enough to worry her—and have that thrill, that sense of freedom, adventure, danger, all at once.

Téa had asked Tristan once, surprising the young man, but he'd declined—on two reasons. The first was that he wasn't **legally **allowed to ride his motorcycle, as he wasn't 18 yet, and if he got pulled over with a passenger on his bike, he'd be in even deeper trouble. The second reason was because he admitted his own driving skills weren't exactly professional—and he didn't want to risk Téa getting hurt.

When Téa finally pulled her gaze away from the bike to see what Seto would say in response to her request, she realized just what she'd said.

And, just as quickly, she blurted, her face crimson, "That didn't come out the way I wanted it to!" She waved her hands in front of herself, almost defensively, guarding herself from the slowly approaching Seto, who wore a devilish smirk on his face.

One eyebrow was raised in amusement as he approached her, "Are you sure about that?" he chuckled. "Either way, I'd be more than willing to oblige…"

The scarlet that had colored Téa's cheeks deepened, but before her jaw really could drop, she lowered her head slightly and muttered, "Pervert."

Seto only grinned cockily as he put both hands on his hips. "You said it, not me."

"You misinterpreted it!" Téa shot back, looking up at him, blue eyes dancing with light. A smirk of her own formed on her face, her gaze drifting back and forth from the motorcycle.

Was that where he'd been all day yesterday? Getting his bike?

"How do you know that I misinterpreted it when you're the one interpreting my possible misinterpretation?" Seto retorted.

Téa raised her brows at the challenge, grinning now, "Ah, but you said 'either way,' giving me reason to believe that you interpreted my words at face value, which means my initial interpretation of your misinterpretation of my words was, in fact, correct!" Téa crowed triumphantly.

Seto's once-arrogant grin faded, and he knit his brows together, "Stop confusing me."

Téa only laughed, "But why? I'm so **good** at it!" She smiled beautifully at Seto, who forced his gaze to the cool floor.

"Got that right," he mumbled under his breath.

"What was that?" Téa asked, leaning forward.

"Go change! You can't wear that," Seto gestured to Téa's pajamas, "on a motorcycle, anyway." He groaned, rolling his eyes as he turned back into the garage, "So you'll give me a ride?" Téa was leaning towards him on the balls of her feet, pouting in a way Seto thought only Mokuba had mastered.

"Yes! I'll give you a ride—" A slight pause, seeing Téa's grin, "on the **motorcycle**!" Téa laughed and skipped out of the room, dashing upstairs to change into something more suitable for a motorcycle ride.

* * *

"I was thinking—" a voice interrupted Seto as he went over his new bike for the umpteenth time that morning, "if you just turned eighteen yesterday, how do I know you can ride this thing without killing twenty innocent pedestrians on your way to…wherever it is we're going?" Seto glanced up at Téa, nearly choking on his tongue when he noticed she wore a pair of black leather flared pants, a ribbed maroon turtleneck, and a black leather jacket.

She looked beautiful.

But not the same kind of beautiful as the ball—or any of the other days and nights when Seto found himself admiring Téa. This was something entirely different. A strange feeling turned in the pit of Seto Kaiba's stomach, the sensation forcing him to tear his gaze from the approaching girl back to his bike. He strolled over to where he'd put the two helmets he'd bought, willing the uncomfortable feeling in his abdomen to go away.

"I guess you could say I've been cheating the system for a while now," Seto smirked, despite Téa not being able to see him. He flicked on a light switch, casting brilliant and nearly blinding florescent light throughout the concrete garage.

Téa shielded her eyes for a moment, but soon adjusted to the light, blinking. She'd never been in the garage before, and had only gone as far as she had this particular morning since she'd been looking for Seto and had spotted him standing before a new motorcycle.

But obviously the new Honda Shadow Sabre wasn't the only vehicle in the young CEO's collection; the white lights touched on what had to be no less than six cars. Most of them were rather sporty and sleek, all in blues, silvers, and black, save the one bright red Acura Integra, Type R.

"Been driving for over two years now," he grinned, "and taking lessons for the newest addition to my collection here. So…are we going for a **ride**?" Téa's attention snapped back to Seto and the silver-blue "Dragon Bike," and she nodded dumbly, catching the black helmet Seto threw at her and putting it on.

It was a mere second later when she flipped the visor up, her muffled voice asking, "What about Mokuba?"

It was still early, and the boy wasn't awake yet, but Téa still worried about him.

"We'll be back before he wakes up," Seto assured her, flipping his own visor down. He mounted the bicycle shortly after turning the main garage lights out, throwing his own leather jacket on and zipping it all the way up.

Téa looked a bit unsure as to how to get on, but eventually straddled the heavily-padded seat. She glanced about, wondering where to put her hands, much to the amusement of Seto, who glanced backwards, his eyes twinkling with amusement behind his darkened visor.

He started up the engine abruptly, revving up if just to see Téa's reaction. She jumped in her seat, and started fumbling, desperately trying to find a handhold before Seto took off.

"Hold on," he said simply before throwing the kick-stand backwards and balancing on the bike.

Téa stared at him incredulously, "To whaaaaaa—" She never finished her last syllable, as Seto Kaiba pressed down on the gas and zoomed out of the garage, Téa's arms slinging around his midsection as they tore out into the morning.

* * *

Sometime after the first five minutes of the ride, Téa had stopped staring about in wonder. It became increasingly difficult to even make the attempt, what with the way Seto Kaiba kept speeding by everything.

_'Lessons? He's probably been riding a bike for years! There's no way a beginner could handle the road this smoothly,'_Téa thought to herself. Of course, never having been on a motorcycle herself, she didn't know what a truly "smooth" ride was like. But the way Seto drove wasn't causing her heart to leap up her throat, nor scenes from her life flash before her eyes.

It was almost relaxing.

They plunged into walls of fog, streaking through the nearly-empty city streets during the early morning hours. Téa had stopped paying attention to their surroundings, and kept her arms around Seto's waist, leaning her head against his back.

She was awoken from her brief stupor when the bike stopped, Seto shutting off the engine briefly and throwing the kick-stand down to balance the bike on its own.

"We're here," he said, removing his helmet and securing it to the back of the bike, along with Téa's, using a chain he had stored under the seat. Téa glanced around, her eyes revealing her surprise.

"A cemetery? Real romantic." Ever since her parent's funeral, Téa had developed strong feelings **against** places like graveyards and cemeteries—and this particular one had a strange, haunting feel to it.

"Next time you want romantic, feel free to make a suggestion," Seto remarked, though there was no trace of emotion in his voice. He was stone-faced and deadly serious, even as he moved the two metal gates at the entrance aside, stepping into the cool morning mist.

Hesitating, Téa followed Seto into the graveyard, wondering why the young man had chosen such a spot to go so soon after his birthday.

* * *

Dew-moistened sprigs of grass were crushed into the soft mud underneath their feet. While Seto Kaiba, wearing a pair of knee-length boots, didn't care less, Téa was somewhat more careful, trying to keep to the drier parts of the graveyard.

They stopped before a plot of land separated from the rest of the graveyard, one that she and Seto had accessed via a wrought-iron gate. A thick garden surrounded the two graves therein.

They looked like any other graves—plain, rectangular tombstones made of granite. But, from the top of the two joined gravestones, rose the figure of a man. The carvings that made up his torso weren't very elaborate; one could barely make out the outline of a stiff jacket on the stone figurine, complete with cushioned shoulders. Behind him, the figure of an angel rose, one arm wrapped protectively around the man's shoulders, while the other arm extended outwards, a hand pressing against open space.

Seto dropped to his knees, pulling some incense out of his jacket. From another pocket, he withdrew a silver lighter, cupping it and the tip of the incense in his hand, protecting the small flame from the cool morning breezes.

Téa remained quiet, a few meters away from him, watching as he kneeled before the graves and prayed silently to himself.

_'His parents,'_ Téa realized. They weren't ever there to celebrate his birthday with him. And Mokuba's birthday fell on the same day that their mother had died. Surely Seto wouldn't take Mokuba to a graveyard on the younger boy's birthday, so…

_'Mother, Father…It's been a while,'_ Seto prayed. It was only in the "presence" of his parents that Seto felt he could truly be himself. There was still a six-year-old boy trapped in his eighteen-year-old body, remembering his true parents and everything they'd done together.

_'A lot has happened in the past few months.' _He glanced out of the corner of his eye at Téa, who was running her fingers across the names on the gravestones. She looked somewhat contemplative, but then Seto couldn't get a good glimpse of her face, given that he was only looking at her profile. He turned back to the gravestone, inhaling the musky scent of the incense.

_'_She_ happened.'_ Seto sighed audibly, causing Téa to glance at him.

Briefly, she wondered what he was thinking—what he was saying to his parents. He'd lost them when he was much younger, and it had undoubtedly traumatized him. He'd had to give up his childhood to protect his brother…

Téa hadn't been to her parent's grave site since the funeral. She wasn't sure if she was ready for it.

_I'm not ready for a lot of things, it seems,'_ Téa thought wryly, _'I wish–I wish I had someone to help me along…to tell me, "this is how you're supposed to be, this is what you have to do to get what you want"…'_ Of course, life didn't work out that way.

Téa glanced up at the angel that was representing Seto's mother. The name on the gravestone read 'Sachiko Hiroma, cherished wife, beloved mother.' So Seto's birth name was Hiroma. Why, Téa wondered, hadn't he changed it back when his adoptive father died? What significance did the name Kaiba have to Seto?

_'I think–I think I'm falling in love with her,'_ Seto admitted. Regardless of what he believed—whether there actually **was** a Heaven, an afterlife…if his parents existed in some invisible form, able to hear his thoughts, he knew he needed to admit that fact. If not out loud, then at least to himself.

For so long, his feelings for Téa had been a muddle. Attraction, definitely. He couldn't deny that she was beautiful. She was also intelligent, witty, funny, friendly…everything that Seto Kaiba found himself unable to be…she was. The yin to his yang, the light to his dark: all that he'd ever needed, all that he'd ever wanted to be…

Could one really attribute it to fate, or destiny—the events that had brought them together?

_'I don't even know…what love is supposed to feel like. Not this kind of love.'_

He supposed that it was one of those questions that couldn't be answered, one of those things that couldn't be described in simple terms.

_'I don't even know what I'm supposed to do. What I should say…'_ They'd come so close to kissing the previous night, but then, like the previous incident when they'd been watching Toy Story with Mokuba, fate had intervened.

Or maybe Téa just hadn't **wanted** to kiss him.

Was there someone else occupying her thoughts, then?

A name came to mind, one that brought a scowl to Seto Kaiba's face.

Yugi. His rival for everything else and Téa's longtime best friend; if it was true, and her thoughts really didn't lie with Seto, then maybe…

Suddenly, a vision of a tarot card appeared in Seto's mind. The Lovers. And Bakura's voice, telling them that they both desired the same thing, but something inside them was stopping them from pursuing it.

_'What is that phrase…"If you want something done, you've got to do it yourself?" Maybe I shouldn't just wait anymore…Tell me, Father, what should I do?'_

_'Follow your heart, Seto.'_

The young man looked up abruptly, wondering if Téa had just spoken. But she wasn't even looking in his direction—her eyes were wandering over the sculpture emerging from the base of his parents' graves, lost in a silent reverie.

He **swore **he had just heard a voice—a woman's voice. A familiar one, but one he couldn't place. There was no one else in the graveyard but he and Téa, so…

_'I must have been imagining things.'_

Téa hadn't noticed Seto look up, an almost startled expression on his face. She admired the intricate carvings that made up the face of Seto's father, and of the angel that represented his mother. Her wings each had carefully engraved feathers, with the tiniest of lines tracing their lengths. Had the angel not been made of cold, gray stone, Téa would have almost thought it a living creature.

She gently lifted her own palm to touch that of the angel's, closing her eyes as she did so.

_'I wish I'd had the chance to know you,' _Téa thought. _'Even if you couldn't spend as much time raising Seto and Mokuba as normal parents,' _Téa stifled a slight sob, remembering her own parents, _'they still turned out wonderful. I know because…I love him. Despite everything he's been through, he still remembers you, still loves you. I think that's what makes him who he is.'_

Téa knew little about Seto Kaiba, but what she did know, she had fallen deeply in love with. Such feelings were bound to cause more complications in her life, of that much she was aware, but in such a silent, solemn place, she felt compelled to admit—at least to herself—that Seto Kaiba wasn't the man everyone else thought he was. No matter how hard he tried to escape his past, it remained in his mind, in his soul…. Though his parents had died when he was a child, he kept them in his heart, and refused to throw away the lessons they'd taught him.

_'Love him, Téa.'_

The brunette looked up, startled when she heard the sweet voice. There was no one else in the graveyard besides herself and Seto…so who had spoken? Téa hesitantly glanced back towards the angel, her own face turning ashen when the stone eyes bored right into her core.

She was sure that the angel's eyes had been lowered, her head bowed. But now, the angel was looking up, directly **at **Téa, a smile creasing the corners of perfectly-carved lips.

Téa's hand remained clasped in the stone angel's, and even though her gaze was riveted to the statue's face, she was sure she felt the angel's fingers curve around hers, warmth pulsating from the palm of what was undeniably a granite sculpture.

And then, though Téa's eyes didn't blink, she was sure she saw a lone tear track its way down the gentle curve of the angel's cheek. The droplet traced its way down, leaving a dark trail of wet stone in its wake…and then another, another…

Téa glanced upwards, releasing her hand from the angel's, and realizing that she must have been imagining things—it was starting to rain, and the statue was just as lifeless as it had been when she'd arrived there.

Seto glanced up at the quickly-darkening sky, rising to his feet.

"Let's go."

No more words were spoken as he and Téa rushed from the graveyard, speeding back home to the Kaiba mansion on Seto's bike.

* * *

The day had passed without much incident; few words were exchanged between any members of the household. Mokuba didn't bother to ask where Seto had gone in the morning—he knew that his older brother made it a point to visit the graves of their parents every year on or shortly thereafter his birthday.

Mokuba never went, and Seto never pressured him. Mokuba had always had a fear of graveyards and the like, not liking the nauseating feeling that accompanied the very thought of such a place.

The Kaiba mansion was silent for the bulk of the day, few things making noise save for the household staff cleaning, Téa in the kitchen cooking, or Mokuba playing video games.

One would have thought that the silence that the night brought would have been welcome—a signal of peace for a few hours, while the stress of the day passed. Such didn't appear to be the case.

Téa Gardner tossed in her bed, dreaming. Her dreams were more like flashes, lasting only a few seconds. It was impossible to get a good grasp on what she saw, what anything meant…It was if she were looking into a bottomless pool while it rained—every image constantly distorted, disappearing before she could really get a good look at it.

Stone hands, the fingers moving as if grasping something, but crumbling as they did so. Emotionless gray eyes, tearing and leaving trails of black in their wake, the voids parting the stone face and sending Téa into a world of black.

The world around her trapped her, black and sticky, as though the webs of a million spiders surrounded her. Téa fumbled, desperately trying to free herself from the invisible restraints that held her.

"Téa."

She knew that voice.

"Seto! Help me!" She struggled more, but the moment she felt a hand on her cheek, cupping her face and caressing the skin, she froze. A wave of calm washed over her, the bindings around her seeming to slip and slide away, fading into the nothingness from whence they'd come.

Téa's eyes slowly opened, and she stared at Seto, a slight smile creeping up on his lips. He appeared to be at an odd angle, and that was when Téa realized that she was lying down now, Seto kneeling over her. One hand kept himself off the ground, while the other continued its gentle caress of her cheek.

Despite the cloak of darkness that concealed her, Téa's face burned scarlet, suddenly aware of the very intimate position she and Seto were in. She wanted to murmur his name, but her voice wouldn't come.

He lowered his head, his breath hot on her ear, "I don't want us to hesitate anymore…"

Téa blinked as he stared down at her, but barely a second passed before his lips were on hers. Téa was startled for a moment, but realized that this was what she'd wanted all along—every ounce of fear that she'd bottled up inside her vanished, and she wrapped her arms around Seto, her fingers running through his hair.

It wasn't long before he pulled away, much to Téa's disappointment. She opened her eyes slowly, her face glowing with happiness—which vanished when she realized that it wasn't Seto that was lying on top of her, and it wasn't Seto that she'd been kissing, but someone else. He looked strikingly like Seto, but his eyes were narrower, a different shade of blue. His hair…aquamarine.

Téa's eyes shot open as she woke up. She bolted upright in her bed, her eyes darting about her room with fear laced in their cerulean depths.

They froze on the shadow of a figure in the doorway—barely illuminated by the moonlight filtering through Téa's half-open curtains. The figure blew a kiss at Téa, and then vanished through the door—without ever opening it.

The girl paled, throwing the blankets off her and rushing out the door without a second thought. She glanced down the hallway, not seeing anyone, and turned around, wondering if the mysterious figure had actually been there—

"Oof!" Téa fell backwards, landing on the cool marble floor. She stared up, terrified that she'd run into the young man she'd dreamt about.

"Téa?" A frightened voice called out from the darkness. Téa's eyes eventually adjusted to the different light level, and she realized who it was.

"Mokuba?"

"You saw him too, didn't you, Téa?" the young boy demanded, crawling forward on his knees. It was apparent that he too, had seen the mysterious figure. His ebony hair provided a clear contrast to his pale skin; he'd obviously been just as scared as Téa upon seeing the figure.

"Him…?" Téa murmured. No, it had to have been a dream. People didn't walk through doors! It just wasn't **possible**!

"T-That **ghost**!"

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> SONGS USED IN THIS CHAPTER:
> 
> * Elissa - Mamboleo  
> * Liz Phair - Why Can't I? (I altered one word of the original lyrics to make it "Clean" instead of "Explicit")  
> * Thalía - Don't Look Back (English 21st Century Mix)  
> * Billie - She Wants You (7" Disco Mix)
> 
> **THANK YOU!**
> 
> **I love my reviewers so much, I name them all and respond to what they had to say personally. So please review! All my review replies  
> are posted at my LiveJournal!**


	9. Restless Spirits

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> The Kaiba mansion's haunted. Only Mokuba and Téa seem to be able to see the ghosts, though, and you can bet this'll land them in more trouble than they need!

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> **What Doesn't Kill You  
> Chapter 8**: Restless Spirits  
> **A Yu-Gi-Oh Fanfiction  
> By:** Azurite - azurite AT seventh-star DOT net  
> **Site:** seventh-star DOT net  
> **Conceptualized/First Written: **12/9/03  
> **Completed/Posted:** 2/5/04 (Sorry it took so long!)  
> **Edits:** 7/8/04, 7/11/04, 9/6/04
> 
> _Rated PG13/T+ for a bit of violence..._
> 
> Notes: I've revised chapters 1-6; mostly spelling errors and the "Téa" thing.
> 
> Visit my website, Subscribe to my Yahoo! Group to get faster updates, and remember, I don't own Yu-Gi-Oh!
> 
> I read somewhere on FFnet that a fic was "a demented soap opera." That kinda works for WDKY too, doesn't it? Kinda. Sorta. Not really. Whatever.
> 
> * * *
> 
>   
> **RECAP:** It seems as though it's obvious who Seto Kaiba likes-- or at least, prefers. But why won't Seto or Téa take any action and admit their feelings? Bakura's mysterious Tarot reading has them on the edge-- not to mention the mysterious Kaiba mansion hauntings! What's going on here!?

"G-Ghost?" Though Téa tried to keep her voice steady for Mokuba's sake, but she couldn't help it. Paranoid and on the verge of hiccuping (it was a bad habit she'd picked up whenever she was scared), she glanced down the hallways of the Kaiba mansion, her gaze only meeting darkness.

Ghosts were just... myth, right? Urban legends? The sort of things parents told their kids about to scare them? The sorts of things that made their way into ancient fairy tales, or heritage stories about the origin of the O-Bon festivals? Weren't they...?

"I saw him, Téa!" Mokuba insisted, "But then he disappeared, right in front of me!"

Téa absently ran the tips of her fingers across sore lips. Ghost or no, whoever had awoken her from her sleep --when she'd been dreaming of kissing Seto!-- had certainly felt real.

A leaden, acidic feeling welled in Téa's stomach; had she really kissed someone else? She'd spent so much time angsting over the fact that Seto didn't remember their first kiss, and then... and then, when she'd finally worked up the nerve to admit she was falling for him, she couldn't bring herself to kiss him a second time! Why?

Téa glanced down at Mokuba, the small boy looking terrified, midnight blue eyes darting left and right.

_'Because family comes first. Because I'm just an employee. Nothing more. Never more.' _Seeing the picture of Seto and Mokuba together on Seto's desk two nights before had addled Téa; her thoughts, once sharp and clear, were now muddled.

Seto and Mokuba had been there for each other, the only constants in each other's lives. Téa had barely known Seto for a year, and yet...

_'And yet I seem to think I have the right to disturb their lives so entirely.'_ Téa wasn't about to pack her bags and leave, though. Her birthday wasn't for a few more months, and it was only then when she could make the decision to leave or not. Until that time, she had nowhere to go...

Téa glanced down when she felt a tugging on her hand; Mokuba was looking up at her imploringly, "I don't want to go to sleep, Téa," he whispered."I don't want that guy to come back."

Téa wanted to reassure the boy that everything would be all right, that he'd be able to go back to sleep and wake up the next morning without even remembering the nighttime disturbance... but then, she'd be lying. Because even **she** didn't know what was going on.

* * *

Mokuba and Téa had opted to search the house to see if there really was some sort of intruder wandering around, someone that had somehow escaped the high-tech security embedded throughout the Kaiba household.

They hadn't found anyone.

And, aside from Seto's bedroom, they'd explored every single room in the house, using the bright emergency flashlights Mokuba had discovered to penetrate every shadow.

"Mokuba," Téa's voice was a whisper, "I've always wondered, what's up with these two rooms?" Téa thumbed towards the Aquamarine and Burgundy Rooms, two of the bedroom she'd passed on when she'd initially moved into the Kaiba mansion.

"Them? They've always been empty. The dark red one used to be..." Mokuba paused, furrowing his brows, "used to be our adoptive dad's room."

_''Adoptive dad? This just gets more complicated by the second.'_ Téa knew that Seto and Mokuba's birth parents had died many years ago, the mother having passed away while giving birth to Mokuba. She'd been to their graves with Seto, she knew how special they were to him...

But a adoptive father? Téa knew that the Hiromas, Seto and Mokuba's biological parents, had died when both boys were still young, so it made sense that they had been adopted. And it was obvious that the person who had adopted them was a man-- their adoptive father. She'd asked Charles about him a while back, and been told that Kaiba's past was best left there-- in the past.

Neither Seto nor Mokuba had made any mention of him. Judging by the tone of the younger Kaiba's voice, the subject was somewhat taboo; but why? Who WAS the original Kaiba patriarch?

* * *

The warm milk slid down Téa's throat, the honey the girl had flavored the drink with instilling her with a temporary sense of calm. When she had been younger, her mother had prepared warm milk flavored with honey (and if Téa was lucky, a splash of vanilla and a sprinkle of cinnamon) to help her get to sleep.

Oddly enough, tonight, it wasn't inducing her into a comatose-like sleep. The drink did calm her, but thoughts of the strange, aqua-haired boy haunted her thoughts. Who was he? Had she really been imagining things?

She couldn't have, not if Mokuba had seen him, too.

"Hey, Mokuba?" Téa murmured, setting her mug on the kitchen counter."What did the guy you see look like?"

"Huh?" Mokuba looked up, sleepiness beginning to cloud his eyes, "Kinda funny hair... it was like..." The boy smacked his lips, his eyelids beginning to droop, "greenish... His eyes reminded me of Big Brother, but..."

He trailed off, yawning. Téa's eyes widened, surprised that she and Mokuba HAD seen the same person. A ghost...?

"Mokuba?"

"He looked like he was my age..." Mokuba murmured, drifting into sleep. Téa blinked. What...?

_'But...!'_

* * *

The following morning, Téa wandered into the kitchen, rubbing her temples. She hadn't gotten much sleep the previous night. After she'd deposited Mokuba in his bedroom, she'd tried to go back to sleep herself, but with little success.

The second her eyes drifted shut, the slightest noise or movement of shadow caused them to shoot open again, her gaze shifting about wildly, looking for any signs of intruders-- or other apparitions.

Seto glanced up from his newspaper when Téa walked in, raising an eyebrow when she headed straight towards one of the cabinets, taking out some aspirin, rather than eating breakfast.

"Headache?"

Téa glanced towards him, dark circles framing her normally-bright blue eyes, "The worst. I didn't sleep at all last night."

Seto was on the verge of asking why, but before he could, Téa asked him a question.

"Do you believe in ghosts?"

Seto looked at her oddly, scoffing. "Ghosts? No." He went back to his newspaper, but he couldn't focus on the small-print words. Why hadn't she slept at all the previous night? And what did ghosts have to do with anything?

Téa didn't bother to explain her question; Seto's negative answer told her enough. Her gaze wandered towards the other end of the kitchen, from where Mokuba appeared. He didn't look quite as haggard as Téa did, but, like any other child forced to go to school at an ungodly hour of the morning, he didn't look too enthusiastic about being awake at all.

The two kept the previous night's 'adventure' between themselves, sharing secret glances over the kitchen counter while Seto continued to read his newspaper, occasionally sipping at his coffee.

How could they possibly tell Seto what they had seen? Téa knew she couldn't tell Seto that she'd dreamt of kissing him, only to be awakened by a kiss from someone that likely wasn't even part of the realm of the living!

What then, COULD she say? What could she do?

* * *

For the past several months, Seto, Mokuba, and Téa had all gone to school together in the limousine. There was a single brief period during which Téa had opted to walk to school instead, for reasons that were still unclear to the Kaiba brothers-- but that time had passed.

However, the ride to school that particular morning was unusually silent. Normally, Mokuba made some conversation with Téa while Seto worked on one thing or another-- but that cool, gray day, even Mokuba was silent. Briefly, Seto wondered what the two of them were hiding from him, but he doubted it was anything to worry over.

_'Psh, ghosts. Nothing either of them should even bat an eye at. It's just myth.'_

But still, there was an unsettled feeling in Seto Kaiba's stomach...

* * *

The day passed without much incident. However, Seto had realized with some dismay that he'd been searching for Téa at lunch-- and had been unable to find her. She wasn't with her other friends --Yugi, Joey, Tristan, and Duke had all cast odd looks in Kaiba's direction when he'd wandered past-- or even that Sagusa girl. Not in the dance studio; the girls from the newly-formed club were in there, busy plotting how they would take the funds from the festival and turn the ratty room into a studio worthy of practicing in.

The last place Seto would ever think of to look, of course, was the very place where Téa was that fateful lunch period.

Alone in the small Domino High library, Téa breezed through the city's historical section, meager considering it was a school collection. But it would have to do. She didn't have the time to go to the local library, let alone make the trip to the National Library in inner Tokyo.

She pulled out several books on area 20th century architecture, surmising that the Kaiba mansion that was now her home had been built in the past 100 years. Maybe some of the books would help her find out what had happened there-- like why it was being haunted.

Another thought surfaced-- that of the Kaiba patriarch. The nameless, faceless, mysterious man who adopted Seto and Mokuba.

It wasn't HIS ghost that had appeared to her. It couldn't have been. The person Téa and Mokuba had seen was a much younger boy, never appearing older than Téa herself. And, had it been the Kaiba sire, Mokuba surely would have recognized him, right...?

Things got more complicated by the second.

Fueled by her determination and curiosity, Téa settled down with a mound of books before her, sandwich in one hand, pen in the other.

* * *

Nothing.

Absolutely nothing.

Of the few books in the Domino High library that HAD revealed anything about Kaiba's adoptive father, or the Kaiba mansion, they only mentioned in passing that it had been built at great cost by Gozaburo Kaiba, one of the century's wealthiest businessmen, and contractor of many military products and installations.

_'A war freak. Somehow, I'm not surprised.'_

Several of the books were old; at least five years. They didn't mention what Téa already knew to be truth-- that Gozaburo Kaiba was dead. But how? He hadn't been very old-- and there was no mention of his having any disease or illness of any kind.

_'Though I doubt that kind of thing makes it into architectural digests, anyway.'_ Téa grimaced. She was going about this all wrong.

She needed answers-- but where could she possibly get them?

* * *

Sleep would not come to her.

She could feel the exhaustion settling into her bones, but try as she might, she couldn't simply close her eyes and fall asleep.

As with the previous nights, sleep eluded young Téa Gardner. Though her eyes were closed, her thoughts ran amok, preventing her from resting.

Perhaps was because of her silent, unspoken fear of the ghosts-- that which she kept bottled in herself, a secret from Seto, Mokuba, her friends... even Mai, who knew almost everything Téa had kept locked away in her heart the past few months.

None of them would believe her anyway, Téa knew. If Seto hadn't, why would they..?

_"Fools."_

It had just been a whisper. A breeze, a creaking of the house...

But the grazing of fingers brushing against the silky skin of her cheek was no illusion. Téa's blue eyes snapped open, and widened with horror when she realized she was looking into the same midnight blue depths as before-- of that strange aqua-haired... **ghost**!

It seemed as though he lay right on top of her, yet Téa could feel no pressure; odd, considering she clearly remembered his forceful kiss, and the way, only moments previous, his fingers had caressed her cheek...

"Who are you?" Téa managed in a choked whisper, doing her best to remain still. Every fiber in her being wanted to struggle and get away, but if this **WAS** real --if she wasn't going crazy-- then she had to find out what was going on. The truth.

The young man chuckled, "So, you're willing to talk now, are you? Such a pity, I was hoping for more..." He leaned in dangerously close, his lips almost touching Téa's --before she abruptly turned her head to the side, preventing his lips from meeting hers. He drew back, a scowl crossing his face, "Well."

"Who are you?" Téa repeated, emphasizing the force in her voice.

"I am... your sweetest dream," he nuzzled her neck, chuckling as Téa froze, the hairs on her skin standing on end, "your darkest desire," Aqua-hair melted into a chocolatey brown, while Téa's vision blurred; had he suddenly become Seto? But no...

She blinked, and the aqua-haired boy was back, smirking, "And your worst nightmare."

The grin on his face was predatory-- bordering on demonic.

_'He must be insane!'_ Téa thought to herself, her thoughts wild and chaotic. But she had to remain still, for she had no idea what he was going to do next, if any of this was even REAL...

"Telling you who I am would ruin my fun. Instead... let me **show** you." Only a fraction of a second had passed, and he was off her entirely, standing beside the door.

Téa stared at him a moment, wondering whether to actually follow this --person!?-- or not, to entertain her delusions about ghosts. This **had** to be a dream, right...?

_'Even if Mokuba just **happened** to see the same guy, only... six years younger than he's appearing to me now?'_ Téa fumbled with her blankets, _'No one said any of this had to make sense. Nothing has, not since I moved here!'_

And so, with the hopes that she would finally get SOME answers --find **some** sense in the Kaiba household-- Téa set out, following the ghost as he disappeared through the door.

* * *

It was cold.

The Kaiba mansion usually was, given that the ceilings were high, and what little heat flowed throughout the stone mansion tended to rise and dissipate rather quickly. But... it felt ten degrees colder than usual, as Téa followed the mysterious aqua-haired ghost-- down the hallway, down the staircase...

The marble stairs felt like ice under her feet, the sensation causing Téa to wonder why she hadn't slid her slippers on before following the ghost. Had he really entranced her so utterly, that she'd forget something so simple?

_'And speaking of feet...'_ Téa glanced at the ghost. Indeed, he had to be a ghost-- not some human intruder bent on a joke. His feet --what there WAS of them, anyway-- didn't touch the floor. His form was most solid from his head to his waist; from there on down his form seemed to fade, as if receding into darkness.

Yet, in a twist of irony, the apparition seemed to cast a hazy blue glow on everything in the surrounding area-- though no reflection of the ghost's actual form appeared in mirrors, or on the marble floor.

The darkness hugged the space around the pair, as if Night herself had enveloped them both in her never-ending arms. It was only when the ghost-boy's "glow" revealed a door that Téa realized they'd arrived at their intended destination.

But the darkness had been so thick, her body so numb with cold, that she didn't realize where they were, until she hesitantly put her hand on the knob and pushed the door open.

_'Books...?'_

The pieces came together. She knew where they were. She knew this place...

The dimly illuminated photo on the bureau opposite the desk told Téa everything she needed to know.

Seto's office.

His study, his sanctuary...

Téa turned and faced the ghost, who was glancing at her with a placid expression on his glowing face. She was about to ask what the office had anything to do with who he was, but before she could even open her mouth, the aqua-haired spirit coalesced into a ball of light and vanished into the bookcase.

Téa's mouth dropped open, but no sound, no words came forth. He'd just-- just...!

The darkness was closing on her again, so Téa padded over to Seto's desk, quickly flicking on the small lamp there. It barely illuminated the room, but it was enough to comfort Téa-- for the moment.

Her heart was still beating at an unnaturally fast pace, and she wasn't entirely sure her breathing was regular, either. But... she had to know.

One step at a time, slowly, hesitantly, she moved towards the bookcase.

Titles in all languages --English, Japanese, Chinese, French --was that Spanish?-- lined the case, each with different bindings, different covers, different sizes...

Téa absently ran her fingers across each book, her hand finally stopping on the cover of an old, dust-covered brownish book. It glowed faintly, as if the spirit rested between its pages.

Fear threaded its way through Téa's veins, her hands trembling as she closed her whole hand around and the book-- and pulled.

There was a great clanking from behind the bookcase, and just as soon as she'd heard it, Téa dropped her hand, her face paling. Had she activated one of Seto's security devices? Would she be interrogated for being in his office at the darkest hours of the night...?

Blue eyes widened to the size of saucers as the bookcase moved a foot backwards, entirely of its own accord, and slid behind the bookcase opposite it-- revealing a doorway into a small, dark room.

Fluorescent lights flickered on, cobwebs hanging off their cylindrical forms, casting eerie shadows in the tiny space.

The concrete-walled room was sparse; two metal chairs sat before an oaken table inlaid with decorative moldings and heavy drawers; what they contained Téa could only guess at.

Two of the walls --those to Téa's left and right-- had computer screens spanning their length and height; sticking out from the computer-walls, short panels of buttons, covered in a sheen of dust, glowed and sparked. Were they still active...? What were the computers' purposes, and what was that odd chair-like contraption all their wires were connected to?

Atop the table was something most interesting-- an old metal chess set. Téa had never seen a metal chess set before --only plastic, glass, and ivory. She supposed the pieces could be made out of various things --wood, soft mineral, perhaps even gemstones-- but metal?

Téa absently picked up one of the pieces, a silver-colored rook. It was oddly heavy, so the girl set it down, inspecting the rest of the board.

The board had been positioned out as if a game were already in play, and yet the pieces were spotted with rust, dust covering every centimeter. From one king piece to the other, a thick cobweb devoid of any spiders stretched, cleanly dividing the board into two jagged pieces of checkered wood.

_'Seto doesn't know about this place... does he?'_

No, he didn't. Téa was sure. Something in her bones told her as much.

Perhaps then, this was the last true link in the entire Kaiba mansion, that proved there had been other people before Seto and Mokuba. Their adoptive father... the ever-elusive patriarch... he who was "best left in the past..."

Neither Seto nor Mokuba ever made much mention of him. Téa knew that Seto undoubtedly valued his biological parents much more than his adoptive parent, but still... she had a feeling that things weren't that simple.

Her gaze drifted --over the dust-covered chairs, over the oaken tabl--

_'What in the...?' _

A small white page was sticking out of the wood as if it had grown there naturally. Téa bent down to inspect the oddity, surprised to find the thinnest of indentations-- marking the opening of a secret drawer.

Running her fingers over the ancient wood, she found the handle-- disguised as a carved centaur, bursting from the wood as if alive and in miniature form. With two quick tugs, the drawer popped up, and years of dust erupted from the space in a great cloud, causing the brunette to cough, waving her hand about as if it were a fan.

With groping, fumbling fingers, she reached for the page-- only to discover it was attached to an entire leather-bound book, only a hand's width-wide, and roughly six centimeters long. Someone's journal...?

She cautiously opened the book, and from its worn pages fell a tattered photo-- that of a young, aqua-haired boy, smiling beside a man who could only be the boy's father, and a beautiful, aquamarine-haired woman beside the older man.

_'It's him...!'_ Téa realized with a start, _'The boy that's been haunting this place...!'_

She flipped towards the cover, hoping to find a clue as to the young man --no, boy's-- identity.

Underneath a gold-leaf sticker affixed to the cover, Latin words 'Ex Libris' embossed on the adhesive surface, a child's name was scrawled.

Noah Kaiba.

* * *

Téa found herself curled up in one of the metal chairs, reading the leather-bound journal she'd found. Noah Kaiba was Gozaburo Kaiba's son.

His REAL son.

The book had been a present for him for his 10th birthday, and had continued for an entire year. But, in the last few months of entries, the style of writing had become... erratic. Odd. As if the boy within the entries had vanished, and been replaced with someone else entirely.

Gone was the innocence that came with childhood... replaced instead by constant lessons, brutal punishment for all things done incorrectly or incompletely.

Through the pages, Téa felt the boy's fear. She felt the boy lose grip on the world, lose everything he'd known...

Even his mother.

Noah had made mention of how the one year anniversary of mother's death had come along, and he'd expected to go to the grave with his father and mourn. But his father appeared to have forgotten about the importance of the date entirely, and had left Noah to stew in his own misery.

No doubt Gozaburo Kaiba had changed drastically since losing his wife --Noah had said she was only 31, a very young age to die. Yet, there was no mention of how she had died-- only that his father was "different," and he missed the old Father he used to have.

Téa wanted to keep reading, to see if she could unearth anymore about the original Kaibas, but streaks of sunlight made their way through Seto's heavy office curtains, slanting into the tiny room.

Téa blinked, surprised that she had stayed awake for so long, engrossed in a book, holed up in a dusty room.

_'I have to get out of here before Seto finds me!'_ Téa realized with urgency. She knew Seto woke at ungodly hours of the morning and went straight to work, long before he showered, dressed, or even ate breakfast. Such was his 'way,' and Téa wasn't one to abruptly change it.

She scrambled out of the room, leather-bound journal in hand. With desperate fingers, she traced the books until a mechanical clank was heard, and the bookcase slid into place with a soft 'thump.'

She flicked off the desk lamp, and stood back, gazing at the room.

Everything looked the same.

Nothing was out of place... even the old maroon book that had proven to be the 'switch' into the secret room was back in its original position. Téa nodded to herself, affirming that everything was okay, and scuttled out of the room.

* * *

She couldn't just go back to bed-- besides, there were only three hours before she had to be at school, anyway. No doubt Seto would soon awaken, wanting coffee before starting his morning routine. Having no other way to explain her awakened state, Téa headed towards the kitchen to start up a coffee pot, with the hope that a piping hot mug would quell any of Seto's suspicions as to why she had arisen so early.

Téa was busy pouring coffee grinds into the brewer when she felt a familiar tingling streak down her spine-- cold. It washed over her skin, the smallest of hairs on her neck standing rigidly on end.

Téa whipped around, expecting to come face-to-face with the young man she now knew as Noah Kaiba.

But it wasn't him.

Not at all.

"Hello, dear."

Téa pressed herself up against the counter; she could tell by the leer on this man's face --that demonic grin-- that he was something different from Noah-- something darker, something more powerful-- something to be truly frightened of.

_'It can't be!'_ Téa thought suddenly, a name appearing before her mind's eye. And a face to match, though faded by history. An image from Noah's journal... a memory of better days.

It **had** to be...

That same angular jaw, those piercing eyes, that perfectly trimmed mustache...

It was none other than the Kaiba patriarch himself.

Gozaburo Kaiba.

* * *

Seto Kaiba groaned, flinging his arm across his alarm clock as he shifted in bed. He didn't want to get up. Exhaustion had claimed him utterly the night before, and sleeping had been so wonderful... he didn't want to rise.

But he had to.

His eyes felt like lead weights, opening with the speed of a snail stuck in sap. The moment they had opened even a minuscule fraction, sunlight assaulted his vision, nearly blinding him. His curtains were only parted slightly, but enough light spilled through to cause him to see spots.

With a moan, Seto rubbed his eyes, forcing the colored dots from his vision. He rose shakily, his limbs feeling as if they'd been torn from his torso and reattached.

He stretched, opening his eyes fully-- and instantly, his senses became aware of something... not right.

He couldn't see it, couldn't hear it... but there was something **wrong**.

The air was cold, but musty, and there was a hint of a fragrance --an old cologne-- that Seto had long forgotten about. Until now.

Goosebumps snaked up his flesh, giving the young CEO pause. Involuntarily, he recalled what Téa had asked him about the previous morning. Though it was more than 24 hours in the past, the expression on her face -the sound of her voice- remained clear in his mind.

_"Do you believe in ghosts?"_

_'No. It's not possible. There's no such thing...'_

But Seto couldn't shake that feeling --that same unsettled, dangerous feeling, curling its way up and down his body...

Without a second thought, Seto bolted from his bedroom and into the hallway, skidding to a halt. He was amazed to see Téa's door already open. Glancing inside, he wondered where she'd gotten to. No sound came from the hall bathroom; the lights were off and the door there was ajar.

Something pulled him towards her bed --he found it odd that, though he himself wasn't cold, his hand was shaking as it moved towards the mound of blankets...

Cold.

Empty.

Just lumps of cloth. And they'd been that way for some time.

Panic assuaged Seto Kaiba's senses, and he raced downstairs-- unsure what drove him, but knowing that he could be too late if his gut were right.

* * *

"Gozaburo Kaiba." Téa gritted out. She didn't need any formalities; she didn't need to hear any stories.

Noah's journal had told her more than enough about Gozaburo Kaiba. He wasn't a man to be reasoned with. Since the death of his wife, he'd changed drastically, utterly-- sinking so low as to abuse his only blood child.

And somehow, someway, Noah had died.

If the dates Téa had found in the journal were right, then he'd died when he was young-- and the spirit that had appeared itself before Téa was merely a manifestation of what Noah Kaiba **would** have looked like, had he lived to Téa's age.

Noah's death, coupled with Gozaburo's growing insanity had likely driven the man to the edge-- and somewhere along the way, Seto and Mokuba had gotten entangled in the mess.

"No need for introductions, I see. Then again, I needn't know your name either," He paused, licking his teeth in a manner that revolted Téa to her very core, "Téa Gardner."

The brunette swallowed; how did HE know HER name?

"You awakened me,and now I can take form. So I must thank you for that. But..." He glanced out of the corner of his eye, as if looking at something Téa couldn't see, "I have been watching all this time. And I must say, I don't LIKE what I've seen."

"Oh yeah?" Téa managed, forcing herself to stand up straight, trying to be defiant despite the spirit's imposing stature."What have you seen?"

Gozaburo turned on her, eyes flaming with anger and dementia.

"Happiness, child. And THAT is never permitted-- for ANY Kaiba."

_'W-What? What is **wrong** with this guy?' _Téa forced the grimace off her face, knowing too well not to provoke attacks from dangerous individuals. She'd seen that insane, delerious-with-power-and-knowledge stare before.

On Marik. On Bakura.

Memories she wanted to forget.

Times best left in the the past, and locked there.

_'But... here the past has come back-- quite literally! And no matter what I've found out, I still don't know why Noah or Gozaburo are haunting this place!'_

"Why are you here?" Téa tried, trying a different tactic. The direct approach. It had worked with Seto on a few occasions, but would it work for his adoptive father?

Much to Téa's dismay, Gozaburo's leering grin vanished, only to be replaced by a frown. "You know what? I don't like questions." The grin returned, malicious this time, "But I do like... fun. And you know what?"

He paused this time, clearly expecting an answer, though Téa was on the verge of being too terrified to give one, "W-What?"

"Games are fun." Téa's eyes widened as she saw Gozaburo's hand move-- and out of nowhere, a chess piece --a rusty, silver-colored rook-- appeared from thin air.

_'The... the piece from the room! Could that have been what triggered Gozaburo's "awakening?"'_

"I like games," Gozaburo went on, his eyes following the rook as he tossed it in the air, as if it didn't weigh a thing. Then again, he was a ghost --incorporeal, immaterial. How was it then, that ghosts such as Gozaburo and Noah could phase in and out of reality, sometimes having solid form, while others not? And how could they handle real objects-- when their own bodies technically didn't even EXIST?

_'Too many questions, not enough ways to escape!'_ Téa thought, panic twisting her insides into a knot.

Suddenly, as though lightning had struck, Gozaburo was gone from where he'd been standing-- and he was feeling very real, very solid as he spun Téa in a semicircle, twisting her arms behind her so that she couldn't move. With one strong arm, he forced Téa's neck up, her gaze meeting his equally.

"You'll soon learn, Téa, dear, this is no game."

* * *

"Big Brother!"

Seto whirled around at the sound of Mokuba's voice; he was mere feet from the staircase, and Mokuba's sudden cry had nearly caused him to lose his footing and take a nasty tumble.

That thought, coupled with the panic that had gripped him ever since finding Téa's room cold and empty, continued to well and grow in Seto Kaiba's stomach. He needed to find her-- and fast.

"What is it, Mokuba, what's wrong?"

The smaller boy looked somewhat ashen; his normally-bright eyes subdued and puffy.

"I-I-- I saw him!"

"Saw who, Mokuba?" Seto demanded, kneeling before his brother, who was near hysterics now and blubbering through his tears, "Gozaburo!"

* * *

"You think this is funny? That haunting this place-- doing this is going to change anything? You haven't been apart of Seto's life for years now. Your haunting this place isn't going to threaten him in any way."

Gozaburo's grip loosened -but only marginally, his eyes wandering from the kitchen's swinging door back to Téa's stiffened form.

"On a first name basis with him already, dear? Tsk..." Gozaburo shifted the hand closest to Téa's neck, revealing the metal rook; he pushed his thumb into the base, and to Téa's horror, a slender blade protracted from the rook, growing in length until it was a good decimeter long.

"I'm not here to threaten Seto, anyway," Gozaburo chuckled, pressing the blade into Téa's throat, indenting her skin."YOU'RE the problem here." The older man's gaze drifted towards the swinging door again, as if expecting Seto to walk in any moment.

His voice dropped an octave, whispering coldly in Téa's ear, "You're the reason why Seto has known happiness. And since he took my only chance at that away from me, I've sworn that he'll never know true happiness." Gozaburo's voice was laced with promise, with venom.

_'What did Seto do to Gozaburo that's got him so... angry?'_

Of course, Téa was well aware of the possibility that Gozaburo had simply died a very lonely, very INSANE man, and his ghost haunted the Kaiba mansion for reasons unknown. But the man sure could hold a grudge...

* * *

Seto Kaiba's skin went ashen.

"W-What?"

His brother never lied. He was a child, but he was mature enough to know not to joke around about things like their late adoptive father... and **seeing** him in the house.

"I swear it," Mokuba cried out, sniffling now to hold back tears, "He was at the end of my bed and looking at me, and then, then he turned around and went right THROUGH the door!"

_'Ghosts.'_

Téa not sleeping. Téa and Mokuba's secrecy the previous morning. Why she'd mentioned ghosts in the first place. Everything...

_'It's not possible!'_

But Seto couldn't shake that feeling that something was VERY wrong.

"It's going to be all right, Mokuba," Seto tried to comfort his sibling, but he wasn't exactly calm himself. Goosebumps still covered his flesh, and he was worried about Téa. Could something possibly have--

_'Think logically, Kaiba,'_ The young man reassured himself. There were no ghosts, no spirits-- and Gozaburo Kaiba was** dead**!

* * *

The door between the kitchen and the dining area swung open in a grand arc, announcing Seto Kaiba's entrance into the kitchen-- and almost immediately, his eyes set on Téa.

She was all right.

Almost immediately, a sense of calm washed over Seto, and his once-frantic expression melted away.

Téa's eyes widened, watching Seto glance at her and heave a sigh-- of what? Relief?

_'Surely he can see--'_

But he didn't. Seto Kaiba moved towards the coffee pot that was already percolating, and poured himself a mug of piping hot coffee.

"He doesn't see me," Gozaburo Kaiba whispered in Téa's ear once more. His breath --if ghosts actually breathed-- was ice cold, each hair on the brunette's neck standing on end.

"He doesn't believe," Gozaburo went on, twisting Téa's arms forcefully, causing the girl to wince even as she was frozen in place, her eyes begging Seto to notice her odd position. She couldn't say anything-- if she did, she'd risk getting that blade jammed into her throat!

"He doesn't believe in you and your stories enough to see me. Doesn't believe I even exist anymore," Gozaburo was laughing softly now, continuing to hold Téa in a vice-like grip, the edge of the rook-blade still precariously close to Téa's soft skin.

"But you know different, now don't you, Téa?"

She wanted to yell. Wanted to scream, to kick behind her. But all of that would have worked only if her attacker had been human --alive! Gozaburo Kaiba wasn't either of those things anymore, and now he had her trapped...

"What's wrong with you?"

Seto was looking at Téa oddly, one hand still clutching the handle of his untouched mug of coffee.

Gozaburo chuckled low, his voice dark, evil, and laced with malicious intentions.

His movement was quick-- but Téa felt it instantly, the first bit of warmth she'd felt in nearly ten minutes, since encountering Gozaburo Kaiba. She suddenly regained control of her body, and her knees buckled, but she didn't fall.

Blood.

It was a small cut, only about five centimeters long-- just below her left ear's lobe and stretching down her neck in a perfect line...

A cut from nowhere.

A shudder rippled through Téa's body, her mind unwilling to believe what had just happened-- what Seto himself didn't see, didn't believe...!

"Nothing," she mumbled out, clapping a hand over her now-steadily bleeding wound. Seto Kaiba's gaze remained fixed on her a moment, but then dropped to the table, where he picked up a newspaper and began to read.

Hurt --of a kind beyond physical-- filled Téa's being, almost bringing her to tears. But she was strong. And in front of Seto, she just couldn't cry...

_'He doesn't believe me. He doesn't **trust** me...'_

Téa hadn't wanted to believe Gozaburo Kaiba when he'd said that Seto didn't see him-- didn't believe in Téa enough to even try. But...

_'Please...'_

Tears welled in her eyes as she regained her balance, but didn't fall. Through the veil of tears, through the blur...

A single chess piece.

A rook, silver and rusted in spots, lying on the floor.

Téa glanced up at Seto, wondering if he'd noticed the piece, but he looked too engrossed in his paper to even notice her still standing there.

She bent to pick it up, and felt the same, chilling feeling from before wash over her-- Gozaburo's low chuckle echoing in her mind.

She turned the piece over in her hands, realizing with a start that it felt LIGHT-- ordinary.

No mechanisms inside, no concealed blade...? She couldn't have imagined it all, right?

No.

There was blood on the turrets of the miniature castle. Fresh blood.

Her blood.

* * *

"Heeey!" Joey crowed, seeing Téa walking down the hall to their classroom. School was about to begin in a few minutes, and the tall blonde was in an unusually good mood. He couldn't explain it-- he just was.

"You're awfully happy this morning," Téa grumbled. Joey glanced down at his friend, his eyebrows shooting up when he realized how tired and sad she looked.

"What's with ya?" Joey asked, concern creeping into his voice, "Ya look like ya ain't slept in days!"

"That's about the long and short of it," Téa sighed, turning into the classroom and flopping her books down on her desk. Seto was already seated, reading another book. Téa tore her gaze away from him, trying to find a plausible reason to be angry with him.

_'For what? Not believing in ghosts?'_ Seto Kaiba was a logical guy. **Reasonable** was another matter altogether, but it was true that Kaiba looked at things the way they were-- what he saw. He didn't believe in magic, didn't believe in spirits from the past...

_'Even if it's going to get me hurt in the long run? Does he even care about me at all?'_

He hadn't said, "Are you okay?" or even "Good morning, why are you up so early?" but "What's **wrong** with you?"

Téa wasn't sure what stung more-- the fact that he didn't believe, the fact that he didn't seem to care... or the wound on her neck.

Absently, she touched the bandage on her neck, partially concealed by her hair, rubbing the gash with the tip of her fingers.

"Coverin' somethin' up, are ya?" Joey was grinning down at her, and Téa blinked, confused.

Momentarily, Yugi and Tristan came up to her, offering their own morning greetings, "Maybe a--" Joey paused for dramatic emphasis, winking at Tristan and nudging Yugi, "hickey of sorts?"

Téa's eyes widened despite her tiredness, "No!"

"She denies it so vehemently, though," Tristan smirked. "Are you SURE?"

The two chortling boys didn't notice Yugi's crestfallen expression, but Téa did. She frowned, her once-wide eyes narrowing as she stood, her fingernails sliding under the edge of the adhesive strip as she yelled, "It's not a damned hickey!"

Silence befell the classroom as all eyes --even those of Seto Kaiba-- fell on Téa, who had ripped off the bandage in one, quick motion.

Spots of blood appeared from the wound, slowly at first, but then growing in number until a steady stream traced its way down Téa's neck, almost reaching her jacket's collar.

"Téa," Chieko, sitting beside the brunette, stood up, a pack of tissues at the ready. "what a horrible injury! We should get you to the nurse's office immediately."

Téa nodded her affirmation, fixing Joey and Tristan with a stare that, without spoken words, asked them if they were satisfied. They'd made a spectacle of her, embarrassed themselves, and they'd been **wrong**, too!

Téa allowed Chieko to lead her out of the classroom, turning her head away before she could meet Seto's curious --and concerned-- gaze.

* * *

"Uh... Téa?"

Lunchtime. And for the first time in many weeks --since the day after Téa's parents had died, in fact-- Tristan and Joey remained in the classroom even after the bell rang. The other students had all rushed out, save the scant few that brought their lunches. Many of them had opted to eat outside with their friends, given that it was an unusually warm and beautiful autumn day.

"What?" Téa asked, her voice flat and monotone. It was clear she had no mind to listen to any more "jokes" from Tristan or Joey, but then, it didn't seem as if either of them were about to crack any, either.

Tristan had chased any people considering staying in the classroom for lunch out --save Seto Kaiba. The intimidating CEO had stayed in his seat even as Tristan shooed the other people out.

He knew full well they were all going to talk to Téa --and get the answers out of her that Seto himself wanted to hear. But he wasn't part of their circle of friends. Téa, maybe, but... somehow, he'd screwed up that morning.

He'd rushed into the kitchen, terrified that Téa would be--

But she hadn't been -- anything! She'd been standing there, albeit in an odd pose, for an ungodly amount of time... but she'd seemed fine. No ghosts. No Gozaburo.

Maybe the calm had washed over him too quickly. Maybe he'd wrongly convinced himself that she was all right, when she wasn't.

He hadn't bothered to ask why she had been awake so early, why she'd been standing there, frozen in place...

Where that wound had come from.

It wasn't the kind of thing that just HAPPENED, like paper cuts did. No one got cuts on their neck from a piece of paper.

But it was apparent that he wasn't going to be privy to the conversation. Not wanting to bother with Tristan or the mutt, Seto cast one last glance at Téa --who refused to acknowledge his gaze-- and exited the classroom.

* * *

A heavy silence befell the classroom, with only four occupants. Tristan and Joey exchanged nervous glances, hanging their heads guiltily off a Look from Yugi, until finally Joey spoke up.

"We uh... well, I wanted ta..." Joey trailed off, scratching behind his ear nervously. Yugi, sitting in an empty seat behind Joey, gave his friend an encouraging look, motioning to Tristan to do the same.

"Look, we wanted to apologize!" Tristan blurted, bowing abruptly. Téa blinked, tempted to giggle. Her friends were horribly informal most of the time, so to see them bowing in apology --to her, their longtime friend-- was almost laughable.

"It was uh... outta line, and all. We're just worried about ya, ya know?" Joey glanced up, hoping to see a forgiving expression on Téa's face. He'd seen her angry on a number of occasions, and it wasn't pretty-- he had no desire to be on her bad side for any extended period of time.

"...Thanks, guys." Téa murmured. "Besides," she grumbled after a moment of silence, "It's not like I have anyone to make out with in the first place, so I don't even know why you would have thought it was a hickey."

Joey and Tristan blinked, and then smiled at one another, sitting down next to Téa in the seats surrounding her desk.

"Well, what about that uh, guy you said you liked a while back, huh?"

Téa's eyebrows shot up, though she didn't look at any of her companions, "Him? I... I never said anything to him. He doesn't know that I--" Téa could feel her cheeks growing hot, remembering the moment she'd been sprawled on Seto's lap, mere centimeters from kissing him...

"Never mind."

"So uh..." Yugi spoke up, trying to prevent silence from swallowing the room again. "What happened? To your neck, I mean."

Téa ran her finger over her fresh bandage, grateful that Chieko had dragged her from the classroom in an embarrassing situation.

But... how could she tell her friends about the ghosts?

How could she explain what happened --without revealing **everything**?

"He's not hurting you, is he?" Yugi's voice was soft, his violet eyes full of meaning. Téa looked away quickly, hating herself for all the lies she'd been telling-- for all the deception...

_'Yugi's my best friend. And...'_

And every time he looked at her, Téa swore he saw right through her. Right through all her lies...

"Huh?"

"Your boss," Yugi said, concern etched on his face.

Téa's eyes widened, _'What the--?'_

"No!" she exclaimed, "He-- No. This..." she gestured towards the cut, "this was an accident."

Her excuse was paper-thin, and it was apparent that the boys saw right through it-- but they kept silent. Téa sighed to herself, bringing out the bento set she'd made for herself that morning, "Enough talk guys, let's eat!"

The boys gratefully brought out their own lunches --rather, Yugi did, while Joey and Tristan started to argue over a bag of chips their younger friend had-- while Téa attempted to smile.

None of them noticed the figure in the still-open doorway, his eyes riveted to Téa Gardner's form.

"Hmph," the young man mumbled, walking away from the classroom, cloud-white hair flowing behind him on a mysterious breeze.

* * *

"I'm home...!" Téa called as she walked in the door.

No response.

_'Of course not.'_ Seto went to work immediately afterschool, and Mokuba had, as of late, been busy joining clubs right and left.

She was alone.

Or so she thought.

"Welcome, welcome, dear Téa."

The brunette spun around in a circle, eyes narrowing as they fell upon the tall and imposing frame of Gozaburo Kaiba. He hadn't been there a minute ago-- but such was the nature of ghosts.

Téa had never encountered the ghosts --Gozaburo OR Noah-- in the daytime, and the fact that Gozaburo looked so... REAL sent a wave of fear spiraling down Téa's spine.

_'I just can't... can't be afraid.'_

Of course, it was easier said than done. Téa brushed right past Gozaburo and headed into the kitchen, intending to prepare herself a snack before she started on her homework.

"Ah, pretending to ignore me, are you? It won't work." Gozaburo materialized behind Téa, following her every move, hovering just behind her. While HE didn't seem to mind pestering her, Téa could feel his presence behind her every step of the way, sending shivers down her spine.

She'd just finished putting some crackers and cheese on a plate, irritated by Gozaburo's presence to the point where she slammed her cutting knife on the counter, wheeling on the ball of her foot and snapping at the ghost.

"What do you want, anyway?!" she yelled, the exasperation plain in her voice. "It's not like Seto's here anyway, and if you're here to drive me crazy, well then, Mission Accomplished!"

She exhaled deeply and marched towards the kitchen table, taking out her schoolwork and nibbling on her snacks-- desperate to distract herself from the apparition just behind her.

To Téa's surprise, Gozaburo --ghost of the most notorious, ruthless businessman in 20th century history-- laughed.

"No wonder you bring him such... joy." The amused expression disappeared from the apparition's face, the final word dripping with disgust.

"...You had someone like that, once," Téa murmured, turning her gaze back to her schoolwork. She remembered Noah's journal-- and how he made constant references to his late mother, and how completely his father had changed since her death.

"Quiet, girl!" Gozaburo snarled in a menacing tone, "Don't speak of that which you have no idea!"

"No idea?" Téa chuckled, her voice soft and her eyes drawn downwards, "No idea."

Téa rose to her feet, lifting her gaze to meet Gozaburo's. Blue eyes shone brilliantly back at the apparition, "I don't care how long you've been haunting this place, or how well you think you know me. Haunt me all you want-- you don't know a damn thing about me or what I've been through! I know what it's like to lose someone you love-- I know what it's like to suffer! All you Kaibas are the same-- you think that by wearing a smile, I've forgotten?! I'm doing my best just to stand right now!"

Indeed, Téa's knees wobbled slightly, until she took in a shuddering sigh and flopped back into her chair.

When no response came from the ghost, Téa dared to look around-- and found the kitchen area empty.

No one. No ghost.

* * *

He wasn't entirely sure what had drawn him there.

But he had a vague idea.

Téa Gardner had entered that place not long ago.

Her new home? The place Yugi and his friends spoke of incessantly whenever the girl wasn't around. They all had wild speculations about who her new employer was, what the "little kid" she baby-sat for was like, and when they'd be able to visit.

"Tch," Ryou Bakura clicked in tongue in his cheek, brown eyes shifting. "The girl keeps secrets," he murmured aloud. "Dark ones."

The closer he got, the more he could feel it. The faintest traces...

Something dark and powerful lurked within the confines of that house. No, not just any house...

The Kaiba mansion.

* * *

"You shouldn't have said anything."

Téa raised her head, glancing backwards at the sound of a new voice in the previously-silent kitchen. It had been a good hour since Gozaburo had left Téa to her own devices, and with that time, she'd been able to get some actual study time in.

_Noah._

"Your father's an idiot." Téa replied sharply, turning her gaze back to her work. Compared to her recent experiences with Gozaburo, she'd learned that Noah wasn't that much of a threat.

The soul of a eleven-year-old boy, who'd died too soon...

"Sometimes." Noah responded, pulling a chair out. Téa stared, watching his transparent hand physically grab hold of one of the kitchen table's chairs and sit in it.

"H-How do you do... that?" Téa asked, her expression confused and her eyes wide.

Noah chuckled, "What? This?" He took a napkin holder in his hand, his arm fading to invisible, as if the holder were being supported by invisible strings.

"Never been too sure of that myself. I've just been playing with my options recently. I can touch things sometimes..." He grinned saucily at Téa, licking his lips as he did so, "But most of the time, it's like I'm in a different dimension. Can't touch, can't feel..."

Téa was silent a moment, running through the possibilities in her mind. Of all the ghost stories she'd ever heard or told, nothing was quite like this.

"Do you... even know why you're here?" Téa murmured, setting her things aside and looking at Noah straight on.

The aquamarine-haired spirit blinked, and then shook his head, "Too soon. I died too soon. It feels like-- like I've been living here for years and years, but... asleep. That's why I take this form more often, I think." Noah gestured to his older body; it was just an apparition; something that had never really existed...

At least the ghost that Mokuba had seen --Noah's true form-- had been an echo of what he had looked like during life.

"How... I mean, if I can ask... how did you die?" Téa tried to phrase it as delicately as possible, but it simply wasn't one of those everyday questions you asked people.

"I..." Noah cocked his head to the side, as if trying to remember, "I--"

"Don't tell her ANYTHING, Noah."

Téa spun around; standing in the kitchen door was none other than Gozaburo Kaiba. His fierce, relentless expression was back; it was obvious he had no mind to answer any of Téa's questions-- or let Noah do the same.

"None of this makes any sense! You two both died under mysterious circumstances, Seto doesn't even know who the heck YOU are," Téa gestured to Noah, "and I'm the only one who can see either of you."

"Mokuba can see us." Noah replied quietly.

Her skin went pale, "Don't drag him into this. He's just a little boy--"

"And a Kaiba!" Gozaburo replied darkly.

"It doesn't matter WHAT his name is! Don't hurt him!"

A pause, as silence filled the room, the tension as thick as fog.

"So then, better you than him?"

An ultimatum. If not one, then the other...

_'I have no choice.'_

"Yes."

* * *

She had such beautiful eyes.

They were the same shade of brown as her brother's, but Ryou had always thought that Amane's chocolate brown eyes held a much more heart-melting light to them than his ever could.

Had his own eyes ever possessed such a light, it had faded since...

Since she'd died.

He wasn't sure why he'd suddenly thought of her, his late sister, but the notion brought pangs of memory to his heart. Her beautiful eyes... her perfect smile.

And suddenly, for no particular reason, Ryou Bakura saw Téa Gardner's image superimposed over that of his sister's, for a fraction of a second.

Something... something about **Téa**.

His memory was blank; he could not recall how he had gotten home, what he had seen, or whom he had spoken to. Had he run into Téa? Was that why he saw her in his mind now, saw her face where his sister's should have been?

His other half... his **darker** half had taken control again, and left Ryou feeling disoriented and lost. Dazed and confused, the white-haired youth ran his fingertips over the lone photograph he had of Amane... his precious sister.

Téa reminded him of her... of Amane's sweet smile, her determination... even the way her face used to pinch up whenever she was angry.

_'I must have... talked to Téa,'_ Ryou mused, though he couldn't fathom what he would have said to her.

Ryou glanced down at Amane's picture once again, smiling briefly-- but that smile faded instantly, brown eyes widening impossibly.

A crack had appeared in the frame's glass, centered right on Amane's face... and growing, zigzagging to the corners...

And the girl captured within the photo no longer smiled.

* * *

Night had fallen once again-- and though the ill spirits within the Kaiba household had not yet faded, Téa Gardner, was at last able to get some sleep.

Perhaps it was because she'd discovered Noah's secret-- that he wasn't a malicious ghost after all, just a young boy who'd died too soon. He'd only wanted to see his father happy again...

Téa brought her knees up against her chest, crossing her arms. Despite being curled up in a nearly fetal position, under mounds of blankets, warmth wouldn't come to her. Painful memories haunted her dreams, and she continued to wake throughout the night, only to find her room dark and cold, as before...

"Téa..."

Still dark. Still cold.

But, between the blurs, the patches of dark and darker, there seemed to be... someone...?

"Téa..."

It was real. The voice...

_'I know that voice.'_

Blue eyes opened fully, the haziness fading away. Her whole body was numb with cold, frozen in position, so much that it ached to try and sit up.

_'Am I dreaming...?'_

"Téa..."

"Daddy...?" A whisper on the tip of her tongue, hanging within the darkened room like shadow.

The faint light in the room took form, and, kneeling before Téa was her very own father... Eric Gardner.

"Sweetheart... What's wrong? You look sad."

She couldn't think, couldn't control her movements-- without realizing it, she'd pushed the blankets off her torso and sat up in bed, eyes as wide as saucers and shimmering with unshed tears.

"I-- but..."

Mr. Gardner chuckled softly, "Speechless? That's not like you at all, dear."

"True."

Another voice, equally familiar to Téa as her father's had been.

Another coalescing of light, and then...

"Mom? What-- what the heck is going on here?" Téa looked from spirit to spirit-- that of Eric and Elizabeth Gardner, her two deceased parents of over two months now... looking as alive and healthy as they ever had-- except for the glowing.

"We've been watching over you, Téa..."

"B-But you're ghosts! I thought that ghosts only existed when... when..." Téa's brows furrowed, recalling the unusual circumstances in which Noah and Gozaburo had supposedly died. Both before their time... but that wasn't the only reason, was it?

"Before our time, Téa... but we can't change the past."

"No, you can't." Téa murmured. But she still had an odd feeling about everything. Was it a dream?

"But-- I don't understand. Why here? Why now?"

"You don't belong here, Téa... not in this place, not with Seto..."

The young brunette started; her parents had never met Seto Kaiba in life. They had undoubtedly heard of him because of his reputation, but even if they had, they never would have referred to him as Seto...

_'And it's not like **they've** been haunting this place. "Watching over me," they said. But that still doesn't mean they're "living" after death... right?'_

"Why not?" Téa asked softly, keeping her suspicions to herself. She found the courage to look at them fully, to speak to them as if they were alive. When they'd died, a million things had arisen in her mind, things she'd always wanted to say...

A pause, as the two spirits exchanged a glance.

"He doesn't deserve you, Téa. And you have such big dreams that you should be out there chasing-- your dreams of dancing, and New York..."

Blue eyes narrowed. No. These weren't her parents. They couldn't be.

"Maybe you're right," Téa murmured, baiting the ghosts as she rose from her bed, feet finding her fluffy blue slippers, "but then... I've changed. From the girl you knew..." Téa glanced around the room, wondering if there was any telltale sign regarding Noah or Gozaburo's whereabouts.

_'Noah was able to change forms, right? So wouldn't Gozaburo be able to as well?'_

"Téa..." The tone in Elizabeth Gardner's voice was one Téa knew all too well. Chiding. Reprimanding.

"I'm not afraid." Téa stood up and faced the ghosts head on, "You guys don't scare me."

She knew it couldn't be her parents. While it stung seeing them again, it hurt more that she was seeing them --and it wasn't really her parents. That she couldn't really say what she wanted, couldn't really--

Her head bowed slightly, the brunette allowed a smirk to cross her lips."What hurts me off the most is that you're disrespecting my parents! I lost them both, and you're just showing up here, babbling off some lies and trying to get me to leave!"

Even in the dark, the glow of the spirits provided enough light to reflect off the tears forming on Téa's lashline; it stung to realize that she wasn't really seeing her parents, and that she had KNOWN it wasn't --couldn't ever be-- them, as they'd never fostered her dream...

"But Téa--" Téa cut the spirit off with a quick motion of her hand, "Don't! Just cut it out-- I **know **you're not my parents."

The two apparitions glanced at one another, a wicked smile appearing on Eric Gardner's face before he morphed into another phantom, one Téa was already familiar with...

"Well done, dear, well done." Gozaburo clapped lightly, casting an offhanded glance at the specter of Elizabeth Gardner. The older woman bowed her head, glowing brighter for a moment, before her form morphed into that of Noah Kaiba.

"You guys are pathetic." Téa hissed, narrowing her eyes at the two. However, she noted, Noah didn't look all that happy. He wasn't standing beside his father and trying to get Téa to leave... he was just there.

"Consider this a warning, Téa. Leave this place. Stop delving into the Kaiba family past and MAYBE-- just **maybe**\-- we'll leave Seto and Mokuba alone."

"Make up your mind, already!" Téa growled out, "First you tell me that you're not here to bug Seto anyway; you want to punish ME for making him happy! And now that you're here, driving me insane, you want me to leave-- when I'm the one you supposedly want to hurt! Better me than Mokuba, right? So just have at it!"

She was sure that she'd awoken someone in the household with all her yelling, but she didn't care. She was tired of being haunted, tired of being frightened and tricked...

Tired of not being believed.

She wanted, more than anything, for Seto to believe her, for Seto to come in and that moment and realize that she wouldn't lie to him, that she was **sick** of lying, and that only **he** could deal with Gozaburo properly...

_'I don't even know anything about this. And if Seto's not going to help me, then... I'll have to do this on my own.'_

It wasn't a pleasant thought, but if it rid the house of the ghosts...

"Remember, Téa," Gozaburo's rough voice interrupted Téa from her thoughts, "this is a warning."

A feeling of foreboding filled Téa from the inside out, but she refused to let it overcome her. She would prove to Seto that this was real.

"Bring it on."

* * *

It was as if she were looking at the world from underwater-- everything was blurred, a mass of colors and vague, distorted shapes...

_'Focus!' _

Téa was trying her hardest to stay awake-- she was only in her fourth class of the day, and if she didn't stay awake through the end of the period, she was sure she would get detention.

After her encounter with her parents --no, Gozaburo and Noah Kaiba-- Téa hadn't been able to sleep. She'd been worried that the elder Kaiba would have tried to harm her --or worse, Mokuba-- while she slept, and so she'd camped out in the hallway, half expecting the two spirits to return.

They hadn't.

Téa had spent hours staring into the darkness, doing her best to squelch the dread growing in the pit of her stomach. But nothing had happened, and no one had appeared.

The moment the thought crossed her mind, she saw him. Amongst the blurred shapes of her classmates...

He was unmistakable, with that mop of aquamarine hair, clad in a white uniform like Téa had never seen before.

_'Noah...'_

She rubbed her eyes and blinked-- no one.

Unaware that her slips into sleep had caught the attentions of a few of her classmates, Téa's eyes began to droop once more-- and again, between the haze, she swore she saw Noah, standing there, his face too blurred to make out...

_'He's saying something,' _Téa knew, _'But what? What are you trying to tell me, Noah?_'

Her vision blurred again, patches of darkness clouding her sight, the numbness swallowing her limbs, inch by inch...

There was a cry from Chieko, sitting beside Téa as she collapsed to the ground in a dead faint.

* * *

"Téa? Téa!"

The voices seemed distant... echoing, as if they were being yelled to her from a great distance, or through a tunnel.

"I--"

A brilliant light blinded her, and Téa pinched her eyes shut, using her arm to shield herself from the vast whiteness. When the blaze faded, she could just barely make out a form-- calling to her...

_'Noah...?'_

"Téa?"

Groggily, Téa opened her eyes, reality settling in and bringing her back to the waking world.

"Yugi?"

Colors and shapes slowly melded together, revealing her amethyst-eyed best friend, leaning towards her with a concerned expression on his face.

After rubbing her eyes for a few more moments, Téa realized she was in the nurse's office, surrounded by all her friends --Joey, Tristan, Chieko, and Yugi.

"You're awake!" was the chorused exclamation, and, Téa rose on unsteady arms, trying to sit up and face her friends.

"We were so worried when you fainted in class, Téa," Yugi began, covering Téa's hands with his own and giving hers a gentle squeeze."You look like you'd seen a ghost."

Téa's eyes widened as she realized that was just what HAD happened. A slight smile crossed her lips, and she was about to reply when a voice spoke up from the doorway, "Maybe she needs to call an exorcist, then."

Téa glanced towards the door, not at all surprised to see Ryou Bakura standing there, the faintest hint of a smirk gracing his charming features. He walked further into the room, acknowledging Téa's awakened state with a brusque nod of his head.

Everyone laughed lightly, though Téa and Yugi both directed curious gazes towards Bakura. Something about him was... **off**.

_'Could it be that it's...?' _

But before anyone could comment, a harsh voice sounded, "Those that believe in ghosts are fools."

Téa recognized **that** voice immediately... knew those same words. Seto Kaiba stood in the doorway, where Bakura had stood only moments before. With their backs all turned to the elder Kaiba, none of them had seen the concerned gaze cross his face, just before Bakura turned towards Téa.

Now, all eyes were on him-- and then suddenly, the bell rang, signaling his departure from the office.

Not once did he look back.

Tristan and Joey looked more than a bit eager to get going; they knew they had to rush to get their lunches, and would be stuck with nothing if they didn't hurry.

"Go on guys," Téa smiled gently, "I know you're hungry." She fumbled with the sheets covering her, willing her legs to regain their sense of feeling.

The two boys shot Téa a grateful smile, "Thanks, Téa. Feel better, okay?"

"Yeah," Joey added, winking and giving Téa a thumbs-up, "don't push yourself." And with that, the two boys were gone, lost in the crowds outside in the hallway.

Straightening out her wrinkled uniform, Téa worked to regain her balance, murmuring her appreciation to Yugi as he helped her stand. She still felt a bit wobbly, and more than a bit shaken from seeing Noah at school.

_'At home is bad enough, but here, too...?'_

"Are you going to be okay, Téa?" The sincere concern in Chieko's voice was rather apparent, and for that, Téa flashed her friend a smile. "I'll be okay, once I get my balance back."

Joining Téa on the other side to help her stand fully, Chieko smiled at Téa, whispering softly in her ear, "We need to talk."

Téa nodded, shuddering slightly as feeling and sensation restored themselves to Téa's body.

"Thanks for sticking around, guys," Téa nodded to Yugi and Bakura, the former boy still wearing a mask of concern on his youthful face. "Give me just a second to get my bearings, and I'll meet you outside, okay?"

The two nodded, Yugi exiting first followed by Bakura-- who cast an odd look at Téa before he too exited, closing the door behind him.

Chieko turned towards Téa, the worry evident on her pretty features; light brown eyes shimmered as she gripped Téa gently by the shoulders and spoke in her polite tone of voice.

"Téa, are you sure you're okay?"

"I'm... I'm fine, Chieko. There's no reason to worry about me." Téa attempted to smile, the results appearing somewhat halfhearted and crooked on her tired face.

"'No reason...?'" Chieko repeated softly, closing her eyes and shaking her head, "No, Téa, I think there is. Not only do you have a rather mysterious injury that easily could have been fatal, but you've been tired in class lately, listless and inattentive. And now, you faint? It's not like you."

Téa swallowed; she knew her behavior had been unusual since the hauntings had started at the mansion, but she hadn't known it had been so evident outside of the house.

"Téa," Chieko continued, her gaze becoming serious, "is there something wrong at home?"

_'Is everyone all of a sudden psychic?' _Téa thought to herself. She **hated** keeping things from her friends-- and she hated lying. Since Chieko at least knew some of the truth --that Téa was living with Kaiba, and that her feelings for him ran deeper than friendship-- she could perhaps understand Téa's situation slightly, but...

_'How can I explain to anyone that the place is haunted, and I'm being stalked by Kaiba's dead father? No one's going to believe that!'_

"It's just," Téa began, trying to find a half-truth explanation, "I've been seeing... Look, this guy keeps appearing. And then I blink, and he's not there anymore, and I can't concentrate, can't sleep..." Téa trailed off.

It **still** sounded crazy.

"A guy...?" To Téa's surprise, Chieko didn't appear skeptical. Rather, she appeared to be deep in thought, considering Téa's words.

"What does he look like?" the blonde asked, surprising Téa out of her brief reverie.

"Tall. With... dark blue eyes, and-- this kind of aquamarine hair..."

"And a white uniform?" Chieko interrupted, the confusion disappearing from her cinnamon colored eyes instantly.

Her brunette friend beside her paled, her knees weakening to the point where she collapsed on the bed again, staring up at Chieko with wide, blue eyes.

"H-How did you know that?"

"I saw him," Chieko replied, sitting beside Téa on the bed, "at the festival."

"W-What?" Téa breathed, her voice dropping to a whisper. Noah had only started appearing to her in the past week-- and the festival had been nearly a half month ago!

"I was getting my fortune told by Bakura, between rounds of the dance competition," Chieko explained, "I was sure Bakura saw him too, but..." Chieko trailed off warily, her eyes glancing out to the hallway, where, from the window in the nurse's office door, one could plainly see Ryou Bakura and Yugi Moto leaning up against the wall, neither one speaking to the other.

"He didn't say anything."

Chieko's words only stirred the fear boiling in Téa's stomach more.

Had Noah truly been seen outside of the Kaiba mansion-- before Téa had even known about him? If so, how-- and why? How was it that Chieko and Bakura could both see Noah, when Seto couldn't?

And Bakura's odd attitude earlier...

What did it all mean?

* * *

Only a few minutes later, the two girls had decided to drop the subject of the mysterious young man they'd seen --that only Téa knew as Noah Kaiba. She wasn't sure if Chieko would believe what Téa knew as fact-- that Noah Kaiba was long dead, and that the young man they'd seen was just an illusion.

So she kept silent.

The two had agreed to leave the nurse's office and not mention the incident ever again-- though it was painfully obvious to Téa that she wouldn't be able to forget seeing Noah so easily.

_'Am I going crazy?' _she wondered. Maybe, if it meant she was seeing Noah amidst dizzy spells while at school...

"Feeling okay?" Téa glanced down at Yugi, who had been waiting for her and Chieko outside the office, standing beside Bakura. With the latter boy's head bent and his long bangs covering his eyes, it was hard to read the expression on his face, but the same feeling --that odd vibe from before-- arose again, stronger...

"Yeah Yugi, I'm--" Bakura's gaze met hers, and with instant clarity, Téa realized what the odd vibe was, and what it meant

"Fine."

Yugi glanced between Bakura and Téa, who seemed to be lost, staring at one another, uncertainty sparking in his mind.

Part of him vaguely wondered if he'd been wrong all along-- and that Bakura was really the one Téa was crushing on.

_'That's crazy!' _Yugi reprimanded himself, _'Besides, there's more important things to think about than who Téa **likes** right now. Things like... who **hurt** her. And why she won't tell me...'_ A burgeoning feeling of loneliness welled up inside the boy, wondering what had changed between he and Téa that had fostered her sudden lack of confidence --lack of trust-- in him.

Did she find out about the crush he harbored for her? Maybe-- maybe she was avoiding him because of that, knowing what Yugi already suspected: that **her** crush was someone else entirely.

Such thoughts only reinforced Yugi's depression, and, though he said little, the pain he kept in check reflected in his eyes.

"I'm... going to find Joey and Tristan now, Téa. I'll see you back in class."

Chieko glanced hesitantly from Yugi to Téa, having seen the sad look in the shorter boy's eyes; didn't Téa know that he was worried?

_'She probably wants to ask Bakura about what he saw. If it's affecting her so, maybe he could give her some answers.'_

Chieko wasn't sure about the dynamic Téa had with the boys at her school --her past seemed to go farther back and deeper with each passing day-- but she wasn't one to question it, either.

"I shall join you, Yugi," Chieko nodded briefly to Téa, who didn't notice the two departing, leaving her and Bakura alone in the hallway, staring at one other.

Silence swallowed the hall once the last echo of Yugi and Chieko's footsteps disappeared, suddenly multiplying the tension in the narrow hallway.

The silence was broken by an unexpected laugh from Bakura-- though one laced with dark amusement.

"I cannot keep anything secret from you for long, can I, Téa?"

"Since when were **we** on a first name basis, you... whoever you are!" Téa growled. It was not her FRIEND Ryou, not her classmate --the shy, endearing, charming British transfer student. Nor was he the mysterious, emotional young man Téa had the pleasure of dancing with at the festival...

Someone else entirely. Someone dark and twisted, with cruel intentions that Téa herself had experienced firsthand.

"The name's Bakura," the white-haired youth hissed. "Always has been, always will be. And we **were**, as I recall, on quite a friendly basis not that long ago..." Bakura trailed off meaningfully, walking dangerously close to Téa and the wall she stood against.

Whatever his name, whatever his motivations or reasoning, Ryou Bakura's "dark" half was one Téa did NOT like.

_'He-- he took control of me. Violated me! There's no WAY I'm letting him get close enough to me to ever do that again!'_

And yet, here they were. It seemed as though Bakura --or his dark half, perhaps-- had all the answers that Téa needed. It was just a matter of sticking around long enough to get them.

And sticking around in **this** Bakura's presence was NOT something Téa wanted to do.

"You're NOT Ryou," Téa whispered, a dangerous tone edging her voice. "**He** was the one I danced with, not **you**." Having no mind to argue with the spirit of the Millennium Ring, Téa pushed past Bakura, fully intending to leave and enjoy lunch with her friends-- until Bakura interrupted her.

"Are you sure about that, Miss Gardner?" Téa froze, eyes narrowing as she slowly turned to face Bakura again.

"Are you sure about **anything**, these days?" Bakura continued smoothly, closing the gap between their bodies once more. The darkness that Téa had recently felt in the Kaiba mansion seemed to thrum tenfold from Bakura --the young man who, like Yugi, seemed to be so innocent on the outside, but so dark on the inside.

"What do you know?" Téa asked, her voice wavering for a fraction of a second. Bakura grinned toothily, sending shivers coursing down Téa's spine.

"Wouldn't you like to know?" he whispered, his lips dangerously close to Téa's ear. She stilled, finding herself unable --unwilling?-- to move. Ryou --no, Bakura-- whoever he was, he was a mysterious person that Téa could never truly comprehend. And he always **was** in tune with things mystical, things from the occult...

_'His prediction from the festival came **true**, didn't it? The Devil Card... it's Gozaburo.'_

"I would," Téa found herself saying, though her voice sounded oddly hollow as she spoke. "because only you can tell me what I need to know."

Bakura stared at Téa, his brown eyes darkening to the point that no light mirrored back from their depths.

"You're going to owe me, Gardner."

Of all the things Téa knew Bakura wanted, she was positive she couldn't provide any of them. But if he was willing to make a deal...

"I understand."

* * *

Chieko, with a good deal of athletic experience from all her years of dancing, caught up to the shorter Yugi Moto with ease. She'd expected to be several paces behind him, as he'd said he was going to join Joey and Tristan, but, to her surprise, she'd found Yugi leaning against a wall further down the hall, just before the bend that led out to where the other boys were undoubtedly eating.

"Yugi?" Chieko panted quietly, taking the chance to catch her breath and press her palms to her knees.

"I just... I just left them there." Yugi mumbled, his expression downcast. He shook his head vehemently."What was I thinking?"

"I think... leaving them was best," Chieko said, leaning up against the wall beside Yugi."Téa had a few questions for Bakura that only he could answer."

"You don't understand!" Yugi exclaimed suddenly, his voice sounding unusually loud in the empty, echoing hallways.

Violet eyes met with bright brown, a silent challenge issued on Chieko's part for him to explain just what it was that she didn't understand.

"He's... Bakura's not-- You can't trust him."

A moment of silence, as Chieko mulled over what would be an appropriate response.

"I can't, or YOU can't?"

Yugi's eyes dropped to the floor again and he sagged, slouching against the wall with a great sigh.

"Everything's so confusing nowadays," he murmured, "I thought I knew who she liked, but then..."

Chieko's eyebrows shot up in surprise, silently hoping Yugi would continue.

And continue he did.

"But it's none of my business anyway, even if I thought I was her best friend, but so much has happened lately... But she's never kept secrets like this before, and I just can't help but wish she'd turn to me and tell me everything, like she used to..."

A pause.

"You like her, don't you?"

Sad eyes glanced up towards the blonde, giving her the answer without words being spoken. After a moment, Yugi swallowed and said, "Am I that obvious?"

"No," Chieko giggled lightly, "I've seen far worse cases. I think it's just that Téa doesn't see what she's not looking for."

"She's got a crush on someone," Yugi said bluntly. "It's not me, is it? I've been too afraid to tell her how I feel, thinking she likes someone else, and now..."

"What makes you think I would know?" Chieko asked innocently, rolling her eyes towards the ceiling. Yugi only fixed his classmate with a bland stare, until Chieko's smile slipped from her face.

"When the time is right, I think Téa will tell you herself."

"That's a non-answer," the smaller boy grumbled, burying his head in his arms. He'd since slumped all the way to the floor, sitting with Chieko beside him in the silent hallway.

"That's life for you..." Chieko smiled gently."But tell me, Yugi," she put a hand on the smaller boy's shoulder, catching his attention and his soft gaze, "what do you value more-- the **possibility **of a romance with Téa, or her **friendship**, which you have had for years and years?"

Yugi stared at Chieko, having never thought of that before. He'd always figured that one day, he would have the courage to tell Téa how he felt, and things would just go from there.

But as of late, Téa had drifted further and further away form him, and despite the few reassurances Tristan and Joey offered, Yugi highly doubted that the boy Téa was crushing on was him. His best friend had become someone else, and Yugi just wasn't sure about anything anymore.

* * *

"The gu-- the ghost," Téa amended, "From the festival. Chieko said you saw him."

"Hmm," Bakura stroked his chin in a mocking, thoughtful gesture, his gaze wandering back to Téa's rigid form. "Perhaps."

"Stop being so damn frustrating!" Téa snapped, "I asked for answers!"

"You didn't ASK for anything, Gardner," Bakura hissed, abruptly shoving Téa against one of the walls, both of his arms pinning her shoulders down.

"And whenever anyone wants something from me, they don't **ask**, they **BEG**. And in your case, it's only appropriate... given how much I know."

Téa's eyes narrowed, and she abruptly shoved Bakura's hands off her shoulders, increasing the space between them almost abruptly. He spun around, as if moving to leave, but Téa spoke before he could take a step, her tone freezing him in place.

"Let's get one thing straight, **Bakura**," she said icily, "I don't like you. I've _never_ liked you. And I don't trust you, so it's not like I'm going to believe whatever you tell me at face value **anyway**. But you HAVE been right about some things **so far**, and for that reason alone, I've bothered to ask you for your help. And trust me, if you're looking to have someone owe you a favor... I'm probably the only one that would even come close to agreeing."

She paused, taking a breath, narrowing her eyes further as she took in Bakura's distinctly dark aura, "What do you know, anyway? You act like you could blackmail me."

"Torture is more like it, my sweet," Bakura chuckled. "I know not only of your ghosts, but of where they haunt. Your new home... the Kaiba mansion."

Téa stilled.

He knew. He wasn't one of the ones Téa had told, nor a confidant to either of the two girls that **did** know. So how...?

"...What is it you want from me, Bakura?"

"What I want? It's more like what YOU want from me, Téa. You're asking for favors... telling you about your ghosts, keeping your precious secret... I will tell you what you want, do what you ask... and collect when it is most opportune."

"I want..." Téa began, fumbling for words. What did she want? For Bakura to stop vexing her so? To just tell her what she needed to know? But... what DID Bakura know, and how? Could she even trust his words?

His back having been turned to Téa ever since Téa had snapped at him, Téa's attention was captured when he briskly faced her, a smirk tugging at the corners of his lips.

"You want me to be be more like the Pharaoh?"

Téa stilled, not expecting such words.

"No," she finally gritted out, though her cheeks had burned at the mention of the enigmatic Pharaoh that she hadn't encountered in so long, "I wouldn't. That's past."

To Téa's surprise, Bakura laughed loudly, "You have no idea of the **past**, girl," Bakura pointed at her, still chuckling with dark mirth, "and it will come to hurt you in the end, I assure you."

"Not if I can help it." Téa whispered, and strode down the hallway, with every intention of leaving Bakura behind.

"A little something about ghosts, Téa," Bakura called down to her. "What ties them to this realm has nothing to do with their time of death, but everything to do with their emotions at the time. If they can't move on, their souls remain here... trapped."

Téa hesitated at the door, but shook any thoughts of speaking to Bakura further out of her head. She stored away his words in her memory, and left the building to find her friends.

"When the time comes, Téa Gardner," Bakura grinned maliciously, "you **will** need me."And with those words echoing in the empty halls, Bakura shoved his hands into his uniform pockets, retreating into the darkness opposite from where Téa, Chieko, and Yugi had gone.

* * *

The Kaiba mansion was cold and silent when she entered --entirely as expected, and perfectly fitting.

_'After all,'_ Téa mused to herself, setting her school things on the floor beside the door, _'Seto Kaiba has turned this place into an architectural portrait of himself. Stone cold and unrelenting. That's why I haven't bothered to tell him anything about our little ghost problem.'_

Could such a place really be her home?

Even if she ended up deciding that all her feeling had been the result of trauma, or at best, misplaced gratitude, would she still be able to leave... in less than two months, without a second thought to all that Seto had said and done...

_'I can't think about that now. I have to stop Gozaburo... before things get worse, and someone innocent gets hurt.'_

She had to find out the truth.

Téa strode purposefully into Seto's study, her gaze already focused on the maroon "trigger book" that she discovered was the key to entering the secret room.

Pulling on the once-dusty maroon cover, she unlocked the door to the secret room, mustering all her courage and willpower to not be afraid. She knew that Gozaburo Kaiba could be looming over her shoulder, watching her every action...

Téa first set out going through all the drawers in the oak table in which she'd found Noah's journal. Though the leather-bound book had been the only contents of the secret drawer, a normal compartment revealed a stack of dusty manila folders and envelopes, as well as scattered newspaper clippings and faded photos.

"'Youth dies in tragic car accident,'" Téa read aloud, her eyes skimming over a worn newspaper clipping, attached to another folded section of newspaper. In the middle of the worn column was a face Téa knew all too well by now-- Noah.

The same face that had been in his journal's photo... a young, smiling boy-- only eleven years old, with his whole life ahead of him...

"'Noah Kaiba, heir to the vast fortune of the Kaiba Corporation, died in a tragic car accident on Thursday, October 31st...'"

_'Wait a minute...' _Téa peered at the fine print on the newspaper, realizing with mute surprise that the article was dated November 1st-- almost exactly six years previous.

_'So that's why Noah appears sometimes as a guy my age...'_ Téa realized. He'd died six years ago... and for whatever reason, he still haunted the Kaiba mansion.

_"If they can't move on, their souls remain here... trapped."_

Bakura's words echoed in the recesses of Téa's mind.

_'Can't move on?'_

Was it a simple a matter as accepting death? If one acknowledged death as the inevitable result of life...

What was it that held Gozaburo and Noah to their home? What prevented either of them from moving on?

Amongst the newspapers, old letters, and faded photographs, Téa came upon something considerably heavier, and of greater value.

A picture frame.

Sterling silver, according to a small label on the back. The glass was coated in a fine sheen of dust, the picture totally invisible. Not having any tissue on hand, Téa settled with wiping the frame clean with her fingers, revealing...

A happy family.

It was absolutely undeniable-- the expressions on Noah and Gozaburo's faces couldn't be faked.

Probably because one of the most beautiful women Téa had ever seen stood between the two, her arms around each of the two Kaibas' shoulders.

Carefully detaching the stand from the frame, Téa gingerly removed the photo from its confines, peering when she saw a small line of handwritten script on the back.

'To my dearest husband, on our 10th Anniversary. May we be continue to be blessed with light and love.'

At the bottom, it was signed 'Michiru.'

"Michiru Kaiba, huh?" So the Kaiba matriarch had a name. She seemed like a nice woman-- at least, in the picture. But such things could be deceiving, Téa knew, so she kept on researching.

A few minutes later, Téa came upon a yellowed, crisp document-- a marriage certificate.

"Michiru Oukai and Gozaburo Kaiba." The paper was dated over eighteen years ago, meaning that Michiru and Gozaburo had been married for some time before the woman given birth to Noah.

_'She had to have lived at least until Noah was nine, right?_' Téa mused to herself. Noah's journal had made mention of the one year anniversary of her death, and that had been AFTER he'd been presented the book for his tenth birthday.

_'And she'd been so young. I wonder..._'

Téa glanced up at the computer blinking erratically beside her. She knew that Seto's computer in his study worked fine, but... he could trace wherever she went on it. His security was not to be trifled with, Téa knew that much.

And in dealing with the Kaiba family's dark past, Téa preferred not to have Seto find out.

_'No, not yet. I know he'll have to believe me... when I have some solid proof.'_ After all, Téa reminded herself, Seto Kaiba was a "see it to believe it" kind of guy. True, he still didn't believe in what Téa, Joey, Tristan, and countless others knew-- that within his arch-rival and THEIR best friend, Yugi Moto, the spirit of an ancient Pharaoh rested.

Téa moved towards the computer, fingers tracing over the dust-covered buttons and the cobweb-choked displays.

The technology blinked to life, and suddenly, Téa found herself privy to information she never would have dreamed of...

* * *

"Obviously, once wasn't enough, girl."

Téa swiveled around in her seat, eyes widening as she saw the spirit of Gozaburo Kaiba enter the room.

"Once what, KAIBA?" Téa asked, venom dripping from her voice. The past several hours of research had revealed a great deal about the Kaiba family-- about Michiru Kaiba, and her unfortunate, untimely death... and how for weeks, the authorities had suspected it of being a suicide, then a murder. When it was finally proven to be an accident, the damage had already been done.

"One **warning**, girl. I gave you an ultimatum, but now I think I might revoke my words..." Gozaburo trailed off in a warning tone, his voice clearly implying what his words did not.

"Don't even think about hurting Mokuba, you slime! I know almost everything about your sordid past-- about what you were planning to do with Noah, about how your wife die--"

A sharp slap to her face quickly silenced Téa, her face reddening with the force of the slap.

"Mind your own affairs girl! And don't bother presenting your 'findings' to Seto-- you know he doesn't believe in you, anyway! Leave this place, or I **promise** you, a much worse fate than a mere slap will befall you... and that brat Mokuba!"

* * *

Noah had been in a coma for three days before he'd died of massive hemorrhaging in the brain.

In that time, Gozaburo Kaiba had been reckless, nearly insane... showing up at the hospital and insisting the doctors hook Noah up to some device. He'd ranted about saving his son, preserving his mind...

The police had escorted Gozaburo from the hospital, and he hadn't even been in the room when his son had finally crossed over.

Téa had come across hundreds of files-- many of them so highly encrypted that Téa couldn't begin to fathom what their contents were. Over the years, the system had degraded, and small bits of information came through...

There were scanned images of journal entries, written by the Kaiba patriarch himself. Covered with scratched-out words and crooked scribblings, Téa could make no sense of the pictures... only that the man sorely missed his wife, and like Noah had observed shortly after his 10th birthday in his journal, Gozaburo had changed completely.

Budget statements and quarterly finance papers from the original Kaiba Corp, including confidential papers sent from various military groups wanting a piece of the Kaiba Corp's technology littered the hard drive.

And...

Something about Seto and Mokuba's adoption.

Something that didn't look right, Téa knew, but she was unable to decrypt the file.

It was getting harder and harder to focus, to think... with the darkness lurking in every corner, Téa could never be sure when Gozaburo would spring out at her and follow through on his threat-- and hurt her, much more than he had before.

And Mokuba...!

_'I... I can't lie to him any longer! Mokuba might be in danger, and I-- I can't do this alone.' _

She knew Seto didn't believe. Not in the stories, not in ghosts-- and, if Gozaburo was right, not in her. But that didn't matter, because she knew better than anyone else that Seto's number one priority was his brother.

And if Mokuba was in danger, surely Seto would realize...

_'I'll be fine. I'll just... find a way to get Seto to just listen, and...' _Téa sighed. She knew telling Seto wouldn't be that easy, but she had time. He wasn't home yet, and she still had to finish some more research... she knew she was close.

Having been scared out of the secret room by Gozaburo, Téa had opted to bring her paperwork to the kitchen, and instead try to sort things out there. It would be easier too, should she lose track of time and neglect to get out of the secret room fast enough. She closed the small space off, and hoped to never have to go there again.

If she could just solve the mystery...

But there were still so many unanswered questions, and if Seto started to believe, then he could answer them...

* * *

He'd been lucky.

Work had been slow; his employees strangely cheerful.

Seto Kaiba had no reason to stay at the corporate offices of KaibaCorp, and so had packed up his briefcase and headed home, a full two hours earlier than he usually did.

Briefly, he thought that now, with this extra time, he could find a moment to speak to Téa.

Ever since she'd revealed the wound on her neck to the entire classroom, he'd been plagued, wondering how she'd come about such an injury.

_'It couldn't have been self-inflicted, could it?'_

But no. Téa wasn't that type of girl.

_'Then again...'_ Seto realized, _'I don't really know what type of girl she is...'_

And it was the truth. In the two months or so since her parents had passed away and she'd moved in, they had rarely ever sat down and TALKED. Whatever sort of relationship it was between Seto and Téa, it wasn't like the ones with her friends.

She never talked to him about her day, never laughed with him...

_'What have I got to laugh about, anyway?'_

Everything that Seto Kaiba was --everything that he said, did, and surrounded himself with-- made his life infinitely complex.

She was one of those things.

The desire to just... **talk** to her welled up inside him, and he found himself pushing the accelerator in his car just a little bit harder, willing himself to be home sooner.

* * *

He wasn't the type to announce, "I'm home!" like he was sure so many other people did. His entry was a silent one, heralded only by the beeping of the security panel confirming that he had entered the correct access code from the garage.

The Kaiba mansion, as usual, was silent.

He'd been hoping that Téa would have been in the immediate vicinity, so that he wouldn't have to embarrass himself asking if they could sit down and talk. He had no idea how he would begin such a conversation, and was leaning towards the slight possibility that things would just... happen.

But she was nowhere in sight.

_'At least,'_ Seto spied a mound of papers covering the kitchen table, _'I know she's home. She must be working on a project or something.'_

Seto couldn't recall any sort of project being assigned in any of the classes that he and Téa shared, though it was just as likely that it had something to do with her dance club...

His curiosity piqued, Seto Kaiba moved towards the table, placing his metal briefcase near the closet, draping his jacket over its handle.

"What the...?"

He hadn't even realized he'd spoken aloud, so great was his surprise.

These papers weren't part of any school project.

Photos. Newspaper clippings. A journal...

Adoption papers.

Private matters. Things Téa shouldn't have had access to. Yet... here the things were, and it was painfully apparent that Téa was delving into a part of his life that Seto had hoped was locked away for good.

_'She better have a damned good explanation for this.'_

* * *

Téa rounded the corner from Seto's office into the kitchen, startled when a voice spoke up.

"What the hell is all this?"

_'Seto!'_

His voice was laced with anger, a hair's breadth from being enraged. Téa didn't know how he kept himself in check so often; she'd always thought of Seto as a rather emotionless kind of guy-- except where certain things were concerned.

Things like his past.

She hadn't heard him come in, but then, she'd been so engrossed in her newest findings that she hadn't really paid attention...

Astonished, her grip on her latest batch of photos, papers, and files fell to the floor, scattering over the linoleum like confetti.

_'He... he wasn't supposed to be home for another hour, at least!' _She'd wanted to clean up the mess of papers she'd discovered throughout the house, wanted to find the perfect time to approach Seto and tell him everything...

"I... It's..."

It was apparent that Seto, on the other hand, had heard Téa approaching, and had picked the choice moment to reveal his presence-- and his anger.

_'Now's a good as time as any, girl! I've got no choice but to tell him everything now!'_

"It's... something I was working on." Téa admitted quietly, bending down to pick up the papers. But she couldn't bring herself to look Seto in the eye. She could feel his icy gaze penetrating her, boring through her skull, but she refused to look up.

The thought -the very **idea**\- of Seto being angry with her brought a stinging sensation to Téa's heart, one she had hoped she wouldn't ever feel again...

Seto Kaiba remained silent, waiting for what he sorely hoped was a **damned** good explanation from Téa-- about why she was digging into his past. Once she'd gathered all her papers, she stood up, crystal blue eyes meeting his.

"Sit down, Seto. There's... something you need to know."

The slightest inkling of fear sparked in the back of Seto's mind, but he did his best to ignore it; what could Téa possibly say in her defense about going through his past?

"...This place... Seto, it's haunted."

A pregnant pause.

"Do you think this is funny?" A stiff hand swept across the table, pushing papers off its smooth surface and flying all over the floor.

His voice was calm, almost emotionless. One might have interpreted his tone as cold sarcasm, but Téa knew, as many others did, that when Seto Kaiba wanted to be brutally sarcastic, he let it show. So... it was a valid question. To him, anyway.

"W-What? Seto, I'm not joking! Mokuba, he--!"

"I know what he **thinks** he saw!" Seto snapped, his voice growing in anger and intensity. Téa shrank back slightly, swallowing the fears slowly churning their way up from her stomach and into her throat.

She was close -dangerously close- to breaking down and telling Seto everything --everything she'd discovered, and everything she'd been through. She hoped he'd understand, that he'd try to help...

_'I'm so **afraid**... I just-- I just want him to be there for me...'_

And yet, part of Téa knew, almost instantly after she'd heard Seto say he didn't believe in ghosts... that he wouldn't help. No matter how horrible things got...

"...He wasn't the only one, Seto. I've seen them, too."

''Them?'" Seto raised an eyebrow out of curiosity, though his anger hadn't receded much.

"...The ghosts, Seto. Your adoptive father, and..." she swallowed, her voice quiet, "your adoptive brother." Her words echoed every ounce of her need for him to believe...

He was silent at first, and then he sighed, closing his eyes as he did so.

"Ghosts... You really **are **childish, Gardner."

His words stung her, quickly and painfully, as real as any physical blow. An insult... Her pride wounded, she barely realized that he'd called her by her family name... something he hadn't called her in months...

"I'm not lying, Seto, why would I--" She stepped towards him, an arm outstretched to stop him from turning and leaving. She hadn't gotten the chance to explain anything to him yet-- anything about Noah, or why Gozaburo Kaiba had adopted Seto and Mokuba-- or what Gozaburo had said.

But before Téa could even continue, Seto cut her off, spinning around abruptly, his eyes flashing like twin coals.

"STAY THE HELL OUT OF MY PAST!"

Her hand fell, limp and numb, to her side, as the shock filtered through her system. Her face had gone white, her blue eyes widening and then filling with tears as she stumbled backward, too startled to say anything.

The fire in Seto Kaiba's eyes slowly died as he watched her fumble to pick up the bulk of her papers -her **project** of delving into his past- and she ran from the room, tears streaming from her eyes.

And though Seto still couldn't bring himself to believe in Téa and Mokuba's foolish game, one thought arose-- _'What have I done?'_

* * *

She couldn't stop.

Though she'd been downright terrified of Seto's reaction to her research into his past --the way his eyes had flashed at her, his voice so full of rage...

_'But...'_

She needed to find out. Needed to know why Seto Kaiba kept his past locked away, why the Kaiba patriarch had died, why... why...

"You should stop. Go."

Through her veil of tears. Téa saw him-- he who had been there since the beginning. He who could be blamed for all this mess, all this fright...

"Noah." Her voice was a mere whisper, her sobs having taken away her ability to be even slightly loud.

"I don't know why he's so dead-set on hurting you... but I know you're a good person Téa, you don't deserve this--"

"You're damn right I don't! And you didn't deserve it either! I'm trying to help here!" Her voice rose, cracking as she made every effort to express her anger to the ghost-boy, "I just want to know the truth."

"I want to know why, too, Téa!" Noah's deep blue eyes pleaded with hers, "Please... just **don't** anger him anymore. I'll find a way... we won't bother you anymore. Please, just don't..."

And with those cryptic words, Noah Kaiba disappeared, fading into the shadows.

* * *

The following morning, Mokuba became instantly aware of the tension simmering between his older brother and his 'tutor.' Curious, he sat himself between them at the breakfast table, looking between the two of them and wondering if he could deduce the cause of the problem. He ate his cereal slowly, the sound of his teeth crunching the corn flakes breaking the still silence that permeated the room.

"Uhm..." Mokuba began, unsure. He dropped his spoon into his now-empty cereal bowl with a loud clatter, but Seto didn't even spare his brother a glance, only spoke from behind his newspaper.

"It's nothing to worry about, Mokuba."

The ebony-haired boy looked towards Téa, whose eyes only shifted down; she looked sad.

An odd sort of anger boiled up in the pit of Mokuba's stomach; why did Seto always go around upsetting Téa? He had to have said something to her, hurt her feelings somehow --he was so good at that!

But, years of experience with his brother told Mokuba that Seto couldn't be blamed for everything. He'd grown up a certain way, and...

_'Gozaburo,' _Mokuba suddenly remembered. He'd been haunting the place, the boy was sure, as had that weird aquamarine haired boy. Maybe Téa had tried to tell Seto about them, and he hadn't believed her.

_'Of course he wouldn't,'_ Mokuba realized, _'Big Brother refuses to believe in what he can't see and understand at face value.'_

Even after all they'd been through --all that the world shoved in Seto Kaiba's face as being beyond the realm of simple explanation-- he still refused to attribute things like magic and ghosts to anything aside from foolish pranks.

Despite having his very soul stolen from him...

"I'm going." Téa abruptly stood up, grabbing the book satchel at her feet. She didn't wait for any sort of response from either of the boys, startling Mokuba into action.

"Uhm, I'm going with you!" Mokuba exclaimed. This did earn him a glance from Seto, an eyebrow raised in curiosity, but Seto didn't say anything. Sheepish, Mokuba explained, "Well, I ate my breakfast and I wanna get out of here now, so..." he trailed off meaningfully, but it was apparent that his brother didn't catch the drift.

"Bye, Big Brother." Mokuba mumbled as he exited the kitchen, trailing behind Téa. Seto didn't even glance up, offering a sharp wave to Mokuba as the younger boy left. Mokuba glanced up at Téa, who seemed to be staring sadly at Seto, but she shook her head and turned to go.

Once the pair were a good distance from the Kaiba mansion, Téa broke the silence.

"Mokuba... don't tell your brother about the ghosts, okay?"

"Huh? Is that what this is about? I mean, did you try to tell him? 'Cause Big Brother's stubborn and all, I know he is--"

"It's not that." Téa interrupted softly. She shook her head again, chocolate brown hairs covering her eyes, "Just... pretend it never happened, okay? Pretend it was a bad dream."

"But Téa--"

"Please?" When Téa looked at him again, the expression on her face was imploring, her eyes watering with unshed tears. Mokuba wanted nothing more than to be the stubborn Kaiba he knew he could be... to tell Téa 'no,' that he would help her, because he-- but he **couldn't**.

He would do what she asked... for the very same reason he wanted to refuse.

"Okay."

* * *

Téa had distanced herself from everyone that day, her sadness apparent in her silent nature. Yugi and the other boys worried; Chieko had approached Téa and asked her what was wrong... no answers.

Yugi and Chieko had a vague idea who was behind Téa's abrupt change in nature; just yesterday she'd been in higher spirits, almost to the point of being abnormally loud...

Yet today, it was as if she'd shrunk into a shell, closing herself off to the world...

The quiet was what she sought, and it surrounded her very being the moment she arrived... 'home.' The Kaiba mansion.

_'Maybe if I take my own advice, and pretend that the ghosts never existed --that I never saw them-- then maybe they'll go away. If I can just do what Seto does...'_

But wouldn't that be the same as lying to herself?

Téa's policy was one of honesty, but lately, she'd been entangling herself --and countless others-- in a web of lies, just to protect her heart.

_'Maybe if I'd gone about this differently from the beginning, I wouldn't be having this problem now.' _

She could easily question a great deal of what she'd done in the past, of what had brought her to that point in time... but she didn't regret any of it. It wasn't as if she could go back in time and change things, anyway.

But...

No. There was no going back. And while Seto could continue lying to himself, pretending that his past was locked away forever... and Mokuba, the innocent child, could try and pretend... Téa knew she couldn't.

She'd faced death too many times to ignore the very face of it.

Gozaburo Kaiba... The Devil.

Death.

Traumatic change.

She remembered Bakura's fortune telling, remembered his warning about ghosts... she couldn't let go. Was it true that ghosts remained on the mortal realm only because of strong emotion? What then, was it that held Gozaburo Kaiba?

She still hadn't found out how HE had died.

His wife had died in a tragic boat accident. She'd drowned when no one had been around, and her death had turned the Kaiba household upside down.

Noah, grief-stricken, was left alone to deal with his grief, as his father couldn't cope with reality enough to be there for his son. Though months had passed, Gozaburo Kaiba couldn't simply go back and be who he was before-- so instead, he pushed his son into being something inhuman... to the brink of insanity.

And a tragic car accident had left Noah Kaiba with little hope of waking up, let alone becoming the genius heir to the Kaiba fortune. And a mere three days after his accident, he'd died...

Gozaburo Kaiba's own parents abandoned him. They'd left him on the street. He bounced from foster home to foster home, and no one took him in for more than six months at a time.

A a boy even younger than Mokuba, Gozaburo Kaiba had seen death, destruction...

But it wasn't an excuse.

_'If Seto refuses to believe... then I'll get my answers someplace else. I won't involve Mokuba and put him in danger! I WILL be rid of you, Gozaburo Kaiba! I swear it!'_

* * *

"The end is here."

Téa glanced up sharply; Gozaburo was back.

She'd taken her research into her room, hoping that it would be more private than Seto's office, the secret room, or the kitchen. It was the only place she hadn't yet been disturbed by Gozaburo Kaiba and his threats...

_'Empty threats, hopefully.'_ Téa thought. But it didn't look that way.

This time, Gozaburo Kaiba looked enraged.

"I warned you, girl. Many times... you don't listen."

"You never should have appeared to me in the first place, Kaiba! If you thought I'd be afraid and give up, then you know now that you were wrong!"

"I will give you something to be afraid of!" The distance between them closed abruptly, as if the Kaiba patriarch had stretched his arms out in an inhuman fashion and pulled Téa from her chair.

She struggled mightily; fighting as fiercely as she could, but it was as if Kaiba's grip were of cold steel; she couldn't even budge her wrists as he dragged her down the hall, to the landing that hovered above the entryway into the mansion.

"What a pleasant surprise to greet Seto when he comes home-- young Téa Gardner, broken and bloody in his very doorway!"

And with a single swing, Gozaburo Kaiba flung a shocked Téa off the staircase landing, sending her flailing body crashing hard into the wall mirror, the force causing the frame to shudder and come forward; the glass shattering and raining down on Téa's limp form.

Bruised and bloodied, she slumped to the cool marble floor in shock. She wasn't sure whether she was succumbing to the pain or to the numbness swallowing her body... all she knew was that behind her blurred vision, Gozaburo Kaiba stood in front of her, the angriest expression Téa had ever seen crossing his face.

"STAY THE HELL OUT OF MY PAST!"

_'Not Gozaburo...'_ Téa thought dazedly, her consciousness slipping.

_'Seto... He's so angry with me...'_

A lone tear tracked its way down her right cheek as she darkness swallowed her, leaving Téa alone in the Kaiba mansion entryway, the mirror frame still hanging crookedly in front of the secret doorway; glass shards surrounding her every inch.

Minutes later --though it might as well have been hours for Téa-- the front door opened, the soles of fine dress shoes crunching against the glass scattered about the floor.

"What the--" Seto Kaiba swung the door open fully, seeing the glass shattered everywhere --it wasn't until Mokuba, whom Seto had picked up after school, rushed in-- that they saw what happened.

The younger boy wheeled on his feet upon entering the mansion, immediately spotting Téa lying amongst the broken remains of the mirror, the side of her head bleeding steadily while a multitude of other scars and cuts lined her face, neck, and arms.

"TÉA!"

Seto Kaiba took two steps inside and saw what Mokuba did-- though, unlike his brother, he made no move to rouse Téa, as the ebony-haired boy did.

"Téa! Téa, wake up! Please wake up, Téa!"

The girl groaned slightly, her frame trembling slightly. Mokuba's expression radiated with the concern, worry and fear he felt for the girl; a small hand on her back brought her to consciousness once more.

"Téa?"

The brunette's reply was a hacking cough directed into her palms, sending her tumbling forward into her glass-littered lap with the force of her convulsions.

When she sat up, Mokuba's eyes widened; blood covered Téa's lips, and it was obvious that one of her eyes was beginning to swell. It was the worst Mokuba had ever seen someone --and he'd seen Seto treated pretty roughly in his younger years.

_'Téa... she didn't deserve this. If I'd just told Big Brother everything sooner, then maybe Téa wouldn't have gotten hurt-- trying to protect me, no doubt!'_

"Gozaburo did this to you, didn't he?" Mokuba asked quietly. Téa couldn't seem to speak yet; she just nodded her head slowly, coughing again into her palm, crimson blood providing a stark contrast to her pale skin.

"I've heard enough!" Mokuba glanced backwards at his brother, the younger boy's expression one of shock and surprise. Seto hadn't moved an inch since he'd entered the mansion, save to close the door and stare at the scene before him; the catastrophe that his hallway had become, and the bloody mess that Téa now was.

Glass crunched beneath Seto Kaiba's feet as he walked forward, only a few feet from Téa. He didn't bend down to look her in the eye, rather his gaze was callous and condescending, navy eyes narrowed in what could only be revulsion.

"Bad luck for breaking a mirror, Gardner. Just what this house needs..."

"Big Brother!" Mokuba exclaimed, "How could you--?! Téa's hurt!"

"Because of GHOSTS? I don't believe in that idiocy, Mokuba, and I don't know what sick game the two of you are playing at, but it's not going to work!"

"Seto--" Téa began, her voice soft and raspy.

Kaiba cut her off abruptly, "Since you've come here, more things have gone wrong and been more troublesome than ever before! You're a curse!"

Despite the swelling, Téa's eyes widened in shock. Words could not express what she felt at the very moment --if all the pain, numbness, surprise... and everything else she had ever felt for Seto Kaiba could be bottled into a single word.

"Seto..." Mokuba's voice was a whisper. He looked crestfallen-- was this the brother who had sworn to always protect him, to always be there for him?

What had happened to the Big Brother that **cared**?

"Get someone to clean that mess up!"

And with that, Seto Kaiba slammed the door of his office, the sound echoing off the walls of the now deathly-silent Kaiba mansion.

* * *

Ten minutes later found Mokuba and Téa in the small downstairs bathroom near the laundry room and garage door. The younger boy had helped Téa rise to her feet and make her way through the glass to a place where he could tend to her wounds.

After a few moments of rummaging through the cabinets, Mokuba had procured a first aid kit, and set to work.

Though both he and Téa were silent, the younger boy's thoughts rang loudly in his head.

_'How could Big Brother be so heartless? I thought he liked Téa, even a little... What could she have said to him earlier that made him so mad?'_

But it didn't matter what Téa had said, Mokuba amended mentally. She was a good girl --no, a GREAT girl-- and didn't deserve that kind of treatment from anyone.

_'I'm sorry, Téa,'_ Mokuba thought to himself as he wiped an alcohol swab across her bleeding brow, _'But I won't be able to pretend that I never saw the ghosts. Even if Seto won't listen to me, I'll find a way to make you safe again... I don't want you to leave.' _

* * *

Seto Kaiba sighed deeply, leaning against the bathroom door.

Though the sounds were muffled, he knew what cries sounded like.

"It's gonna be okay, Téa..." Mokuba was saying, "Let me clean that up..."

So, Mokuba was tending to her wounds.

'_He's a good kid,'_ Seto thought absently, running fingers through his hair.

"Ah!" A sharp cry of pain. Muffled sobs.

How could he ignore it?

How could he ignore the possibility that maybe... maybe she was **right**? That maybe, all this time, she'd been justified in what she'd been doing, and was only trying to--

_'No! No excuses! She-- she could have told me!'_

But... would things have ended up any differently?

_'I... would have reacted the same way,'_ Seto realized, stumbling down the hall towards his office. He paused, glancing at the crooked frame and the broken glass surrounding the marble.

It wasn't possible-- for Téa to have done such a thing by herself. To have HURT herself like that. But...

_'Ghosts... **don't** exist.'_

Even his own thoughts betrayed him. Echoing hollowly in his mind, his words meant nothing.

Closing his office door with a quiet click, Seto Kaiba moved towards his desk, withdrawing a small, leather-bound book from the top drawer.

He flipped only a few pages before his eyes alighted on the numbers he sought. Hesitating for just a moment, Seto Kaiba reached for the phone, dialing the numbers in a rush.

The phone rang only twice before someone picked up, offering the standard greeting to callers.

"Bakura? It's Kaiba. I need your help."

* * *

Blue eyes glanced from book to book. A soft scritch-scratching filled the room as Téa diligently took notes. Doing this... it was the only way.

She'd told Mokuba that she would rest, but she hadn't been able to. She'd stayed alone in her room for hours, restless. Evening fell, and once again silence and darkness swallowed the Kaiba mansion whole.

Her stomach had growled, reminding Téa that she'd barely eaten anything that day. Depression had allowed her to forget eating lunch, and what little Téa had managed to eat for breakfast hadn't stayed in her belly long, anyway.

Her injuries sang with pain, and the world around her tipped, spinning in a dizzying swirl of light and colors.

She'd gone down to the kitchen, bandaged hands fumbling with her piles of found work. She was close-- so close to discovering the truth. And no amount of cuts and scars would deter her. She couldn't let them.

_'Besides... scars fade...'_ The cut on Téa's neck was barely there anymore; a faint pink line that one couldn't see unless inches from the soft curve of her skin.

Even if she was putting herself in danger... even if Seto had told her...

_"STAY THE HELL OUT OF MY PAST!"_

Téa blinked, remembering the enraged tone in Seto's voice. Gozaburo had said the same thing, in the same tone, but Téa hadn't seen HIM standing there. She'd only seen Seto, and remembered how ANGRY Seto had been...

_'Was that... the man I fell in love with?'_ Téa wondered absently. Eyes widened as she considered this thought; she thought she had seen and come to know a Seto Kaiba vastly different from the genius at school, from the #1 Duelist, from the young CEO.

But had she really gotten to know him at all?

"You don't learn."

Téa's head snapped towards the sound of the voice, fear coursing through her veins upon the realization that Gozaburo Kaiba had returned.

It wasn't enough that he'd hurled her against the hall mirror, very nearly killing her. It wasn't enough that he'd managed to get through to her, and started eating away at all her fears...

He didn't look the slightest bit amused.

Point in fact, he didn't look like he **felt** ANYTHING.

And for that reason alone, Téa had to silence the fears raging inside her, and continue working. She knew she was close now-- close to finding out the truth about the late Mrs. Kaiba, about Noah, about how they had all died, and why Gozaburo had adopted Seto and Mokuba.

But her facts were fragmented. Seto didn't WANT Téa prying into his past. He didn't know that if she didn't, it was likely that they'd be stuck with Gozaburo and Noah haunting the place... forever. And Téa didn't want that to happen.

Noah hadn't appeared for the longest time. Téa had the feeling Gozaburo was behind it somehow, with his uncanny power and manipulative ways. But in saying so --even subtly-- she knew she'd incur the Kaiba patriarch's wrath...

"I told you to stop." Gozaburo said, his voice as icily calm as before. Téa refused to look up, butterflies flapping wildly in her stomach.

"No."

"Don't do this girl. You're only bringing about your own destruction."

Téa didn't respond, but the fear in her surged forth. She tried to keep her eyes averted from the apparition before her-- maybe that way, he wouldn't see her eyes darting about, or see the sweat trickling down her neck...

"You're afraid." A smirk crossed Gozaburo Kaiba's face, though Téa wasn't facing him in order to see it. She pursed her lips, desperately trying to remain silent. If he didn't see the fear so apparent on her face, then he'd definitely **hear** it in her voice...

"Don't think that I don't know fear, Téa. I know every particle of fear... I know what it can do to you..." he leaned closer to Téa, freezing breath dangerously close to her ear, "It can kill you."

"Like your fears killed you?" Mustering all her courage, from the very depths of her soul, Téa Gardner faced Gozaburo Kaiba head-on. Blue met with black, and Gozaburo stood up, somewhat surprised.

"Your wife --Michiru-- she died. Drowned. Left you alone. Like your parents did. But instead of helping your own child through that same loss, you alienated him! And he died! And you only secluded yourself more!"

"Shut up!" Gozaburo yelled, the anger in his tone becoming apparent. But Téa continued on. If she could just **get** to him...

"And then, you met Seto! And he was a painful reminder of your son-- and how you'd messed up with him in **every** possible way! Seto beat you at your own game, but instead of learning, instead of giving someone who UNDERSTOOD you a chance-- you turned him against the world!"

"Be quiet, girl! I'm warning you!" His eyes were flashing, and Téa could feel the darkness in the room rising. Power...

But she had to keep going. If she could just rid the Kaiba mansion of Gozaburo, once and for all...

"And then when he became what you once were --powerful, smart, cunning-- you realized that you lost! Because Seto always had Mokuba, always put him first! And you realized that you should have done that all along-- and maybe you wouldn't have lost Michiru and Noah that way!"

"SHUT UP!" His voice was a roar, his movements almost invisible as he closed the distance between them, arms outstretched.

And with wide, blue eyes, Téa realized that Gozaburo Kaiba had never appeared so... so REAL before. And before she could really consider the implications of that, fingers pressed into her throat, Gozaburo Kaiba lifting her body off the floor a good half meter.

Téa could feel the air leaving her throat, compressing what little was left in her lungs. It felt like her whole chest cavity was on fire...

She was choking...

Spots of black darkened her vision, and the sensation of pain that had dominated her whole body just moments before faded away... and the world went black.

* * *

"Téa?" Mokuba's voice hovered just above a whisper; afraid he would wake the injured girl up, should she be asleep.

But the moonlight filtering into her darkened room revealed her bed as freshly made and empty-- unoccupied.

Fear suddenly raced through Mokuba's veins; what if she hadn't stopped researching-- what if she didn't rest, and Gozaburo had gotten to her again?

What if--!?

* * *

Seto Kaiba had been pacing his office, waiting for Bakura to arrive. It had already been a good two hours since he'd called and asked for help-- something that Seto Kaiba was NOT accustomed to doing.

But as he recalled the sound of Téa crying out in pain, he had to.

He knew he was stubborn, knew he could do stupid things... but he'd never wanted Téa to be hurt because of him. And he'd been going about figuring things out all the wrong way, and what he'd said...

At that moment, the doorbell rang, the sound clear and sharp. In several long strides, Seto Kaiba rushed from his office and practically threw the door open, hoping that everything could be resolved --right then and there.

* * *

Ryou Bakura was unaccustomed to receiving phone calls.

He didn't have much of a social life, that much he knew, and of the few people he did consider his friends --or at least, classmates he was on a talking basis with-- he didn't hear from them all that often.

Not over the phone, at least.

And of those people whom Ryou DID frequently associate with, he didn't consider Seto Kaiba to be one of them.

Which made the latter boy's phone call to Ryou's house all the more surprising.

"I need your help."

Ryou had been about to speak --about to ask Seto Kaiba why in the world the powerful CEO would need HIS help-- when the blackness swallowed him again.

"Kaiba."

The voice was noticeably different, Seto realized, though it had the same British tinge to it that Ryou Bakura was so famous for possessing.

"I... Please. I need your help."

"What in the world would the great Seto Kaiba need MY help for?" Bakura asked, the sarcasm thick in his voice. He had no respect whatsoever for Seto; not three thousand years ago, and certainly not now.

"There's something... going on here. Something..." Seto gripped the receiver tightly, his knuckles whitening as he forced himself to continue, "Something that's more your area of expertise."

"Ha!" Bakura laughed sharply, "The great Seto Kaiba admits that he's not the best at everything! By Ra, I wish I were recording this!"

Seto grumbled low in his throat, ever fiber in his being wanting to shout and protest, but he knew he wouldn't get any help that way.

Was this the result of Téa's worming her way into his heart?

Had anyone wounded his pride so callously before, Seto Kaiba wouldn't have hesitated a moment to insult them right back-- yet, he refrained. Because... it was for her. Because he didn't want to hear her crying, ever again...

"My area of expertise, hm?" Bakura's laughter died, and he continued to speak,  
"Why should I help you? Help **Téa**, as the case truly is. Give me one good reason why I shouldn't reveal your wicked little secret to the world."

So he knew. Knew that Téa was staying with him, knew... he probably knew everything.

Knowledge was power, Kaiba realized, and at that moment, Bakura had all of it. Seto was wrapped around his little finger...

"Because," Seto finally said, his voice a gruff whisper, "I'll do anything."

Half-expecting Bakura to name something outrageous then and there, Seto paused, wondering just how much he would owe Bakura for helping him.

"Very well. I shall collect when the time is right. And Kaiba?"

"Yeah?" Seto sighed, grateful that he didn't have to do anything too exorbitant-- yet.

"I'll be there soon. Try not to get yourself in too much trouble."

And then the line clicked. Seto Kaiba realized he hadn't even given Bakura his address; it wasn't in the school directory like Ryou's number was... so how did the white-haired occultist know...?

* * *

"Bakura." Seto tried to remain calm, but the blood rushing in his veins practically sang; whatever was WRONG in the household was going from bad to worse...

He could feel it.

"The darkness..." The white-haired boy stepped into the entryway with his gaze tilted up towards the stairway landing, the Millennium Ring around his neck glowing with power. The five points affixed to the bottom of the ring shot out stiffly in every direction-- a compass for evil. It surrounded them.

"It has gotten stronger. It feeds off the light."

"Make sense, Bakura!" Seto growled out, "I didn't ask you here to tell me riddles!"

Bakura only smirked before lowering his gaze to Seto Kaiba and facing him fully. Though there was a good four inch difference between the two boys, somehow Bakura seemed much more intimidating than Seto Kaiba was oft described to be; though Seto wouldn't admit it aloud, he surmised that it had something to do with that Millennium Ring of Bakura's.

"Whatever's haunting this house," Bakura said plainly, "it's sucking the life out of Téa." He paused for a moment, looking around, noticing the glass shards littering the floor near the broken, crooked mirror.

"Do you always leave your secret doors open?" Seto turned to where Bakura's gaze was directed; shock hit him fast and hard when he saw the secret entryway to the mezzanine level open.

He knew it hadn't been that way before.

When Mokuba had found Téa against that selfsame wall...

The glass still covered the floor, but...

"It's here." Bakura moved a step towards the opening, then froze, as if someone had grabbed him by the shoulders.

"What is it?" Seto asked. Silence was his reply, and almost robotically, Bakura reached into his pants pocket and withdrew a deck Seto remembered with startling clarity.

His tarot cards.

Bakura didn't even glance at the first card as he pulled it away from the rest, showing it to Seto with a grim expression on his face.

The Devil.

Applause snapped Bakura out of his stupor; he'd been concentrating on the source of the power, the darkness... but it was everywhere and nowhere, impossibly powerful and hard to track...

"Very good boy, that you should be able to sense me so clearly."

Bakura looked towards Seto; the brunette didn't appear to have noticed the presence of the ghost --the powerful apparition from which all the darkness flowed into and out of.

"Kaiba," Bakura spoke sharply from the corner of his mouth, keeping his gaze turned to the spirit.

"What? Look, I think there's something off about the glass... I'm sure it wasn't like this earlier..." Seto was squatting before the shards, absently hovering a hand over the mess.

"You don't see," Bakura realized with a whisper.

Seto looked up, his gaze going right THROUGH the wraith. "Don't see what?"

"He can't see me," the ghost intoned, "he's too foolish. And for that, he will lose everything..." The apparition glided towards Bakura, but the boy didn't flinch; he wasn't intimidated; he knew darkness as much as his own body; it was part of him.

And at that very moment, he thirsted for the kind of power that this paltry phantom radiated without understanding.

"You know darkness, boy."

Bakura didn't favor the shade with an answer; instead, he asked a question, "Who are you?"

Kaiba looked up, wondering who Bakura was speaking to; when his eyes came across Bakura's rigid frame, --facing away from him-- he realized that no one else was there. At least... no one else HE could see.

"The one and only Gozaburo Kaiba-- to whom the blood of the name belongs." Gozaburo bowed in an exaggerated Western fashion, sweeping one arm across his waist and bowing far lower than necessary.

Bakura blinked, wondering if the phantom thought he would be impressed by such words.

"Am I supposed to care?"

The dark sarcasm disappeared instantly from Gozaburo's face, now contorted in a rage as he moved towards Bakura. The youth, realizing what Gozaburo had intended to do, sidestepped the phantom's attack, the ghost plunging forward. He had been a real person, he would have toppled headfirst towards the glass, but, being a spirit, he morphed before he could even 'hit' the floor, and faced Bakura once more.

"Who are you talking to, Bakura?" Seto stood, trying to figure out where Bakura was looking --and who was there that he couldn't see.

Téa... Mokuba... Bakura... Why could they all see, but he couldn't?

"Why-- why can't I see it?"

Bakura glanced at Seto out of the corner of his eye, a smirk tugging at the corners of the shorter boy's lips, "You used to be very in tune with the spirits once. Funny how you lost that."

Baffled, Seto made no reply, but he stilled his movements and attempted to concentrate. Maybe-- maybe if he tried to believe...

"And I'm speaking to your father, as it were," Bakura frowned. "Pardon, adoptive father. The source of all this darkness."

Seto's eyes flew open as he faced Bakura, both boys' faces dark and lacking any trace of humor.

"He's only getting stronger," Bakura said a moment later, keeping his gaze locked on Seto.

Bakura wheeled around at the sound of laughter; loud and obnoxious, "Ha! The darker this place grows, the stronger I'll be! All the pieces are in place, and the White Queen shall fall! That is... unless the King chooses to save her, and risk himself..."

Gozaburo trailed off meaningfully, still chuckling under his breath.

"What? What did he say?" Seto growled out, shaking Bakura by the shoulders. He was frustrated that he couldn't seem to do anything --couldn't seem to understand, couldn't help--

"Big Brother!" Mokuba's voice cut through the air, and three faces turned towards where the younger, ebony-haired boy was on the stairway landing.

"Mokuba-- what is it?"

The younger boy's face paled as he realized Gozaburo Kaiba was down there-- staring straight at him with a menacing grin on his face.

_'I... can't be afraid. I have to find Téa!'_

"It's Téa," Mokuba called down, trying to keep his voice steady despite his growing fright, "she's gone!"

"The White Queen has vanished into the night, and with her gone, the house shall fall..." Gozaburo uttered, loud enough only for Bakura to hear. The white haired youth spun on the ball of his foot, eyes aglow as he stared directly at Gozaburo Kaiba, not at all intimidated by the older phantom's imposing stature.

"Stop speaking in riddles, fool! This is no chess game!" Bakura seethed. He hated seeing power go to waste, and as soon as he rid the Kaiba mansion of its poltergeists, he would have not only the power, but favors owed... from Gardner AND Kaiba.

"Not a game, true. I said the very same thing to young Téa..." Gozaburo paused, licking his teeth as he turned slowly, catching Mokuba's gaze as the younger boy came down the last of the stairs. "before I strangled her." His gaze now directed into the darkness of the mezzanine level stairway, Gozaburo Kaiba fell silent, a wicked smile crossing his lips.

"Why you--" Mokuba moved forward, fear and anger plain on his youthful face, but he was stopped suddenly by a hand on his chest. When he looked up, it wasn't his brother or Bakura's gaze he met with, but that of an older boy-- a mop of too-familiar aquamarine hair on his head.

"Y-You're him! The... but you were younger-- and... the festival!"

Noah glanced down at Mokuba, "I am. But listen to me Mokuba-- don't do this. Don't anger Gozaburo. We don't need more casualties."

"You mean Téa-- is she...?"

Gozaburo faced Noah, a scowl appearing on his face, "What do you think you're doing, Noah?"

"What? What is it?" Seto whispered under his breath, "What is everyone seeing?"

"Two," Bakura replied in a low voice, cocking his head in Kaiba's direction. "There are two spirits now. The other one is a young man... from the festival."

"H-He looks kinda like you, Big Brother," Mokuba ventured, realizing that this form of Noah --his older form-- was the same person as the boy-spirit he'd seen before.

"More like the boy looks like him," Bakura stated, "Seto here hasn't changed in three thousand years."

Mokuba and Seto both shot Bakura an odd glance, but said nothing in reply; their eyes remained fixed on the two phantoms having a confrontation.

"No more, Father. This ends here. We don't need to hurt anyone."

"They don't belong here, boy!" Gozaburo shouted, his anger growing, and the dark power around him pulsating in tune with his emotions.

"And that brat was pushing her limits, exposing our past--"

"WE ARE past, Father! We're dead! There's no reason for us to stay here!"

"I'm not about to leave this place, not after years of being trapped in that godforsaken room-- we had plans, Noah, I was going to save you!"

"Did it ever occur to you that I might not **WANT** to be saved?!"

Silence.

Bakura and Mokuba stared at the two quarreling spirits, the Mokuba's eyes wide with curiosity. Seto, for his part, was racking his memory as far back as the festival-- it hadn't been all that long ago, and...

_"...Beauty is so fleeting... as is human life."_

The words echoed in Seto Kaiba's mind, and for a brief moment, Seto thought he had matched a face to the voice-- the same one he'd seen at the festival. A young man about his age, wearing a crisp white uniform and bearing the oddest of hair colors...

"Forget it!"

And with a burst of light, the younger ghost was gone.

After a moment, Gozaburo turned, taking two strides and facing Seto directly, despite the fact that he knew his own adopted son couldn't see him.

"No amount of arguing will save her, Seto. She won't escape her prison unless she wills it herself..."

"Focus, Kaiba!" Bakura hissed. "He's speaking to you."

Seto cast a surprised glance at Bakura, but nodded shortly. He looked down; whatever stood near him had no reflection, as the scattered shards only brokenly reflected Seto's form. He sucked in a breath, closing his eyes. If he could remember...

A painful slap.

Grips tighter than that of a vice, squeezing and twisting his arm until it felt like it would break from its socket...

_'I don't **want** to remember him!'_

He wanted Gozaburo Kaiba to be buried, along with the rest of his past. Yet now, of all times, his past was coming back to haunt him-- literally. And if Téa was in danger, then he had to face his demons, he had to try...

Angry voices.

_"You're a failure!"_

_"I'm ashamed of you!"_

_"You're pathetic!"_

_"Nobody loves you!"_

It was the last memory that rang over and over again in Seto's mind, stinging, even though it had been years...

"Poor girl... she believed in you, Seto." The poltergeist circled Seto, leaning in towards the younger man's left ear, "But now, she's lost so much faith in you..."

"SHUT UP!" Seto wheeled on his feet, startling all present -ghostly and otherwise- as his enraged gaze met dead-on with Gozaburo's.

"Big Brother-- you... you can see him now?"

"Indeed he can," Gozaburo chuckled, "but it's too late! Too late for everyone!"

And before any more questions could be asked, Gozaburo Kaiba vanished.

"The glass, Seto!" Mokuba pointed. All eyes turned to look at the pieces of broken mirror scattered about the marble floor; after a moment the two older boys saw what Mokuba did-- words.

The fragments of glass were arranged in such a way that they spelled out a brief phrase-- 'SHE DIES NOW.'

Seto didn't even spare Bakura or Mokuba a glance as he rushed through the glass and up the stairway to the secret mezzanine level.

* * *

Everything hurt.

Her head felt like a rock, while her arms were so numb, they might as well have been coated in ice. Yet, her legs burned, and the coppery taste of blood was poignant on Téa's tongue.

_'Wh... Where am I...?'_

It was an unfamiliar room --cold steel and concrete surrounding her from every side.

"Welcome to the panic room, dear Téa."

Swollen eyes opened halfway, her vision catching on the blurred form of Gozaburo Kaiba, standing in what looked like the doorway, not too far from her.

Was the room really that small, or was it growing and collapsing, all at the same time?

"One thousand feet of linear steel girders... seven tons of concrete, two miles of cable. Six security cameras and eight monitors. Ventilation, surveillance, a carded bolted steel door with motion sensor stop, a buried separate phone line, and of course... a toilet." Gozaburo's introduction of the room was accompanied by several grand, sweeping gestures, even a slight grin-- which disappeared as soon as he finished.

"A perfect place to hide from the outside world. But in your case, well..." he chuckled darkly, "I don't think you'll be getting up anytime soon. In short, you're trapped in here. I had this place commissioned myself. The design was over three months in the making, over five months to build..." His gaze swept the ceiling and walls, finally resting on Téa's bruised form.

"It is the last place you'll ever see. While I designed it in case of burglary, such a need never arose. So, it has come to serve..." A wicked grin, "other purposes. Your torture, for example. All the emergency rations are in here... all but food and water. Drink from the toilet if you feel so inclined-- bitch."

"Why...?" Téa whispered, "What did I ever do to you?" she coughed, blood spewing from her lips again. Was this what dying felt like?

It certainly didn't feel heavenly, that was for sure.

"You existed," Gozaburo snarled down at her.

The pain overwhelmed Téa, the darkness thrumming around her and eating away at her very soul. Everything hurt, and the pain only intensified... but Téa had lost the will --bodily or otherwise-- to fight.

"Know this, girl," Gozaburo whispered roughly, leaning dangerously close to the nearly-unconscious Téa, "he will **never** truly love you."

And then the pain swallowed Téa again.

She didn't even notice that Gozaburo had vanished.

_'I'm sorry...'_

* * *

"You're too late!" Gozaburo Kaiba laughed darkly, even as the trio of boys approached the panic room door, midway through the mezzanine hallway.

"Don't do this, Father!" A voice suddenly called out from behind Gozaburo. The older wraith turned and faced Noah, irritation and surprise masking his face.

"She didn't do anything to hurt us. Let Téa go."

"Never," Gozaburo hissed, "I will break him first, and then... and then you will live again!"

The three boys stopped before Gozaburo exchanged a glance; was he losing his mind?

"Your only purpose was to become an avatar for Noah," Gozaburo turned towards Seto, their eyes locking. "That can still happen, and then only a true Kaiba will remain!"

"I won't do it!" Noah interrupted, his voice firm.

"Boy..." Gozaburo trailed off warningly, the implication of a greater threat apparent in his voice.

"I won't! The only reason why I'm even here now is because of her! Téa... she's light! She's purity, she's love, she's everything we had and everything we lost!"

"Silence!" Gozaburo yelled, but Noah forged onward.

"The only reason why you're so desperate to get rid of her is because she reminds you of Mother, doesn't she!? And you lost her, and the happiness she gave you, and now you want to deprive Seto of that too!"

"He doesn't deserve her!" Gozaburo shouted back, his eyes beginning to glow with the sheer force of his anger.

"And neither do you!" A pause, as Noah's reply startled Gozaburo into silence once more, "She's a different person, Father. Her own woman. She doesn't deserve this treatment. She's only trying to help."

"Help... how can she help? How can **anyone** help when everything that meant anything to us is gone?! While we're still trapped here in this hell!?"

"We're only trapped because you can't let go!"

"...Strong emotions tie them here," Bakura murmured under his breath.  
"What? What do you mean, Bakura?" Mokuba asked curiously. It was apparent that the ghosts weren't THAT far off from being human... especially if they could still feel.

"Very few things can keep spirits bound to the mortal plane," Bakura explained softly, his gaze meeting with the younger boy's, "in the case of these two, it appears to be being unable to accept death... and powerful feelings."

* * *

The noise that brought Téa out of her hazy reverie was that of a sniffle. First one, then another... it was the sound of hiccuping coughs, sniffled tears, and suppressed sobs.

What clouded her vision seemed to part and vanish, leaving a deadweight Téa staring listlessly at the other end of the chilling panic room.

And there, arms hugging knees, the whole of the small figure's body pressed up against the cold concrete walls of the tiny room... was Seto Kaiba.

She knew that form, that mop of hair...

Many years younger, Téa realized --a vision from the past, perhaps-- and haunting this place as Noah and Gozaburo haunted the rest of the mansion. An echo of a memory...

"A-Are you okay?" Téa found her voice, though it was barely above a rough whisper, choked with her own agonized sobs. Very little of the pain had subsided, yet it didn't ring so loudly, hurt so badly...

A loud sniffle, and then Seto looked up. Tears streaked his translucent face, though the redness of his eyes against his pale skin was prominent, even from across the room.

"I-I'm scared."

Téa was silent a moment, closing her eyes and, just for a second, allowing the blotches of darkness to come together, swim over her vision, and let her rest. Just for a second.

"I am too."

She wasn't sure how she had mustered the strength --or if it had truly been an outside force at work, pushing her forward, crawling towards the shadow of a memory, a phantom that look all too much like Seto.

"But... we're strong. We'll make it through this."

Young Seto stared up at Téa with a small measure of surprise and doubt in his eyes. But his sniffles had receded, and for the first time, Téa saw the boy smile. A warm feelings blossomed in her chest as she wrapped her arms around the boy, and he closed his eyes, sighing deeply.

And the warmth spread and faded, leaving Téa alone in the panic room once more.

* * *

Seto wasn't sure why he'd suddenly felt warm-- up to that point, all the 'idiocy' about ghosts had been true-- including the bit about how their presence made any room colder. The mezzanine was a cooler floor by design, having to keep all the cameras and computers cool and running... the ghosts' presence had turned the level almost icy, and yet...

_'I feel... warm.'_

It was a feeling that he remembered, but only vaguely... a sensation long forgotten. A sensation of warm arms wrapping around him... and gentle eyes meeting his own.

The fear that had surged forth upon seeing the face of Gozaburo Kaiba again began to dissipate and fade. Regardless of the power he seemed to have over the mansion, Seto refused to let him win. Calm determination surged through his veins; he WOULD save Téa. He had to.

_'Because I'm strong. I can make it through this.'_

His focus back, Seto Kaiba turned towards the two quarreling spirits in the hall, blocking his way from Téa. Though the entire floor was dark, small flickers of light came from the barely-lit ceiling lamps --and, oddly enough, from the ghosts themselves.

Yet he could still see the darkness, slithering around everyone as if alive. Seeping under the doors...

"All I wanted was for you to be happy again! After Mother died, you wouldn't even let me mourn-- so I tried my hardest to please you, to be the best person possible! But it was never enough!"

"You gave up too soon!"

"I had no reason to keep going!" Noah shot back. "If... if there really was a moment, while I was in that coma, and someone said to me, 'Noah, this is it; decide if you want to go back to that world, where the people you loved are gone; changed beyond recognition... or come with me. Sleep, until the light finds you again.' I wouldn't change the choice I made! Call it youth, call it naïveté, but death was my only choice!"

"And you know what I did, the months that I spent awakened?" Gozaburo's eyes seemed to widen with the realization that Noah had been 'awakened' long before he had; "I mourned. I went to Mother's grave EVERY DAY! And I watched her... watched Téa, the light that had awoken me from my slumber. She's something incredible, Father, and I won't let you destroy that!"

"Fine," Gozaburo murmured, his chin drawn to his chest, shadows concealing his eyes, "Fine. But if she won't pay... then he will!" And with a sudden lunge, Gozaburo Kaiba launched himself towards Seto, the malicious expression on his face clearly revealing what fate he had in mind for his adopted son.

"Hey, Kaiba!" A voice suddenly rang out in the darkened, narrow hall, freezing all where they stood. No one appeared; the voice was sourceless and distorted, yet oddly familiar.

"Bang, bang!"

Before anyone could place it, two brilliant bursts of white-blue light shot from the darkness, hitting Gozaburo Kaiba squarely on the back-- pushing their way **through** him like bullets. The ghost collapsed to the ground, clutching his chest as if in agony-- though it wasn't as if he were alive and **bleeding**...

Noah, Seto, Mokuba and Bakura gaped in astonishment, their eyes shifting from the fallen Gozaburo's form to the far end of the hallway; the half of the mezzanine in which the panic room was located. And the three mortal boys' faces paled even further when a bright light shone through the darkness, in the unmistakable form of...

Téa Gardner.

"You're dead, Kaiba." Téa appeared in perfect health-- except for the fact that she was glowing like a lighthouse and was as transparent as a piece of plastic wrap.

"T-Téa... you're-- a--" Mokuba stuttered, his finger trembling with fright. Téa noticed the others for the first time, glancing down at them, then at herself, and holding her right hand up to the dim hall light.

"Huh. That's... that's interesting. That's **veeery** interesting."

"Dead for a moment, girl. But if your precious friends can't save you in four minutes, that will be your PERMANENT form!" Téa looked aghast, staring at Gozaburo, then Seto, Bakura, and Mokuba.

"Go... don't do this." The voice was an echo of something that couldn't be seen-- all eyes riveted themselves to the darkness swelling at the other end of the hall, wondering if something new would appear.

And appear something --no, **someone**\-- did.

Glowing with a pale aquamarine light, the woman that appeared bore no smile on her face. Only a mask of concern-- yet the worry creasing her face didn't detract from her beauty at all. Flowing, wavy hair the same color as Noah's, and bright, ocean blue eyes made the woman appear almost inhuman-- angelic. The slightest trace of a scent --lilies-- swept through the cold air.

"M-Mom..." Noah murmured, eyes wide as the woman neared him and Gozaburo.

"You called me here, Go. Your feelings... you're still so strong."

"M-Michiru..." Gozaburo whispered, looking unlike Seto and Mokuba had ever seen him. Almost... broken. Desperate.

Suddenly, everything rang out with a distinct clarity in Seto's mind. Gozaburo had lost his wife... then his son. He'd sought to replace Noah --or find Noah a replacement, more accurately-- with Seto... but his plans had gone awry when Seto took over KaibaCorp at fourteen, and... And in a moment of insanity, Gozaburo had thrown himself out of the window.

At the time, Seto had been glad to be rid of his adoptive father. He hadn't mourned in the slightest, hadn't given Gozaburo or his past a second thought.

But Gozaburo hadn't really left the mortal plane. He, like Noah, couldn't accept death, even when he'd brought it about of his own free will. It was what had kept them bound to the Kaiba mansion, kept them sleeping in silence... until Téa. Until she had arrived, Seto and Mokuba had remained unaware of the unnatural presence still in their home...

"Let the girl go. Be forgiven, Go!" Michiru whispered, kneeling down before Gozaburo.

The older man shuddered, his gaze dropping to the floor as he shook his head vehemently, "No. No, you're not real. In all these years we've slept, there's been nothing. That's what this is, nothingness, darkness, hell, torture! I lost you, and you're gone forever, just an illusion, a heavenly nightmare..."

His movements halted suddenly, his voice a raspy growl.

"She dies now." His gaze went right past that of his beloved wife, and bored into Téa, who had continued to fade. He rose to his feet, coalescing into a burst of dark light and tearing between the people in the hall to gain access to the the panic room.

Téa was almost invisible now, her bright blue eyes the only thing bearing any sense of solidity or color. No voice came from her lips when her mouth opened, but even so, her words rang clearly in the boys' minds.

"Help me!"

"Oh no!" Mokuba cried out as Téa flickered, then vanished altogether, "He's going to kill her for real this time!"

"Not if I can help it," Noah growled under his breath, moving forward. He nearly tripped and fell over his own two phantasmal feet, a new source of light filling the hallway with luminescence.

"If you're going to help her, so are we."

Eyes widened, skin went ashen, and fingers trembled.

"Mo-Mother...?" Seto's voice was barely above a whisper, but if one had asked him to manage any more than that, he wouldn't have been able to comply. For before him, he saw the spirit of she who was his birth mother -his _**only**_ mother- Sachiko Hiroma.

From the fading brilliance, one other woman appeared-- a young woman no older than Seto or Ryou, with jet black hair and bright brown eyes, glowing a pearl-white.

"A-Amane..." Ryou stuttered, falling to his knees. The power that had kept the Millennium Ring aglow had suddenly faded; Seto, pulling his eyes away from the spirit of his mother, realized that he'd _**seen**_ such a transformation before... from dark to light.

From Yami to... not.

"It is not yet her time. We must save her," Michiru spoke, her voice reminiscent of the sound of waves crashing on a deserted shore at low-tide. The other two women nodded abruptly, casting bright, but gentle smiles at their loved ones.

Sachiko's eyes caught upon Mokuba, her face softening as the boy clutched his brother's leg in awe and fear.

"My boys, my precious sons... the lights of my life." Sachiko turned to Seto, her brilliant eyes shining, "Please... protect Mokuba. Be for him what I could not. Love him. And... be loved. Please, Seto... follow your heart."

_"Follow your heart, Seto."_

An echo of a memory -or had it been a dream?- from many mornings ago. When he'd been to the graveyard with Téa the day after his birthday. When he thought he'd heard that voice...

"T-That... at the graveyard... that was you, wasn't it?" Somehow it didn't even seem like a question. It had to have been.

Sachiko only smiled, that gentle, sweet, knowing smile.

"Save her. Save yourself." And Sachiko turned, facing Michiru and Amane, "Shall we?"

The other women nodded wordlessly, though, before they turned to the panic room door, Michiru and Amane turned, facing Noah and Bakura respectively, both boys' eyes wide.

"My precious Noah... Free yourself." Noah stood, stupefied, until the moment his mother turned away, joining Amane and Sachiko.

"Sister..." Ryou mumbled, brown eyes threatening to spill tears. Though he was still, fallen to his knees on the cold floor of the mezzanine hall, the bangles on his Millennium Ring jangled mysteriously, sensing Ryou's pain.

"I... will always watch over you, Ryou Bakura. More than life, more than death, I love you. You know that. In this lifetime... and every other..." The intensity of the white light surrounding Amane grew stronger, the prism-shaped bangles on the Ring jingling louder... louder...

It was a quiet roar, akin to the rush of wind, lasting only a few seconds. And in that small time, that small space, within that roar... teal, white, and pink light glowed, coming together and then disappearing into the panic room.

* * *

Wherever she was, it was dark. Infinitely so. Téa tried to hold her hand up to her eyes, but she couldn't find the strength. In the inky blackness, Téa felt like a slab of lead, stuck. Numb, cold, and slowly losing grip on every sensation...

"Téa!"

And then, infinite white, so bright that it stung Téa's eyes, blinding her.

"Not yet, dear. Not yet." Téa knew that voice.

"Daddy?"

"Yes, Téa. And we're the real thing. And we're here to tell you-- it's not your time yet. You don't belong here, not yet." This time, it was Elizabeth Gardner's voice that spoke, soft, but firm in tone.

"B-Belong... belong where? I -- I just want to be with you again! Please--!" She could barely make out the forms of her parents through the white haze, and it seemed as if they were fading faster, drifting further away...

"Go back, Téa. Find that strength in yourself. Save yourself..." And then, they were gone, their voices only an echo in Téa's memory.

Just as instantly, Téa's eyes snapped open, sensations flooding back to her body --pain bring the primary one. Intense pressure on her neck, choking the air out of her...

But her vision was clear. Gozaburo Kaiba, surrounded by swirling darkness, straddled her, pressing his fingers into Téa's fragile, pale skin, threatening to strangle her once again. His eyes were dark --no trace of light, sense, or reason within their depths.

_'I-- I want to fight! I don't want-- I don't want...'_

"Fight!" A young voice, encouragement clear through the single word spoken. For a moment, Téa wondered if it wasn't someone else speaking, but HER own self. A memory of when she'd passionately told her friends to keep going, keep fighting, keep dueling, no matter what the cost...

"Live!" A strong voice, but older. Experienced, Téa realized. The speaker had known pain, known loss...

"Love!" A softer voice. Sweet and simple, this new woman's voice urged Téa to keep going for what she had stopped believing in... Love.

Téa couldn't match the voices to any names she knew, but the forms-- they seemed vaguely familiar. Was she still in a dream? Were dreams supposed to be so powerful... so painful?

Another burst of brilliant light, and the pain started to fade...

* * *

"Mokuba..." Seto tore his gaze away from the space where he'd seen his mother, seen an amazing spectacle of light, defying every law of physics and reality imaginable. Her words still repeated in his mind, her tone serious.

_"The lights of my life... Seto, please... protect Mokuba." _

_'Mokuba is the light of my life. He is every reason why I haven't given up this fight, why I keep going. I... I will protect him. I swear it, Mother.'_

"I want you to get out of here. Now."

"But, Big Brother--!" Mokuba protested, his eyes wide. It was obvious he didn't care to leave, especially if Téa's fate was still in question. But, he had been afraid of Gozaburo all his life. And, knowing what the ghost could do...

"Please, Mokuba," Seto whispered, his intense gaze fixed on his younger sibling's. Mokuba nodded after a moment, and turned around, suddenly facing Noah.

"When this is all over, you'll be glad you listened to him. You're a lucky kid, Mokuba, to have someone like that."

"I...I know." Mokuba cast a proud smile at his brother, though the older boy's eyes remained firm on the panic room door, and the darkness leaking from under it like water.

"Hey," Noah halted the boy once more before he disappeared towards the hall exit, "you make one hell of a Kaiba. Stay strong."

Mokuba nodded, then dashed off down the hall.

It was only Noah, Kaiba, and Ryou, now. Ryou rose shakily to his knees, his gaze averted from his companions. His Millennium Ring was still in plain sight, and glowing ever so faintly. His eyes drifted towards the darkness, and, unthinking, his tongue ran across his lips.

He wanted it. He **thirsted** for it. That power...

And in that split second, Ryou was gone, and Bakura was back, eyes narrowing as he turned to face Seto and Noah.

"Well, are we going to stand here, or are we going to save her?"

"How?" Noah asked bluntly, crossing his arms over his chest, "I was stuck in that room enough times to know the only way out is from the inside."

Seto looked at him oddly, "Stuck in a room where the only exit is already right before you."

"The catch being, of course," Noah went on, "you have to have the will to get up and return to the outside world."

Silence.

"Téa needs to find the will to get to that door and push that button," Seto realized aloud. "She has to let herself out."

"Something tells me she won't be doing that anytime soon," Bakura murmured. His Millennium Ring possessed the ability to control other Millennium Items --such as the all-seeing Eye Bakura had acquired from Pegasus back at Duelist Kingdom. Bakura wasn't foolish enough to try and mutilate his vessel's body to gain the power-- why bother, when his Ring could do all the work for him?

Tapping into that power, he saw what was beyond the door-- incredible power, surging through Gozaburo Kaiba, using him as its channel, its focus. He was nothing more than a conduit for an amazing amount of power. And Téa...? She was the light, that which the darkness wanted to devour, consume...

And if it succeeded, it would only become stronger.

Doubt flared in the back of Bakura's mind. Was he a man of his word-- would he help Seto Kaiba? What reason did he have? Seto was someone he LOATHED, and yet...

Téa was not.

Though he distinctly remembered her blue eyes shining at him, twin orbs of ice, telling him she didn't like him, didn't trust him...

Yet, there was something else. A connection there that Bakura didn't understand, but... he wanted to. So, no matter how badly he wanted that darkness, wanted that power to be his to harness and control... he couldn't. For her.

"Inept fool!" Bakura hissed at Seto, realizing the boy hadn't moved an inch to help Téa, to shout through the door, to encourage her to get up and move...

An idiot!

Seto looked at the door, and at Bakura, "What the hell do you expect me to do? I can't get through to her!"

_'No,'_ Bakura thought to himself, _'You can't. Perhaps Gozaburo was right, and she's already given up on you. Your cruelty has no doubt broken her, through and through... Or maybe, just maybe, it is **you** who does not believe in **her**.' _And if that was the case, Téa would surely die.

Bakura cast an angry glare at Seto, who stood dumbfounded, lost as to what to do to help Téa, even as the intensity of the darkness increased, the last of the light in the hall flickering.

She was dying. Four minutes were almost up...

Whatever Amane, Michiru, and Sachiko had tried to do, it hadn't worked. Even their light was gone. Perhaps whatever had called them to aide the boys --aide Téa-- in the first place no longer remained in the hearts of Noah, Seto, and Bakura.

_'They might have given up,'_ Bakura seethed mentally, _'but I have not!'_

And he pressed his palms to the panic room's door, willing every particle of his power, every part of his being, to find that missing part he'd left in Téa, so long ago...

* * *

A swirl of colors.

White and black... violet. Gray tinged the white, inking it dark, the purity slowly bleeding away. The light was growing dimmer, and Téa could feel herself weaken...

But then, a brilliant flash of gold.

It felt familiar --and slightly uncomfortable, unwanted-- but Téa didn't have the will nor the strength to fight the new sensation.

_'Bakura...?'_

She knew that sensation... that darkness. She knew that in her final moments, she wouldn't be violated-- wouldn't be controlled. She refused to let him anywhere near her mind, near the last bit of control she had. She just wanted to focus on the light, on that sensation of painlessness...

"Dammit, girl!" Bakura hissed under his breath. It was apparent that he was exerting a great deal of energy, trying to get Téa to focus.

_You're only hastening your own death! Let me in! _

Bakura leaned forward, pressing the flats of his hands against the cold steel of the panic room's door. In the small hallway, there was little light and a great deal of dark power. He could feel it thrumming around him, slithering about his body, slipping underneath the door and suffocating Téa.

He couldn't let that happen.

No matter how much he wanted that power, thirsted for it, desired it with every fiber in his being, he knew he had to resist-- for her.

_There's still a part of me inside you, Téa! Open yourself to that darkness! Embrace it! _

_'I won't!'_ Téa screamed back mentally. He could feel her losing strength. If he focused... if SHE focused, then maybe, just maybe they could combat Gozaburo -no, the **darkness**\- and stop it from killing her.

Within the cool confines of the concrete-paneled panic room, Téa gasped for air. Black spots were beginning to appear on the edge of her vision, and try as she might, she simply couldn't keep her eyes open for very long.

Between blurry glimpses of shadow, Téa caught sight of the wickedly smiling face of Gozaburo Kaiba-- strangling her for every particle of air she was worth. She could feel the coarse texture of his fingers on her neck, feel the pressure sapping her air, her energy, her strength...

_'Seto... why couldn't you believe in me...?'_

The shadows were growing. Bakura's voice was becoming more and more distant, echoing in a realm beyond Téa's mind.

Fear enveloped her as her gasps quickened; she was losing this battle, and fast.

_TÉA! _

Blue eyes snapped open as she heard Bakura's voice yell to her, louder, clearer than before.

_Do you want to die here, at this time, and in this place?! _Bakura demanded. He had tried everything, and now, this was the last resort. If Téa didn't see the truth... if she didn't understand that she WOULD die without his help...

Never before would Bakura have imagined himself anyone's savior. But...

_'No! Please... help me! Get me out of here!'_

Bakura hid a wry grin as Téa allowed him passage into her mind, her soul. This wasn't the first time he'd controlled the girl, but it was the first time she'd WILLINGLY opened herself to him. Somehow, the sensation was... different.

Kneeling before the layered steel door, Bakura called upon the powers of his Millennium Ring, ignoring the presence of Seto Kaiba, unmoving to either help or harm Bakura in any way.

* * *

Suddenly, the darkness shrank into the panic room, as if a great void had called it all back into the tiny, locked space. Bakura slumped over, going limp while the Millennium Ring faded, clattering once on the cool ground before it disappeared, hidden to the human eye.

"Bakura!" Seto shouted, wondering if the only hope he'd had of getting Téa back was lost. There was so much he wanted to apologize for, so much he wanted to say to her...

The white-haired boy groaned, and suddenly it became apparent to Seto that this wasn't the young man he'd made a deal with. Wasn't the man who had, only moments before, shouted at **him** for not trying hard enough to save Téa. But... what could he do?

"H-He... it's gone," Ryou groaned, sitting up, his face a mask of amazement and shock. "It's... there. Within--"

* * *

It felt like... like nothing else Téa had ever experienced. It slid over and through her body, as much apart of her as any inch of her skin or hair on her head. The darkness...

It burned like a thousand suns, yet soothed. How could something be this incredible?

_Now focus, Téa! _

Ah. Bakura, inside her. Part of her. The darkness she'd grown to fear, grown to hate...

No, not hate. Téa couldn't **hate**. Not when she knew how fleeting life was. But... suddenly, she wasn't so afraid anymore. She wasn't so determined to capture that white light, to lose herself and all her pain in a single moment.

She wanted to live, she wanted to experience...

Again, her eyes snapped open, this time a swirling mass of blue and gold. Gozaburo Kaiba suddenly felt the darkness ebb away, and he was staring at the girl he'd been strangling with astonished eyes. Though his pressure remained firm, Téa acted as though she couldn't even feel it.

A devilish smile crossed her lips, and it was at that moment that the power dormant inside her surged forth, and the instant when Gozaburo Kaiba knew fear of a different sort.

* * *

Ryou's eyes widened to the size of saucers, seeing a sudden glow of VERY familiar power from underneath the panic room door. He barely had time to think, to react, shouting as the power --the light-- grew in intensity, threatening to tear the door out of its frame.

"GET THE HELL AWAY FROM ME!"

The voice was unmistakably Téa's, the power a perfect blend of her own incredible strength and Bakura's Millennium Powers.

"Watch out!" Ryou called out, shoving Seto forward with every ounce of his strength, pushing the taller boy off to the side.

And suddenly, there was an explosion of light and power that rocked the very foundation of the Kaiba mansion, sending the sliding steel door blasting out of its grooves and flying into the opposite wall-- just where Seto Kaiba once stood, had Ryou not warned him and pushed him off to the side.

The light burned throughout the hallway, down the stairs to where Mokuba was cleaning up the last of the mirror shards... when the energy abruptly faded into a mass of sparkles, as if it had never existed.

When Ryou and Seto finally looked up, the steel door was leaning against the wall opposite its frame, in a precariously diagonal position-- with a broken, injured Gozaburo Kaiba splayed across its surface.

In the doorway, the light dying, Bakura's Millennium Powers drifting back into Ryou, stood Téa. Her eyes were lightless, as if she'd been blinded by her own strength, her own energy.

Bakura felt his strength return to his vessel once more, and didn't waste a second in standing up and nearing Téa.

"It's going to be okay, Téa. It's going to be okay." Barely a second passed before Téa collapsed bonelessly into his waiting arms.

"Sorry," Bakura finally murmured, smirking at Seto. The taller boy's expression was confused, so the white-haired youth offered an explanation, "That was your line."

The brunette rose to his feet, staring at Gozaburo Kaiba with an intense expression on his face. Téa was free. She was going to be okay.

_'I.. I have to end this.'_

Gozaburo looked up at Seto, a measure of fright creeping its way into his eyes. Seto had only seen that expression on his face once before... when Seto had announced the takeover of KaibaCorp.

Gozaburo had counted on Mokuba to betray his own flesh and blood brother... and had been amazed when the younger boy, despite horrid treatment from his own sibling, stayed by Seto's side.

Then, Gozaburo Kaiba had realized all that he had lost.

And he'd thrown himself out a window.

Seto had thought the insanity -the hurt- had ended long ago. But the past several days had proven that wasn't true at all. Téa had suffered for him... delved into his past even when it had put her in danger. And he'd... insulted her, threatened her. Hurt her worse than any physical injury could.

It was time to let go. His past would no longer be a secret to those he cared for... especially if it put them in danger. He would... forgive him.

_"Be forgiven, Go!"_

Michiru's words. Seto remembered them well, though he'd never known the woman in life, and he'd never tried to love his adoptive father. He'd been used by the man, if only because Gozaburo didn't know how to cope with reality and the losses that came with it.

But... could he really be angry with him for that? After all these years? The man was dead, a ghost in a realm he no longer belonged to. Because he'd felt so passionately about his son, about his wife... he'd been unable to let go, to accept death.

Was that why he had been so consumed by darkness and evil intentions... while the other spirits --even Téa, however brief her stay in the spiritual realm-- had glowed with purity, light... REAL power?

"I... I forgive you." Seto began, his voice rough, but serious, "I understand your sorrow, your pain. Why you hurt so many people." His gaze drifted to Téa briefly. "I forgive you."

Gozaburo's eyes widened, and then, as if eaten away, particle by particle, he faded away...

Seto glanced around, shocked to see Noah Kaiba still there, kneeling by Téa, though she still lay sprawled and unconscious in Bakura's arms.

"I am not bound to this plane by any one person, as Gozaburo was for you," Noah explained. "It was you who suffered the most at his hands... it was you his last thoughts were of. He was bound to this plane by jealousy of you," Noah scoffed, "his own son."

"I, on the other hand... merely wanted to see happiness again. Wanted Father to be happy again." Noah looked sad, if just for a moment. Reaching a translucent hand out, Noah stroked Téa's cheek briefly.

"While I might not have succeeded in ever restoring my father to happiness," Noah murmured, "I have seen happiness. I have seen light, and it is in HER. She is something incredible, Seto. It is not surprising that so much darkness would seek her-- its very opposite, its other half. She can offer you the kind of happiness that few people ever get in a lifetime," Noah chuckled wryly. "Take care of her, Seto. You never know when she'll be gone... forever."

And Noah stood, as did Seto, blue eyes clashing with blue.

"I forgive you," Noah stated in an even tone, "for becoming the man I have always wanted to be. Luck be with you," Noah began to fade, bit by bit, "the true Kaiba."

He turned to go, becoming ever more transparent, disappearing into the natural darkness of the hallway... until a blinding light burst forth. Once Bakura and Seto dropped their arms away from their eyes, they saw them.

Michiru, Gozaburo, and Noah... a beautiful, smiling wife, a happy husband, and an innocent eleven year old boy. A happy family, together again.

"Let's go Mom! Come on, Daddy!" Noah called out, tugging his parents along by their hands. The two adults glowed a brilliant white, smiling and laughing... Gozaburo cast a single glance back toward Seto --the faintest traces of a smile on his face-- as he walked off into the whiteness with his wife and child.

* * *

"She needs medical attention," Bakura stated pointedly, even as he and Seto made their way down the hallway towards the exit. Seto froze behind Bakura, the shorter boy casting a curious glance at the brunette.

"Please... could you please take her to the hospital? I-- I can't... I-- I should clean up here."

Bakura frowned deeply. Even if Seto let go of his past, dark things still haunted him. Perhaps he couldn't forgive himself for not being able to help Téa --when her life had been on the line, and when it had mattered the most.

"In all my lifetimes," Bakura began, narrowing his eyes at Seto, "I've known many men who are cold and unfeeling," he paused, distinctly remembering the High Priest Seto's own callous behavior. "Few of them match up to you."

And with those chilling words, Bakura left the Kaiba mansion, Téa in his arms.

* * *

"Ugh..." Téa groaned. The light... it was so bright. But it wasn't that calming light from before. It was a damned florescent light,, and if Téa's arm hadn't felt so heavy, she would have flicked the frickin' thing off.

"You have awakened, I see."

That voice. Téa knew it so well by now...

"Bakura." Her voice was dry, as if she'd swallowed sawdust. She paused for a moment, squeezing her eyes shut in an attempt to focus her vision, "...Thank you."

Bakura's eyebrows shot up in surprise; he hadn't expected **that**.

"Thank you... for helping me. For believing in me. I needed that." Téa licked her lips, continuing even though she couldn't bring herself to open her eyes, "I know... you gave up the chance at a lot of power there. And I know I already owe you... but for what it's worth, you saved my life, so..." The light didn't seem so blinding now. Crystal blue eyes opened, meeting with intensely brown ones.

"Thank you." Her voice was so sincere, Bakura could hardly believe his ears. This was the girl that had cursed his very existence, and yet...

The connection that Bakura had felt before thrummed to life. Something about her eyes, her smile, her light. He-- he needed that.

Was it like Noah said, and the darkness NEEDED the light? Not just to consume and devour, but to truly be powerful with? To become whole with? Bakura once said that he was the Darkness; if that was true, was Téa Light?

"You-- you are welcome."

And suddenly, any thoughts of telling her what had happened --that she had actually **died**, that she had saved all of them from destruction at Gozaburo's hands, by blasting him... that she had been the cause of Seto Kaiba showing his greatest weaknesses, and forgiving the darkest demon of his past... all these thoughts died on Bakura's tongue.

"I think... for a while there," Téa said in a soft murmur, "that maybe I died." Bakura jerked forward in surprise; she knew!? "And, I saw-- I saw them. My parents. They... they sounded kind of sad. But... they told me that it wasn't my time yet, that I had to have the strength to keep going. It's funny, I've never needed my own cheerleader before, but..." she chuckled, "I needed it so much then. If they hadn't cheered me on, I might have just given up then and there. Then you never would have reached me, and..." Téa trailed off.

"You're welcome, Téa," Bakura responded softly.

"And--" Téa continued, struggling to sit up, smiling, "I forgive you." Bakura raised an eyebrow, a smirk tugging at the corners of his lips.

"For...?"

"For everything. I think this is cause for us to start on a clean slate, and forget any bad blood between us. So... that's it." Téa smiled, her cheeks slightly pink; she'd gone and given one of her SPEECHES again.

Then, much to Téa's surprise, Bakura's smirk turned into a full-fledged smile-- an honest one, not a trace of demonic glee anywhere.

_'She has no idea that forgiveness was the key that saved us all. Perhaps... perhaps it will somehow save me.' _Bakura wasn't entirely sure what he needed saving from, but then... if Téa did the saving, he wouldn't mind whatever came his way.

Something about her niggled at the back of Bakura's mind --something Ancient-- but Bakura couldn't place it. Though his memories weren't as fragmented as the Pharaoh's, or as blank as Seto's... he didn't remember everything. But he DID remember a feeling. A sensation not unlike this one he had with Téa. One of peace...

"Uhm, one more thing... Bakura?" Téa asked, hesitating. He looked down at her, waiting for her question, "You-- you won't tell the guys, will you? About... about Kaiba? About me living there? I-- I hate lying to them, but..."

"I won't tell."

And she smiled brightly at him, that odd sensation flooding through his chest again. Bakura rose to go, regretting leaving her. "Kaiba will be here shortly to pick you up. I hope I shall see you in fine health at school."

Téa nodded firmly, thanking Bakura once again, offering him a cheery wave, even as she fumbled with her hospital blankets. Bakura was already in the hallway, about to head out of sight, when he turned back, leaning into Téa's vision, "Oh, and Téa?"

"Yes?" Téa asked, smiling slightly.

"You're an incredible dancer. We should dance again sometime."

Téa blinked, then flushed scarlet, even as Bakura laughed, disappearing down the hallway.

* * *

Seto arrived at the hospital, guilt leadening his every step as he made his way towards the ICU where Téa had been examined. The doctors had found her in relatively good health, save for the bruises and cuts littering her body. Each one had been disinfected and bandaged, and now Téa was dressed and ready to go, filling out some paperwork at the desk.

On his way into the hospital, Seto had run into Bakura, though the white-haired boy had made no mention of the debt Seto was now sure he owed. Instead, he'd stopped and looked Seto dead-on in the eye, saying only "He who hesitates is lost." And with those cryptic words --a warning?-- Bakura disappeared into the night.

Téa finally met Seto's eyes, finding herself devoid of any emotion.

"Téa, I--" Seto began, gulping down what felt like an acid-covered lump in his throat.

"Don't." She interrupted him, her voice soft and emotionless. Seto glanced down into her eyes, finding the light that normally graced their depths entirely missing. She was pale, with dark circles rimming her already-red eyes. She looked... different.

Changed.

"But I wanted to apolo--"

"No." She was the one to meet his gaze, her voice unusually steady, "Just-- just forget about it." And she turned on her heel, walking away from Seto, who stood dumbfounded in the hospital hallway, watching her walk away on wobbly feet.

"W-Waitasec!" When he finally had the sense to catch up with her, he remembered something.

Téa paused, but didn't face him; trembling, ashen hands still clutched at the jacket thrown haphazardly over her slim shoulders.

"H-Here. It was... in the mess of the glass. Mokuba found--"

But before Seto Kaiba could finish, the pink cell phone in his outstretched hand rang.

The two teens blinked, surprised for a moment, before Seto handed Téa the phone.

"H-Hello?" She answered unsurely, not recognizing the number on the caller ID.

Seto briefly wondered who was calling; probably one of Téa's unwitting friends, who had no idea what had transpired that night...

"Uh-huh." Téa was nodding, though her expression hadn't changed any, save for the slight raising of her eyebrows.

"...Oh..." Her voice had quieted some, and then she nodded to herself, "Yeah, sure. Right now?"

She swallowed, her eyes briefly glancing up to meet Seto's."We'll be right there."

A moment later, she'd pressed the END button and turned to face Seto fully.

"That was Konami. He said that the both of us should go into the station right away."

_'Konami? The police officer from...?'_

Seto Kaiba had no idea why the Sergeant from the Domino City Police Department would be calling them at that time of night, let alone why he had requested Seto Kaiba's own presence... but since Téa didn't look all too eager to respond to questions, Seto didn't ask.

* * *

"Right through there," The policewoman directed Seto and Téa through an opening in the wall. She wore a pleasant smile, and looked nice enough, but Téa couldn't quell the unsettled feeling in her stomach.

Why had Konami called them to the station?

Seto Kaiba had barely gotten two steps into the room adjoining the Domino Police Department's Lobby when he was roughly shoved from the sides, two police officers flanking him as they forced his hands behind him, clicking a pair of handcuffs shut around his wrists.

Téa spun around on her heel, looking horrified as Seto struggled against the police officers' grips, "What's going on here?" She moved forward, but the menacing expression on one of the officer's faces froze her in place.

From behind her, a familiar voice spoke up, "Seto Kaiba, you are under arrest." Téa turned, her eyes widening as she stared at a stone-faced Sergeant Konami. He held a Warrant for Arrest in one of his hands-- with Seto's name plainly printed on it.

"For the murder of Elizabeth and Eric Gardner."

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Edit as of July 11th, 2004 - All review replies can now be found on my LiveJournal (username: the UNDERSCORE sweet) by browsing through my Memories section. Look for the link that says "Fic Review Replies" and check the one appropriate to the fic chapter you're interested in.
> 
> I will continue to reply to reviews and will post them in my LiveJournal, along with the newest chapters on my Yahoo! Group and on my website.
> 
> The same applies to author's notes. This should significantly reduce file size and load time.


	10. Boy Season

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Seto Kaiba has been accused of murdering Téa's parents. But he can't really be guilty...can he?

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> **What Doesn't Kill You  
> Chapter 9: Boy Season  
> A Yu-Gi-Oh Fanfiction**  
> **By:** Azurite - azurite AT seventh-star DOT net  
> **Site: ** seventh-star DOT net   
> **Conceptualized/First Written:** 2/6/04  
> **Completed/Final Edit: **4/2/04 (Sorry it took so long!) &amp; 4/28/04**  
> Posted:** 5/6/04
> 
> **_ I like TAFFy. _**
> 
> **_ (I also like my betas, Harlequine and Atlantis2, who both write fics that I think are a bazillion times better than this. So go read their stuff, and then come back here.) _**
> 
> ** Notes: ** The important notes can be found in past chapters, or in my profile-- go check it out. For this particular chapter, it's called 'Boy Season' for the same reason certain parts of the year are called 'Duck Season' or 'Deer Season' --time for hunting! So this chapter really focuses on all of Téa's boy problems, of which there are many...
> 
> The sole song in this chapter is "I Wish" by Jo Dee Messina, and I planned to use it for this chapter for a VERY VERY VERY long time. I filked it a little though, but just for one word. 'Boy' was changed to 'Hey.' **(With FFnet's new policy of no song lyrics being included, I sadly regret that I have taken the song out. Please go look up the original version of the fic or the lyrics!)**
> 
> I'm quite excited that WDKY has gotten this far! THANK YOU SO MUCH FOR ALL YOUR ENCOURAGEMENT!
> 
> The Seto/Anzu Fanlisting "Blue Eyes and Apricots" is now up! Go join! The link is on my profile page!
> 
> I just discovered that there is another fic called 'What Doesn't Kill You' here in the Yu-Gi-Oh section, by Wingleader Sora Jade. She published her fic before me, so many, many apologies to her for "stealing" the title; I had NO idea until now. Good thing the fics are totally different, and the titles have very little to do with one another...
> 
> Remember authors, strive for originality in naming your fics-- it makes them more memorable!
> 
> **Mamono**, thanks for catching the errors with Téa's name... I fixed them. The new FFnet QuickEdit feature is being a brat and removing a lot of my special characters, including asterisks, underscores, and tildes-- if anyone else is having this problem or is confused by the scene transitions or thoughts here in WDKY9, I'm VERY sorry! I wrote to Xing about it; hopefully it's a bug that can be easily fixed.
> 
> * * *
> 
>   
> ** RECAP: ** As if things couldn't get any worse, once the Kaiba mansion has been exorcised of its spirits, Seto and Téa both owe Bakura-- big time. But it's hard for Téa to think about anything like that-- especially since Seto didn't believe in her enough to save her himself. Her trust in Seto shattered, it comes as even greater shock when Seto is arrested for the MURDER of her parents!

"W-What?" Téa's voice was an astonished whisper, soft, yet surprised. Blue eyes had widened to the size of saucers, her gaze riveted to Seto Kaiba.

He struggled despite the iron grips the two Domino City Police Officers had on him; he looked up at Téa, fear and desperation plain in his eyes, "Téa, you know I would  
never--!"

But he was abruptly cut off when Konami spoke, "Thank you for your cooperation, Miss Gardner."

The words died on Seto Kaiba's tongue. **She'd **had something to do with this? With his arrest? But... it couldn't--

"Take him out of here." Konami instructed, motioning to the two officers. In the moment it had taken for the shock to work its way through Seto's system, he'd frozen in place, unable to do anything but stare at Téa, until he was shoved around the corner and she was out of sight.

* * *

"What the heck is going on here, Sergeant?" Téa asked, her body and voice quaking with fear. Every piece of doubt, every fear that Gozaburo Kaiba had instilled in her --all her trust for Seto-- everything that had been shattered suddenly burbled forth.

_ 'Seto... arrested for my parents' ...murder?' _

"Miss Gardner, please, sit down." Sergeant Konami gestured to one of two plain metal chairs in the small room, lit by two dust-covered florescent lights on the ceiling and separated by a rubber-topped folding table

"I think I would have without you asking me to. I ask again, Sergeant, what the heck is going on here?"

One of the officers that had taken Seto away appeared in the doorway, handed a brown accordion file to Konami and then exited the room, shutting the door behind him with a 'click.' Téa's eyes never once strayed from the door, until Konami cleared his throat.

"Miss Gardner, could you please look at this?"

From the accordion folder, Konami withdrew a small re-sealable plastic bag, marked across the top with a bright yellow label, reading 'EVIDENCE.' Other scribblings -numbers and shorthand code Téa couldn't understand- littered the front of the bag in a nonlinear fashion, but that wasn't what Konami wanted her to examine.

It was the contents of the bag.

"What is this?" Téa held the small chip up to the light. "I thought you said that my parent's death was an accident? Why all of a sudden are you arresting Seto and throwing microchips at me?" It was difficult to remain calm, especially when the last week had presented Téa with more trials and tribulations than most people faced in a month... or in their LIVES.

Ghosts, supernatural powers, and being hurled against hall mirrors...

"...Originally," Konami started, looking somewhat uncomfortable, "we **did** believe that your parents' death was an accident. Until we cleared away the debris, and we found this." He indicated the microchip, "Look at it closely, Miss Gardner."

And look Téa did, finding nothing out of the ordinary. Then again, she wasn't exactly well-versed in microchip construction or usage, so she had no idea what she was looking for... or what it had to do with her parents' death.

"It's an E.L.F. emitter. We found it hooked underneath the steering column."

"...What's an... E.L.F. emitter?" Téa asked, turning the bag in every direction, looking at the small, metallic chip. Two small, copper wires threaded out from one end of the emitter, bent and twisted as if they'd been yanked from their source.

"Extremely Low Frequency." Konami explained."They're usually only found in things like airplanes, or other vehicles that use microwave devices."

"Wait... microwaves?"

"We're not talking about the kind of things that you use to heat up your frozen dinner, Miss Gardner." The Sergeant responded, leaning forward in his chair as he took the emitter's bag from her."We're talking about devices that emit invisible waves, usually to heat up things, or to send signals across space."

"'Usually,' right? That obviously wasn't the case here." Téa whispered. She'd lost her parents. She'd thought it was because of an accident. Now, months later, after everything, it was **murder**? And the face behind her parents' death was... Seto?

"No, you're right. In this instance, the emitter caused the driver --in this case, your father-- to fall asleep."

"What!" Téa exclaimed in surprise. A stupid little chip could--

"The E.L.F. emitter is a special piece of technology that, if configured in a certain way --the **wrong** one-- can cause the human brain to lapse into unconsciousness. And obviously while driving, that can be dangerous."

"...Wh-What connects all this back to Seto?"

After the death of her parents, Téa had envisioned how it happened, seen it all in her mind... After all, she'd been at the scene afterwards…seen the family Accord smashed into the Domino Expressway's guardrail, the entire engine block crushed completely.

Her parents, their skin charred and littered with glass.

_ 'I'm about to throw up again.' _ Téa thought to herself, her stomach lurching with the return of the memories.

"Look at the right corner of the chip, Miss Gardner." Konami instructed, handing the baggie back to the brunette. Her eyes rose to meet with his, fear plain in their crystal blue depths. Hesitating for just a moment, she took the bag and examined the emitter.

It was just barely visible... hard to see, even in the bright florescent light...

A KaibaCorp logo.

* * *

"Get your hands off me! I don't need a damned escort, and I'm **not** a murderer!" Seto snarled at the brutish officer charged with escorting Seto Kaiba to a jail cell. The moment he'd gone lax from his amazement at Téa's betrayal --her utter lack of trust in him-- the officer had taken it upon himself to shove Seto around like a rag doll. But Seto Kaiba was nobody's toy.

This was nothing but a sick joke, and he'd be damned if he wouldn't fight back.

"And I don't **care** what you **need **or** want**!" The officer snapped back.

"You have no idea who you're dealing with, do you?" Seto's voice uncoiled like a cobra, each syllable poisoned with venom-- low, dangerous, and deadly.

For a moment, the officer looked a bit stunned, but then he frowned and finished unlocking one of the danker cells.

"Get in there!" The officer shoved Seto Kaiba into the cell without a second thought, not even batting an eye when the young CEO nearly tripped. Without even waiting for Seto to regain his footing, the officer slammed the barred gate closed.

"You can't just toss me in here without allowing me to call my attorneys! They'll eat you alive in court for this!"

The officer didn't respond; he merely turned on his heel and walked back down the dimly lit hallway, the clicking of his heels sound echoing in the concrete hall moments after he was gone.

Seto absently rubbed his wrists, trying not to look around.

Perhaps if he didn't acknowledge his surroundings, they wouldn't become REAL in his mind. But then, as the past day had taught him, things didn't work out that way. It wasn't just a matter of "seeing to believe."

Gozaburo Kaiba had taught him that.

Seto had stubbornly refused to listen to Téa's warnings, had refused to believe that her research into his past was justified. And he'd nearly paid for it... dearly. He hadn't been able to save Téa himself, and yet...

_ 'She betrayed me.' _

The feeling welled strong and powerful in Seto Kaiba's chest. Deception was not something he took lightly.

_'Everything I've done for her, and she **lies** to me! How could I let myself become so... so blind? So **weak**!'_

Konami had **thanked** her for her cooperation! Had THANKED her, for bringing him in, for playing along, for letting him get arrested--

"What are YOU in for?" A voice interrupted Seto's thoughts.

Seto Kaiba abruptly looked up, realizing that he wasn't alone in the dank cell. His cell-mate was a stocky man with straw-colored hair sticking out every which-way from the top of his head. His flannel shirt was buttoned haphazardly, construction boot laces undone and sprawling over the floor like golden snakes. The man looked like was a fixture of the jail.

"...Something I didn't do." Seto finally said. He didn't want to get into any sort of fight in the DCPD, especially not with people that appeared to be 'regulars' in the cells. He was a disgusting portrait painted on the jail's stained walls; under every other circumstance, Seto Kaiba would have nothing to do with the man.

He hoped the man would just shut up and leave Seto alone with his thoughts- after all, starting a conversation meant that he might CARE about whatever trivialities the man had to share, and frankly... Seto didn't.

He couldn't afford to care. Not anymore.

Caring about someone only meant they'd hurt you in the end...

_ Fool! _

It didn't matter that Gozaburo Kaiba was truly gone now-- because 'truly gone' was a lie, and lies didn't matter. His adoptive father had spouted a lot of bull in most respects, but when it came to life, the old man knew exactly what he was talking about. Slowly but surely, he'd became the voice inside of Seto's head.

"Ain't we all? Well, not me." The man continued, shuffling so he could look up. Glassy, muted green eyes met with Seto Kaiba's stormy blue ones, and there appeared to be, for just an instant, a flash of recognition. It disappeared just as soon as it had come, the man making a gruff, grunting sound before settling back into the alcohol-smothered warmth of his folded arms.

"I'm here because I did what I got brought in for." The man coughed, spitting off into a corner, even while Seto cringed and edged away slightly. His eyes strayed out to the lonely corridor outside the bars; not a single soul roamed its length, the few bulbs lighting the hall flickering sporadically as if unable to decide whether to stay on or off.

"Can't help myself though, y'know, the drink. It's a poison, but a sweet one. Makes ya... makes ya do stupid things," the man's voice quieted some, "say stupid things. But that happens even ta people who don't drink… like me!" The man laughed loudly, the sound filtering through the concrete paneled area like the clanging of a bell.

"Lookit ya --- justa kid. Bet you's done and said yer share of stupid stuff, too. Bet dat' s how ya ended up in here, right?"

Seto was quiet, wondering why he was listening to the drunken ramblings of an alcoholic. For someone that had spent most of his life dwelling in isolation, bathing in the sanctity of quiet, of solitary being... somehow, that particular night, company --even in the form of a forty-something drunk-- was welcome.

_ You're still so **pitiful**, Seto. So disgustingly weak! _

More welcome than his thoughts, at any rate.

"...Maybe."

"Heh, 'maybe,' he says." The man laughed, "Well if ya haven't got any regrets now, ya'll have 'em in the future, sure enuff . Us guys are cursed like that, y'know? It's not just the drink that makes ya say and do the stupid things," The man coughed again, this time louder and more violently, " Da... da women! Oh... she drove me insane, she did. But I loved her so much, and then..." The man chuckled wryly, shaking his head.

"Ya lose a lot when ya don't think straight. When ya let yerself get clouded by da kind of thoughts dat spring up when ya drink. But a lot of things put ya that way, y'know? Bein'... bein' angry..."

Seto Kaiba raised an eyebrow at the man, wondering briefly who it was that the drunk reminded him so much of. It wasn't so much his appearance as his **attitude** that struck a chord in Kaiba... or maybe it was his words. Maybe they spoke to him in a way that no one else's ever had...

_"Smile, Seto... for me?"_

No! He had to... had to forget. Whatever she'd make him feel was part of the past. He didn't need those feelings... and he didn't need **her**. He was foolish for ever thinking he did.

* * *

"T-This was found... in my parents' car, you said?" Téa asked in a trembling voice. She dropped the bag abruptly. After what Konami had explained about the emitter, she knew that they weren't MEANT to be in cars. That... they caused accidents.

That they took lives.

_ 'My parents... dead, because of something **Seto** created?' _

"Yes, Miss Gardner. But that's not all. Witnesses on the scene said that the car swerved momentarily --we suspect your mother tried to take control, but another device locked the steering wheel."

"Locked it? I... I don't understand."

"If the steering wheel in a car becomes locked, it becomes impossible for the driver to move the wheel fully in one direction or another. It's likely that at that point, the car slammed into the guard rail."

"Oh... oh god..." Téa was murmuring. She didn't want to think about that day, didn't want to think about the accident. But...

"Your parents were still alive at that time, Miss Gardner."

"What?" Blue eyes widened in shock, Téa's alabaster skin paling further .

"Once the car had been stopped, unable to move, another device was triggered."

Konami reached into the accordion envelope once more, withdrawing another bag, this one containing a larger black block of metal, and several smaller, curved fragments of an unknown material.

"Do you know what this is, Miss Gardner?" Konami asked, his eyebrows drawn as he spoke. Téa hesitantly reached out for the bag, grasping it with trembling hands as realization came to her.

"T-The speaker. From the back of... of the Accord. T-The back of my parent's car!"

Indeed, the large block of black metal was none other than the left speaker from the rear panel in the Gardner family's Honda Accord. Or what was left of it.

The car was a pile of rubble now, the speaker... melted metal. The griddled openings were formed together in odd bubbles, as if someone had held a lighter directly underneath the speaker and waited for it to melt and warp.

"And these? The other pieces?" Konami motioned towards the other pieces weighing down the bag --- curved pieces of metal that looked like part of a broken egg.

But they were easily the size of Téa's hand, and a made of dark, smoke-colored material... embossed with a pattern Téa couldn't identify.

"N-No. What is it?"

Konami took the bag from Téa, staring at it a moment before replying, "A grenade. To be more specific, a grenade made of serrated cast iron. We found its shell in what was left of the rear of your parents' car, where the blast occurred."

_ 'A... grenade?' _

Never before had Téa considered foul play to be the cause of her parents' death. And now, with everything presented before her --everything she'd begun to accept as truth, as part of life-- everything... shattered.

_ "Seto... you... you couldn't have...!' _

But her doubts lingered.

"These," Konami reached into the accordion folder once more, "are close-up photos I had our Forensics Laboratory department take of the inside of the shell. You probably noticed the odd pattern on the shell-- well, this is what it's of."

Téa took the pictures from Konami with hands as steady as she could manage. She had a feeling she would recognize the symbol, would know why the police suspected --no, convicted!-- Seto of her parents' murder.

The pattern was that of a logo Téa knew all too well...

* * *

The drunk had settled back into his arms, and as far as Seto Kaiba knew, his only cell-mate was asleep.

It was for the better, anyway. He didn't need to talk with some old fool and inadvertently let his guard down... again. If it happened with Téa --Yugi's best friend and an overly-optimistic, idiotic sprig of a girl-- then who was to say who else could dupe him?

He couldn't trust them. He couldn't trust anyone but himself.

Thus, Seto Kaiba was left alone with his thoughts, his predicament allowing them to run amok, questions bubbling forth in his mind and then vanishing as quickly as they'd come. He never had any answers.

_ ''They're all fools... Fools for thinking they could accuse **me** with murder and not face the consequences! I might have let them think I was getting soft, bringing a girl into my life like that. But no more. They'll all regret the day they crossed my path...'_

He remembered the expression on Téa's face when they'd entered the room the female receptionist had directed them to. The policewoman had worn a gentle smile on her face, but...

Her eyes had been full of pity.

She'd known. They'd ALL known, and he'd been so stupid, so gullible...!

Yet... Téa's eyes had widened --in shock, in surprise.

She was either one hell of an actress... or she really **hadn't** known about his arrest. Surely, if Konami had told her about it over the phone, she wouldn't have led Seto to the police station, right?

But, if she **had** known about it all along...

Unbidden, the memory of Téa clutching onto him --as if he represented her only lifeline-- when her parents died... on the day of her funeral... came back to him. His chest ached.

"Hey, you! Time for questioning." A loud banging came from the bars on the cell's door, the noise stirring its occupants to alertness.

One of the officers from before, burly and imposing, stood near the cell door, his nightstick tapping on the bars. His gaze was fixed right upon Seto, gesturing with his fingers for the younger man to rise.

"Hey, ya ain't takin' the kid away already, is ya? I mean, come on, he jus' got here, and we were gettin' to talkin'..."

Wordlessly, Seto stood to his feet and dusted off his pants as the officer opened the cell door. He spared his cell companion one last glance as he left the door, the older man still babbling even as the metal clashed closed.

"He's got somethin' goin' for him, ya know, he ain't like me--"

"Shut up, Wheeler!" The officer shouted, and then the hall was silent again.

* * *

"Our government doesn't manufacture grenades of that type, as I'm sure you guessed, Miss Gardner."

"Wait. I thought KaibaCorp stopped manufacturing any kind of military products... years ago, when Seto took over the company..."

"That's what we thought too, Miss Gardner. But this type of grenade is new. We've rarely seen its kind here in Japan before. Though from what the Explosive Disposal Unit could tell, it's a time delay grenade... a prototype of something that has yet to be manufactured for our government."

Téa stared at Konami, horrified, "You think Seto is still manufacturing military weapons, behind the government's back?"

"Whatever he's doing, it's not legal. And your parents died because of it."

Téa fell silent. How could she argue with the police? What did she know about forensics, criminology... homicide?

Her parents were dead, that was all she knew.

She was alone...

"In any case, we called in some of your parents' coworkers, to find out if any of them saw Mr. Kaiba around the premises of either of their offices on the day they died. They're coming in. Meanwhile, I'm going to question Mr. Kaiba-- see what we can get out of him."

Téa nodded dumbly, barely registering what was said.

Seto... a murderer?

* * *

Seto Kaiba was roughly shoved into a small room by the same officer that had escorted him from the jail cell. He'd fixed the heavyset man with the iciest glare he could manage; not difficult considering the amount of rage just simmering beneath the surface of his skin.

The word 'escorted' though, probably wasn't that accurate-- the older man had tightly clapped a pair of handcuffs on Seto after jerking the young man's arms up, and then shoved Seto forward, pushing on him with the blunt tip of his nightstick, urging Seto to walk faster and faster, until they'd reached their destination.

In the few minutes it took to stumble from the cell hall back to the fore of the station, where the interrogation room was located, Seto hadn't seen Téa.

_'Hmph. It doesn't matter. Without her around, I might actually be able to get some work done. But Gardner **will pay** for deceiving me.' _

But for some reason, Seto felt he wasn't ready to face her yet. His mind insisted that she deserved nothing less than his most bitter, caustic words, his most intense rage. But another part of him altogether wasn't entirely sure. He just wanted to avoid it --avoid her-- and get the hell out of this disgusting mess. Maybe then, life could get back to normal.

Normal meant nothing would matter except his company, his brother, and Duel Monsters. Nothing else. No one else.

It didn't feel as though that much time had passed... since all this had began; since he and Téa had entered the police station, and he'd been arrested for something he **knew **he didn't do. Yet, the clocks on the wall read that it was after three in the morning.

Mokuba had no doubt already gone to sleep, despite not seeing Téa after the incident back at the mansion. He had the utmost confidence in his brother in every regard, Seto knew, but...

_ 'What will he think of me now? Accused of **murder**...' _

Seto hated to think of how Mokuba would look at him, knowing...

_ Seto, can't you do anything right? You're so worthless! _

_'I'm **not** weak! I'm better than them all-- smarter, stronger, faster! This idiocy won't even dent me! I'm a Kaiba!'_

Briefly, an image --no, a memory-- of Téa, smiling at him, passed through his mind. But... hadn't she betrayed him? Wasn't **she **the reason he was in all this mess? Even if she hadn't known what Konami was going to do, if he hadn't taken her in, hadn't given her a job, then...

Then what?

"Mr. Kaiba."

Seto looked up, finally making eye contact with the same Sergeant Konami he'd spoken to months ago, arranging for Téa's stay in his household.

"What is this all about, Sergeant?" Kaiba asked calmly.

Konami was surprised by the young man's impassive tone; was Seto Kaiba really taking this so lightly? If so, he was a fool to think this was some game he could get out of so easily... he couldn't have any tricks up his sleeves. There was no way to beat the law.

"This is about YOU, manufacturing weapons, long after the contract you had with the government expired. This is about YOU, planting bombs in innocent people's cars. This is about the murder of two parents, whose daughter you had the gall to keep in your employ! She lost her parents because of you!"

"Hold it!" Seto snarled, struggling against his handcuffs. He glared down at the blasted chains binding his hands together and then faced Konami again, "KaibaCorp hasn't been manufacturing weapons of ANY kind since I took over the company when I turned 16. Why would I have killed Téa's parents? I've never even met let alone **murdered** them! This is ridiculous! Was that warrant from earlier even **real**?

Konami's eyes narrowed; the boy knew legalese enough to challenge him. Well, if a fight was what he wanted, a fight was what he would get.

"You'll be able to talk to the judge about that one, Mr. Kaiba." Konami stood up and pointed to a corner of the room, where a metal chair sat in front of a telephone.

"I'd suggest you call one of your attorneys. And ask him to notify your precious PR department, because this is going to blow up in your face by tomorrow evening."

Kaiba only glared as the Sergeant removed Seto's handcuffs, leaving the room and locking the door.

"Hm, my attorney? Well, maybe that damned Johnson will finally be of some use."

* * *

"Téa..."

The brunette looked up, startled. She'd been sitting in the Domino City Police Department's waiting area, waiting for Konami to finish questioning Seto. She was so distanced from the room she'd been in --the room where Seto was now-- that she had no idea what was going on, or what was happening.

"Ms. Banks!" The woman who had spoken was Audrey Banks, a coworker of the late Mrs. Gardner, and a friend of the family, one whom Téa had been acquainted with ever since she was a small girl.

"Please Téa," The woman cocked her head to the side as she smiled, stray hairs that had escaped her tightly-woven bun falling against her face, "call me Audrey."

Téa nodded slowly, smiling as Audrey sat beside her . The older woman wore a mask of concern. "How are you doing, Téa? You look a little... well, a bit beat."

The corner of Téa's lips quirked upward; she wasn't sure if Audrey had intended that has a pun or not. Judging by the amount of bandages sporadically placed on Téa's skin, it was no wonder she 'looked beat.'

And the dark shadows that undoubtedly rimmed her eyes from lack of sleep probably didn't help either.

"Me? I'm..." Téa chuckled wryly, "I'm doing great. Just great. It's not enough that my parents both die in a single day, changing the entire course of my life, but now, nearly three months later, I find out that it wasn't an accident at all, and that Set-- that Kaiba might be the one behind it! I just..." Téa gasped in a breath, nearly choking, "I don't know what to think anymore."

Audrey fell silent, tearing her gaze away from the young brunette, her hand sliding off the younger girl's shoulder.

"Audrey." The two women looked up at the sound of a new voice; this one belonging to Michael Pemms. He too, was a coworker of the late Gardners' -- in this case, Mr. Gardner. He worked as a financial advisor to the Johnson Firm where Mr. Gardner worked as an attorney, and thus knew many of the same people from Mrs. Gardner's former place of employ, Crump Financial.

"Perhaps we should all talk... some place more private?" Michael suggested, gesturing behind him. A group of tired, anxious looking adults --all coworkers of her late parents, Téa realized-- stood a short distance behind Michael.

_ 'They all came, at this time of night? But... why?' _

Téa knew one couldn't exactly ignore the summons of the Domino City Police Department, but still... Her eyes wandered over each face, each form. She knew most of them.

Ten... eleven... twelve people. Not including Michael and Audrey-- and that made fourteen. How much could each of them possibly know about what had happened?

Téa followed Michael, Audrey and the other adults into a waiting room adjacent to the police station's lobby. This one was a closed room with a door and two, tightly sealed windows.

Michael closed the door with a click, raising his gaze to meet Téa's after a brief silence.

"Téa, you might want to sit down." Michael began, pointing towards the plain, brown leather couches bordering the room. Téa shook her head, frowning slightly, "I've been sitting all night. I think... I think I just want to stand right now. What's going on here?"

There was a pregnant pause as Michael and Audrey, obviously the speakers for the group, exchanged nervous glances.

"Téa, do you know who your parents worked for?"

Téa blinked, her expression fading from upset to confused, "I... Mom worked for Crump Financial or something as an office lady or an accountant or something. And Dad... Dad was a lawyer. What- what does that have to do with anything? Do you guys know why Seto's being accused of murdering my parents?"

"Because..." Michael began , "the person they worked for was Mr. Kaiba."

* * *

"We're sorry, the number you are trying to dial has been disconnected..."

"Damn it!" Seto Kaiba swore, slamming the phone down on the receiver. He hadn't been able to reach them. Not a single ONE of them.

He'd tried all of Johnson's contact numbers first-- his cell, his pager, his office, his home... nothing. All of them disconnected or rerouted.

And when he'd tried to call the other Directors, he'd gotten the same result. Something was definitely wrong -- for all five of them to suddenly disappear when Seto would have needed them the most.

_ You're a fool if you trust in anyone but yourself, Seto! _

Even though the Big 5 --KaibaCorp's current Board of Directors-- had served under Gozaburo initially, when Seto had taken over, they'd become his subordinates. Gozaburo hadn't trusted them long before their betrayal... there was no reason for Seto to trust in them now.

He couldn't rely on anyone but himself.

"Did you reach your lawyer?" Konami's voice called from the doorway.

Seto Kaiba rose from his seat slowly, facing the police Sergeant with a frosty gaze.

"I'll be representing myself, if it comes to that." Kaiba ground out . "And before you decide to interrogate me more, I know my rights. I don't have to say anything. You'll be in enough trouble as it is, tossing me into jail first without letting me call my lawyers before."

Konami's eyebrows shot up, his lips quirking in surprise. The kid was going to represent himself? What kind of a fool **was** he, anyway? He was accused of homicide!

_ 'Unless,' _ Konami thought warily, _'He knows he really didn't do it. Why else wouldn't he have gotten one of his high-powered attorneys to make this an open and shut case?'_

The Sergeant never liked to leave loose ends hanging. And while he hadn't actually interacted with the CEO much, he knew that the young man was incredibly intelligent, resourceful... and determined.

Whether or not that would be his downfall... was only a matter of time.

* * *

"W-Wait... I th-thought..." Téa did sink down in one of the leather couches now, her eyes wide and unblinking.

"Elizabeth worked with me and a few others here at Crump Financial." Audrey began, her eyes raising to meet Michael's.

"And Eric --Rick, as we all called him-- worked with me and a lot of the other guys here at the Johnson Firm."

"Okay, I knew that much. What does that have to do with Seto? He never-- I mean, my parents didn't even know him!"

"Well, I doubt they ever met him, but I'm positive they knew of him." Michael stated grimly, kneeling before Téa and clutching her hands . "Téa, the companies we work for --your parents' old jobs-- they're subsidiaries of KaibaCorp."

Téa paled. Her parents had been working the same job all her life-- and that meant they'd been working for KaibaCorp even when Gozaburo Kaiba had been running it! And maybe... maybe Gozaburo had KNOWN them?

"We're not the only ones either." Audrey started, "There's also Gansley Consulting, Leichter Management, and..." The older woman trailed off, her gaze dropping to the concrete floor.

"And the fifth one?" Téa whispered. She had a feeling she already knew; she remembered from her research into Gozaburo Kaiba that he'd run a weapons manufacturing company. Heavy artillery, battle vehicles...

Things meant to destroy.

"Nesbitt Heavy Industries." Audrey finished with a whisper.

"But it's been out of business for years now. Ever since Seto Kaiba took over, there was never any need for a military division of the company."

"Why do I have a feeling that's not true? After all, the police found a damned **grenade **in my parents' car!"

"Dear God..." Michael murmured in surprise, dropping into a chair and letting his head rest in his hands. Briefly, he looked up and stared hard at Audrey, whose own eyes were quickly filling with tears.

"We all knew they were doing something dangerous, but we didn't try to stop them. And they-- they killed them, so mercilessly, so brutally..." Audrey murmured, sucking in a breath.

"'They?'" Téa repeated with deliberate slowness. "Kaiba didn't kill my parents, did he?" She didn't wait for an answer. "I-- I should have known. Seto... he would never be capable of something so horrible and yet..." Her sky blue eyes lifted to stare at all the adults present, guilty looks practically dripping from their faces.

"You all knew. You **knew**, all this time, that my parents had been murdered, and WHO DID IT! **WHY**? Why didn't you tell me? Why didn't you go to the police?"

"Téa, please, try to understand!" Audrey cried in a pleading tone, but Téa cut her off before the older woman could continue.

"What is there to understand? I'm here at three in the morning with more than enough physical bruises, but now people I thought were my friends go and bruise my heart! Seto probably thinks that I **believe** the idiotic idea that he could have killed my parents, and so he's stuck in a jail cell for no reason, when the people that have known the truth all along have been too cowardly to come forward!"

Téa's voice had steadily been rising in volume, though her frame shook and trembled, until she finally heaved a great sigh and collapsed onto the couch again.

"Téa... we couldn't. The Big 5-- if they got wind of us revealing the truth, they'd make sure the same thing happened to us. And Téa, we... we just couldn't risk that. We have **families**." Michael explained, his voice hoarse.

Téa's eyes, unfocused from Michael and all others present, widened slightly at his words, watering as she remembered what had once been her family...

_ 'Mom... Dad...' _

Téa stood up, mustering all the willpower she could **not** to tremble; not to be afraid.

"You know what?" her voice was soft, but deadly serious. "I had a family too, once. And I lost them... because they were **brave**. Because they stood up for what they believed in."

"Téa..." Audrey murmured, staring at the girl as she moved towards the doorway.

"Newsflash, ladies and gentlemen. I'm standing up for what **I **believe in. And I believe in Seto. I'm not going to let him get framed for something I know he didn't do. I'm **not** going to lose my new family."

And with those quiet words hanging in the air, Téa Gardner left the room, leaving a group of stunned adults behind.

* * *

"Sergeant Konami?" Téa queried softly, having found the officer in charge of her parents' murder case.

Konami had just seen Kaiba escorted back to the jail cell, and now was wondering what to do. The boy seemed quite sure that he wasn't guilty-- though the sergeant couldn't shake the feeling that he was missing something.

_ 'Why didn't Kaiba use one of his lawyers?' _

"Miss Gardner, how are you holding up?"

Téa took a deep breath, avoiding Konami's question, "Seto didn't do it."

"Pardon?"

"I said Seto didn't do it. He didn't kill my parents. But I know who did."

"Excuse me, Miss Gardner, but how would you--?"

"My parents' coworkers. They won't come forward, but they told me who's really behind my parents' murder. They're afraid if they testify, they'll end up the same way." Téa swallowed, fixing a steely gaze on Konami, "I'm not afraid of what may happen to me. My parents died fighting for what they believed in, and if I have to go the same way, so be it. I believe Seto is innocent, and I'm not going to sit here and wait for procedure to pan out so he can be released."

The girl was determined. She sounded just as assured as Kaiba had only a few minutes ago, if not moreso. Barely a hint of fear in her voice, not a trace of doubt in her eyes...

"Who killed your parents, Miss Gardner?" Konami asked quietly.

"My parents' bosses... the Big 5."

* * *

"That's a pretty long leap, Miss Gardner," Konami sighed, sucking in a breath as he sat down in the interrogation room. But Téa was insistent --determined. She'd said herself she believed in Seto...

Even though initially, it looked as though she'd actually doubted him... for a second, she'd actually thought that Seto Kaiba had murdered her parents.

Yet...

"Look, I don't know why they would have killed my parents, but I know..." Téa hesitated, wondering if she should correct her usage of the present tense, "I know my parents. They were good people. And they stood up for what they believed in. The Big 5 were obviously up to no good, and my parents were going to expose them."

"...I can't exactly storm into their offices and arrest them. I need to have some sort of evidence or testimony with which to obtain a warrant for an arrest." Konami explained, exasperated. This was like a puzzle with the pieces all mixed up.

A murder that had originally looked like an accident.

Two people that seemed normal enough, yet were somehow involved in a conspiracy with their own employers.

And... Seto Kaiba, unable to reach his own lawyer.

Why did that fact keep nagging at the back of Konami's mind?

"Your father worked for the Johnson Firm, didn't he?" Konami asked suddenly, interrupting Téa as she pondered over how to get a warrant without solid proof. Unless she convinced Audrey and Michael to testify...

"Yeah." Téa murmured slowly, "Johnson is one of the Big 5, I know. Some really high-powered attorney."

"Not just any," Konami stated grimly; he saw the connection now. "Seto Kaiba's attorney."

"...And the Big 5 knew that Seto would be implicated if the grenade fragments or the emitter were ever found!" Téa realized, the truth dawning on her.

"So that's when he was arrested --the time he would need a lawyer the most-- Johnson would just conveniently disappear!" Konami finished.

"This still isn't enough to get even a search warrant, is it?" Téa sighed, rising from her seat. She was sick of sitting down, being stuck in this place as dawn broke outside, and the world moved on while her life continued to be stuck in this rut.

_ 'And Seto...' _ She couldn't even begin to imagine what it was like, being stuck in a jail...

_ 'He... he probably thinks that I believed that he really was... that he...' _ Téa shook her head resolutely, fighting against the tears threatening to claim her eyes again.

_'And he'd be right. For a while there, I **didn't** believe in him. And... I've never hated myself more for that. These past few days have done nothing but put a huge wedge between Seto and I. No matter what the others tell me, I have to find out why the Big 5 killed my parents... and why they framed Seto.'_

Sheer determination crossed Téa's features; she was a vision of resolute and steadfast beauty and strength.

_ 'By the time I'm done with them, the Big 5 are going to be sorry they ever heard the name Téa Gardner!' _

* * *

"Sergeant Konami."

Téa was startled as she walked out of the interrogation room with Konami, bumping her nose right into the taller officer's back as he stopped suddenly in the doorway.

Téa recognized the speaker's voice.

"Ms. Banks." Sergeant Konami addressed the woman. Other officers had questioned the coworkers, but had reported to their Sergeant that they hadn't come up with anything conclusive. Unfortunately, something conclusive was just what they needed at the moment --otherwise, the case was at a standstill.

"I--" Audrey suddenly met Téa's stare, the younger woman's eyes almost an icy blue as she locked gazes with the former coworker of her mother. "WE," Audrey emphasized, signaling lightly to the group behind her, "wanted to tell you that we've decided."

"Decided?" Konami questioned, confused.

"To testify, if the case is brought to court. I'm sure Téa's already told you," Audrey murmured, swallowing the lump in her throat as Téa continued to stare in silence, "but Seto Kaiba is not responsible for the deaths of Eric and Elizabeth Gardner. The Big 5 are."

"I thought--" Téa came out from the small room, edging her way out from beside Konami, "I thought you weren't going to testify. If it meant the same thing would happen to you or your families..." Téa trailed off uncertainly.

"What you said to us," Michael stepped forward, "it really got to us. I think... no, I **know** Rick and Liz would be proud of you."

Téa fell silent a moment, squeezing her eyes shut as a faint smile curled the corners of her mouth, "Thank you."

"I think all of us agree," Audrey started, "that we hope we can do as good a job raising our children as Eric and Elizabeth did with you, Téa. We can start being good parents by setting good examples-- and standing up for what we believe in."

The tears Téa had been so desperately fighting to keep in check slid down her cheeks as she kept staring at the adults, all murmuring their agreement. Audrey stepped forward and embraced Téa in a tight hug, soon joined by Michael and many of the other former coworkers of the late Gardners.

Moments later, Téa sniffled, wiping the last of the tears off her face, "Thanks... thanks a lot, guys. Now, let's go arrest some bad guys!"

* * *

"I knew it wasn't going to be this easy," Téa mumbled as she followed Konami, Audrey, Michael, and a handful of Domino City Police Officers into the Johnson Firm.

It was just after seven in the morning, and she knew that her friends were probably getting ready for school...

_ 'There's no way I can go to school. Not until all this is sorted out, and...' _

Wouldn't it be so easy, to run away from each of her problems, busying herself with something else, until they just "went away?"

But problems never did just "go away." They were just shoved to the sidelines, waiting for another inopportune moment to spring up...

Like now. Even with the huge problem of solving her parents' homicide looming before her, there was the problem of getting a warrant to search the Johnson Firm and Crump Financial premises. However, that was solved when Audrey, Michael, and the others agreed to testify. But now that they were finally at her father's old workplace they had to look for clues that would inexorably point to the Big 5 as being behind her parents' death. After all, one mere testimony from adults --no matter how many in number-- wouldn't hold up in court without at least ONE piece of solid evidence

"Your parents had found some solid evidence saying that the Big 5 were embezzling funds from the company meant for employee medical benefits and other purposes." Michael explained.

"Yes, and they were rallying all the employees that had been blackmailed into keeping silent --including ourselves-- into testifying against the Big 5 in court and getting them tossed off the KaibaCorp Board of Directors, once and for all." Audrey added.

"Your Dad was one of the most organized guys I ever met." Michael said, "There's no way he'd only have made one copy of the evidence. And I know your parents intended to bring to the police the day they died."

Téa absorbed all this information as they walked down the long, carpeted hallways towards what had once been her father's office. According to Michael, no one had touched anything in it --and Johnson hadn't authorized anyone else to take Mr. Gardner's position... **yet**.

The floor in Mr. Gardner's office was covered with pressed gray carpeting, not a stain in sight. The early morning light filtered through white Venetian blinds, casting bars of light through the shadowed slats, reflecting off the various trinkets and antiquities Mr. Gardner was known for possessing.

Various photo frames, a desk pad, a sleek, black flat-screen computer, and gold-plated miniature globe littered the former attorney's desk in an oddly organized fashion that few could begin to comprehend.

The small group fanned out in the office, Michael going through the short file cabinet in the right corner of the room, while Audrey examined the various books in the shelf, to see if anything might be wedged between their pages. Konami leaned over the desk, going through the drawers, while Téa stood on the sidelines, looking at all the plaques that lined the wall. The other officers had fanned out throughout the office, trying to find Mr. Johnson.

"Miss Gardner?" Konami spoke up a moment later, catching everyone's attention. He withdrew a single piece of thick, cream-colored paper, with fine strokes of calligraphy written upon it.

"Does this mean anything to you?" He gestured to the words, written down the horizontal length of the page --rather than vertical, as was customary for printed pages-- and in the exact center.

"'Born at the same time as the world, destined to live as long as the world, and yet never five weeks old.'"

"I don't get it." Michael stated, breaking the silence.

Téa smiled slightly; she'd said the exact same thing the first time she'd encountered those very same words...

"It's a riddle. My dad loved them." She remembered fondly. Her father had come up with a new riddle every morning when she was a child, challenging Téa to solve the riddle by the day's end. If she did, she would receive a reward.

But, in recent years, those daily rituals had spread out to only weekly events, then biweekly, then monthly...

_ 'And then...' _ Téa couldn't remember the last time she heard her father ask her to solve a riddle, with that playful grin on his face and the promise of a great and mysterious surprise if she solved it. Seeing his handwriting --even if it was his formal calligraphy-- and the old riddle again brought a mixture of pain and warmth to Téa's heart.

"Huh. I always knew your dad was complex, but I didn't know he had a thing for riddles. But what does it mean, anyway? Why would your father just leave riddles in his desk?"

"Hush." Audrey silenced Michael, "What's the solution, Téa?"

"The moon." Téa whispered, the answer coming back to her, accompanied by the memory of her father's large, warm hand, patting her on the head as he grinned, telling her she'd gotten her very first attempt at solving a riddle correct.

"The moon?" Audrey murmured. She glanced back to the bookshelf, walking to it brusquely, withdrawing a book she'd thought was oddly out of place.

"Could this somehow be related to the riddle? It was the only book in the case that had nothing to do with law."

The deep blue hardcover read only 'The Moon.' Audrey handed the book to Téa, who stared at the older woman before opening the book. To her surprise, all the pages were blank and glued together-- save for one section about three-quarters of the way through.. Nestled in a rectangular hollow was a single, perfectly creased and folded piece of paper.

"Another riddle?" Konami asked as Téa opened it, her eyes widening. She nodded slowly, reading the words --this time written in her father's normal handwriting-- aloud.

"'What can be measured, but has no length, width, or height?'"

Téa stayed silent. She'd never encountered this riddle before. If her suspicions were correct, then each riddle would indeed lead to another clue. Her father knew only she knew his mannerisms when it came to riddles, but that probably hadn't stopped him from being careful.

_ "Prepared," Mr. Gardner used to boast, "Is my middle name." _ Téa remembered her father saying, even as she'd rolled her eyes and brushed her dad's words off.

_ 'You lied, Daddy,' _ Téa thought, her fingers crinkling the edges of the paper, _'You weren't prepared for your own death. Or maybe... maybe you didn't prepare **me** for it. And whose fault is that but my own?'_

But how could a girl be expected to prepare for her own parents' death at the young age of seventeen...?

"Téa?" Audrey's voice snapped the brunette back to reality.

"Well?" Michael asked, excitement creeping into his voice, "What's the answer?"

"I..." Téa faltered; she couldn't give up! Even if it hurt to remember... even if it meant the Big 5 would come after her...

She couldn't get Seto's face out of her mind. Memories of the past few months, and everything that had led Téa to believe she was falling in love with him... and, despite recent events with malicious ghosts and false accusations of murder, she still...

_ 'I still believe in him.' _

"I don't know right now," Téa stated firmly, "but I know my dad's style of riddles. There's got to be a solution."

"Things that are measured." Michael paced about the room. "Physical objects are measured. Height, width, mass, volume..."

"Liquid, perhaps?" Audrey suggested, her eyebrows knit together.

"I don't think so," Téa shook her head, glancing about the office, "There's nothing liquid in here."

"Maybe we're thinking about this the wrong way," Konami said, rising from where he'd been sitting on the corner of the desk, "There's things that are out there, measured in different ways besides height, length, and width."

"The perfect riddle for someone as obsessive with details as your dad," Michael grinned. "But what would be in here that can't be measured by length, width, or height? I mean, if we see it, doesn't it have to have those properties?"

"Who says we have to see it?" Téa said excitedly, beginning to smile. "Height, length, and width are standard measurements used around the world. So is..."

At just that moment, a slight whooshing sound was heard from the ceiling as the heating kicked in.

"Temperature!" Téa exclaimed. She brought her father's chair over to the vent where the warm air blew out in waves, but even with the added height boost, she couldn't see anything inside the dark shaft.

"I don't think your father would have hidden something in the ventilation shaft," Michael stated, "There's too great a risk that it could get blown away or damaged somehow."

Téa looked crestfallen; was she wrong? She'd been so sure...

"But who says a vent is the only place in the office relating to temperature?" Audrey smiled, standing beside the doorway. She brushed aside the large leaves of a potted plant, revealing the indoor thermostat that automatically controlled the heating.

"You're a genius, Audrey!" Téa gasped, jumping from the chair and running towards the thermostat. "Not really." Audrey smiled, "We have thermostats in every office. It makes sense that your father's private office would have one, as well."

"Hey, got a nail file?" Téa murmured, trying to pry the front plate of the thermostat off. She swore she saw the edges of a piece of paper in there, but she couldn't be sure. What if she ended up ripping the entire thermostat off the wall and breaking it?

"Uh-- sure." Audrey fumbled through her purse a moment, bringing out a nail file. Téa played with it for a moment, blocking Konami and Michael's view of what she was doing, until she let out a triumphant "Ah-hah!"

The thermostat's face plate popped off its base, clattering noisily when it hit the rim of the plant's pot and toppled onto the carpet. And, tucked between the wires and switches, a single piece of paper was folded meticulously into even squares.

Téa opened it silently, her eyes widening and watering as she read the words aloud.

"'You have lost me a million times, yet you still have me,'" Téa read in a choked whisper, "'I am always at your side.'" Her face went pale as she trembled in place, remembering her father-- and how, when last they'd spoken, they'd gotten into a fight...

"Daddy! I-- I always got into fights with him, and now... now!" Téa bit her lip, but the tears slid down her cheeks anyway, leaving red streaks on her once-pale face.

Everyone was silent a moment, realizing that the words held a double meaning for Téa. Her father's riddles brought back memories --both painful and sweet-- to the young girl.

"It's true." Audrey finally said, "No matter how many quarrels you got into with your parents, they still loved you more than anything else in the world, Téa. Your parents will always be at your side, always watching over you..."

The adults present let Téa cry, even as she clutched onto the riddle-paper and crinkling it completely.

"Time." Her voice was hoarse, "The answer is time."

Michael glanced at Téa dubiously, his gaze tracking to Audrey, then Konami. Time? But... what in the world could 'time' mean? Another riddle within a riddle? Would they have to wait before the answer would reveal itself?

Téa, her head still bent low, stumbled towards her father's desk, finding a picture-clock-- one that allowed a person to place a photo in the in the clock's face, and still be able to read the time.

She brought the device to eye level, examining it for just a moment before she turned the back of the clock and revealed its inner mechanics-- and the final clue.

On the back of one of several photos Mr. Gardner frequently placed in the face of the clock, the last riddle was written in small, English print: 'What starts with e and ends with e and has but one letter?'

"You can read that?" Konami asked, peering over Téa's shoulder. His English wasn't that great, but the office was littered with books in the language-- along with letters, awards, and now, riddles.

"Y-Yeah. Daddy taught me some English-- if only it meant I'd be able to solve more of his favorite riddles." Téa smiled slightly; she wasn't nearly as fluent in the language as Chieko and... and Seto.

She had to remember-- he was the reason why she was here. He... he was all she had left to hold onto, all she had left to fight for. Friends were one thing, but Seto was... Seto had become her family. And she refused to let him get framed for something she **knew** he didn't do.

"'Starts with e...'" Téa murmured aloud, wandering the room. It was a word puzzle, she knew that much. The English language was full of tricky word riddles-- she'd been stumped for nearly a month with the infamous G-R-Y one, and her father had laughed for nearly five minutes without stopping when he'd told her the answer.

Was this another instance of the answer staring her straight in the face?

_ 'Wait a second. Staring me... straight in the face?' _ Téa didn't know why, but she felt compelled to pick up the clock she'd found the riddle in. And the photo the puzzle had been written on...

_ 'What has a face but no eyes; hands, but no fingers?' _ Another riddle that Mr. Gardner had told Téa, and she'd known the answer immediately. A clock. And this latest riddle had been written on a photo that usually displayed in the clock's **face**...

Téa turned the photo around, staring at it. Her father, grinning broadly beside a younger man who wore a somewhat timid smile. Téa couldn't place a name with the face, but she knew something was familiar about him...

"Michael? Who is this-- in the photo? Beside my father?" Téa asked softly, pointing to the brunette in the picture.

"Hm? Oh, him. Your father's assistant, Theodore Iwana. He was a paralegal who worked here at the Firm for awhile, but after your father died, he sort of disappeared-- we all figured he'd been pretty close to Mr. Gardner, thinking of him as a mentor or something, and decided to find work elsewhere."

"Hold it." Konami started, his eyes narrowing, "You're saying there was someone employed here who disappeared from the company shortly after Mr. Gardner's death?"

"Well, yes..." Michael started, suddenly realizing Konami's unspoken implication, "You don't think **he** had something to do with Eric's death, do you?"

"Iwana is a Japanese name." Téa stated softly, interrupting Konami just as he was about to open his mouth and reply to Michael.

"Yes, that's true." Audrey began, "What are you thinking, dear?" Téa finally tore her eyes away from the photograph, blinking for the first time in what had to be a minute or more.

"The name 'Theodore' isn't Japanese, though. He doesn't look like a native Japanese."

"Not a lot of people do, these days." Michael laughed. "Matter of fact, I thought that was weird too-- the kid supposedly went to a law school in France or something..."

"France?" Téa's eyes went wide as she glanced at the photo again.

No, not a brunette... but a blonde.

And not a paralegal... but a fashion designer's assistant.

"I know him." Téa whispered under her breath. When she'd been fitted for her dress by the thoroughly French Jacques Mode, his male assistant had...

She remembered him looking at her oddly --a sort of sad frown on his face. You could see it in his eyes, that he was unhappy, but...

_ 'I never thought anything of it. Why would I have?' _ Téa realized with a sinking sensation. Back then, she'd thought her parents had died in an accident, and she was doing her best to move on...

"Téa?" Michael began, "You met Theo? But--"

"I met him, all right. Only, when I met him, his name wasn't Theodore Iwana, it was Laroque. And he wasn't a paralegal, he was a fashion designer's assistant."

"W-What?"

"When did you meet him, Miss Gardner?" Konami stared at Téa, and she turned to the officer, bile creeping its way up her throat as she met the police officer's steely gaze dead on.

"Wednesday, August 20th. The day I got my dress designed by Jacques Mode."

* * *

August 8th

"I don't like it."

"None of us do." A rasping voice snapped irritably, "That's why we're going to DO something about it, isn't that right?"

Johnson, the man who had first spoken, fixed his associate Crump with a bland stare.

"Just how are we going to do anything? We can't exactly return the money, you know."

"And who said we would?" Frank Nesbitt, the youngest of the Big 5, with a trim crew cut, shouted.

"Quiet!" Gansley, founder of the Big 5, said sharply. "We have a strategy. Now we must make use of our... resources."

"Indeed." Leichter nodded, his American Southern drawl prominent in his voice, "Isn't that right, Mr. Laroque?"

The young man at the end of the long conference table suppressed a gulp. He was highly intimidated by the five directors in charge of the subsidiary companies of KaibaCorp, but he couldn't let on how afraid he was.

_ 'Guys like them... they can **smell** fear.' _ Theo thought to himself. But it didn't matter how afraid he was, or what they'd have him do. None of that mattered, because... because they'd told him if he cooperated... if he did what they told him to, then they would ensure that Liselle got the best hospital care money could buy.

And then... then her cancer would go into remission, and they could finally go through with the plans they'd been making all these months, and they could get married. The very thought of seeing Liselle's smiling face, all rosy-colored and bright once more, brought a timid smile to Theodore's face.

He would do anything for her. For Liselle.

"Listen here, Mr. Laroque," Nesbitt started, pulling his metal briefcase to the tabletop, "we know that Mr. Gardner and his wife are plotting against the companies. They're trying to bring KaibaCorp down, and gyp innocent people like you out of your benefits. And we can't let them do that, now can we?"

The other directors all grunted in agreement, nodding their heads solemnly.

"Since you're Mr. Gardner's paralegal --his protégé, if you will-- we want you to... well, keep an eye on him."

"But," Gansley interrupted, "since you can't do that all the time, we've devised a little solution."

Nesbitt punched in a short combination for the briefcase, opening it with a click. He withdrew three objects-- an odd-looking chip, a pair of thick cables with thin wires protruding from the ends, and finally, a...

"What is that?" Theodore asked in a hesitant voice.

"These?" Nesbitt grinned toothily, causing Theodore to shudder in his seat.

"Just some products we've been developing lately. Prototypes, if you will. When my branch of KaibaCorp is restored to market, these will be selling like hotcakes, and you, my friend, will be taking in all the rewards."

"Since you can't keep an eye on Mr. Gardner all the time, we've come up with a way for us to keep an **ear** on him." Nesbitt held up the chip, "It's a listening device. You just plant it under the steering wheel of his car, and we can listen to whatever plans he might be hatching against KaibaCorp."

It sounded more than a little fishy to Theodore. He wasn't any sort of an electronics major, but he did know what most microphones and receivers looked like. And the chip Nesbitt was showing him didn't look like one at all.

"And this," Nesbitt picked up the two cables, "enhances the sound." He smiled again, exchanging a brief grin with his associates, who all chuckled darkly, "In case they decide to play music, or something?"

"A-And that?" Theodore pointed to the cast-iron shell. He knew what that was-- there was no mistaking a grenade. With a serrated plating and a perfectly circular metal pull-ring tab, there was simply nothing else it could be.

"Another amplifying device," Nesbitt said smoothly, perfectly expecting Theodore to believe him. The Big 5 eyed the young paralegal with intense gazes.

"I-I see." He couldn't very well accuse them of lying. It would mean the end of him. The end of Liselle.

He couldn't let that happen.

"Today when Mr. Gardner goes to his meeting, I want you to put these in his car. You have access to his keys, do you not?" Johnson asked.

Theodore nodded hesitantly, "Yes."

"Good. Then our business is complete." Nesbitt replaced the three items in the case, handing it to Theodore with a tight smile, "The combo is 4-1-7-3."

And without a single word from any of the other directors, they filed out of the room, leaving Theodore alone with his thoughts.

* * *

"Theo?"

"Mr. Gardner!" Theodore spun around anxiously, nearly tripping over his own two feet in the process. Mr. Gardner, smiled, chuckling slightly.

"Hey, you seem a bit nervous. Is anything the matter?" The concern on Mr. Gardner's face was sincere, Theodore realized. When he'd first come to work at the Johnson Firm, many of the secretaries and legal assistants had told him that Mr. Gardner was the friendliest, most personable man they'd ever worked with-- a true family man, and a hard worker.

He'd treated Theo like his own son, even taking the time and expense to send Liselle flowers every week to brighten up her hospital room.

_ 'But...!' _

Theo knew that the Big 5 were watching him. That if he didn't help them --if he didn't do just what they said-- then they would have Liselle killed. Her time was already limited, Theo knew, but!

"No, Mr. Gardner, everything's fine."

"Great! Going to visit Liselle today?" Mr. Gardner smiled, pulling some papers from his briefcase and looking them over with a critical eye.

"Y-Yes."

"Wonderful. I hope she's doing better. Ask her if she likes the lilies I sent."

"I... I will, Mr. Gardner. I mean, I'm sure she does."

Eric Gardner chuckled. "You treat every day with her like it's your first date, the way you speak about her in a stutter. It's kind of cute."

Theodore blushed darkly, but nodded; Liselle was his first love... his only love. For that reason, and that reason alone, he had to...

"I've got a date of my own later, Theo. Today's it. The big day."

"Sir?"

"All these papers..." Mr. Gardner revealed some of the papers, all littered with numbers or legalese, "Will prove that the KaibaCorp Board of Directors --the Big 5-- have been siphoning out funds to try and re-institute the military branch that Seto Kaiba shut down years ago. Funds that should be going to hardworking employees-- like you, Theo. You're lucky you're new here, and the Big 5 hasn't gotten wind of your account intake yet-- or you'd never be able to afford Liselle's health care."

"R-Right." Theo nodded dumbly. In truth, the Big 5 knew **all** about his account-- and they'd told Theo that if he assisted them, Liselle would get the best care possible... and if not, Liselle would die an early death.

It didn't matter whether or not Theo believed the horseradish they fed him about Mr. Gardner being a traitor to the company... Theodore was smart enough to formulate his own opinions. And he knew that Eric didn't deserve to die.

"If this all works out, and my wife gets the right papers from her work, then we'll be going to the police this evening to report our findings. And within a few months time, this place will be brand new-- with honest people behind the scenes, and the employees receiving all their benefits **without** getting blackmailed."

"S-Sounds wonderful, Mr. Gardner."

"It sure does." Mr. Gardner sighed, collapsing into his chair and picking up his clock. The current face of the clock contained a picture of Mr. Gardner, his wife, and his daughter, Téa.

"I got into a fight with her this morning." Mr. Gardner said without meeting Theo's gaze, "Téa, I mean. Liz and I both said some... some pretty horrible things, and Téa just stormed out. Had every right to, I guess. I can't help feeling a little guilty, though. This... this will more than make it up to her. Liz and I can start spending more time with Téa, instead of staying out all hours of the night trying to get evidence. Those once-a-month special dinners will become weekly, and..."

Mr. Gardner sucked in a breath, nodding as he smiled fondly at the picture of his wife and daughter, "And we'll support Téa, and her dream, no matter what. All this time, we've been telling her that being a dance isn't financially feasible-- and here Liz and I are, about to take the biggest risk of our lives. It could make or break us completely. If everything works, Téa will go to New York and follow her dream..."

"A-and if it doesn't?" Theo couldn't help himself from blurting.

Strangely enough, when Mr. Gardner looked up at Theo, he was still smiling, "It'll work. Somehow, someway... I **know** it'll work."

Theodore didn't know what else to say; he watched silently as Mr. Gardner put all the necessary files back into his briefcase and headed out the door, waving jauntily.

"I'm off to have lunch with the other guys, Theo. Have a great afternoon, and see you tomorrow!"

"R-Right."

The door had already closed when Theodore whispered, "Good-bye, Mr. Gardner."

* * *

Some hours later, Theodore exited the Johnson Firm, stiff legs carrying him out to the parking lot. Mr. Gardner's keys --to the old Honda Accord he'd been using as long as Theo had known him.

There was a brief crackling of static in Theodore's left ear; the directors had made him keep a cell phone in his pocket, with a hands-free headset hidden by his ear.

With shaking hands, Theodore approached the Accord, hesitantly glancing up to the room where he knew the Big 5 were looking down at him, piercing eyes staring at him from between the office window blinds.

Theodore stared at the keys in his hands briefly. Mr. Gardner trusted him wholeheartedly. And now...

# What are you waiting for? # Nesbitt snapped, his voice resounding in Theo's ear. Theodore shook his head. He wasn't trying to be cruel. He was trying to save a life. His fiancée's life. Liselle...

With a simple clicking sound that echoed in Theodore's ears, he opened the door to the car.

Theodore had to believe the Big 5, no matter how much his gut protested against it. Despite everything Mr. Gardner had said and shown Theodore regarding the illegal activities of the KaibaCorp Board of Directors, Theodore's life --and Liselle's-- were in their hands. He had to do what they said, or...

The Big 5 were wealthy, financially secure men. Respected businessmen-- surely they wouldn't lie to him. They were just keeping tabs on an employee, that was all. Theo fought the bile rising in his throat, even as he fixed the two devices under the Accord's steering wheel.

And... the last device?

Theodore knew that it had to be a grenade. He didn't know much about weapons or the military, but he knew he didn't like the idea of people dying. He'd already lost his family, and he wasn't about to lose Liselle, too. But... Mr. Gardner... he had a family. A wife, and a daughter, Téa...

_ 'I- I can't take that away from her. I know what it's like... to be alone...' _ Theodore tried to come up with ways to dispose of the thing, but how could he? The Big 5 were watching him, listening to him... following his every move.

# Put the amplifier in the back somewhere, # Nesbitt spoke, unaware of Theo's change of heart, # Loop it around the plastic of the back speaker. #

Theo swallowed as he opened the back door of the car, removing one of the speakers from its place. Maybe... maybe if he jammed the pull-switch with something, it wouldn't activate. If he could prevent the ring from lifting the lever and releasing the cap, there would be no way the it could light the fuse and detonate...

Catching sight of a gum wrapper, Theo grabbed it and balled it up between his fingers, carefully stuffing it between the lever and the pull-ring.

_ 'Please... let this work. Let the Gardners make it to the police today... Let them live to tell Téa how much they want her to pursue her dreams...' _

An ache formed in Theo's chest and he finished attaching the grenade to the back speaker, carefully placing it back on the rear dashboard.

Something in his gut told him that no amount of gum wrappers would save Mr. Gardner and his wife.

He was such a hypocrite-- helping the Big 5 for Liselle's sake, claiming that his betrayal was justified-- he was trying to save Liselle, after all! But... he would be killing Mr. and Mrs. Gardner, and turning Téa into an orphan. For no reason other than the fact that the couple stood up for what they believed in...

* * *

"This is it, Rick." Elizabeth Gardner smiled, her lips trembling ever so slightly. In her white-knuckled grasp, she held a manila folder stuffed full of papers and sprouting with sticky bookmarks.

In that folder was everything she and her husband had worked for the past several years. Everything that would set them free...

That would give them --and their precious daughter, their beautiful Téa-- everything they'd ever dreamed of.

Freedom.

"We go to the police now, then." Eric Gardner nodded affirmatively, trying his damnedest to smile. It was hard to smile, given that they'd worked so hard for everything... lost so much.

And not just them. Their fellow coworkers... their friends.

And for those left, working under the fools that were collectively known as the Big 5, the Gardners were about to make a difference. They were about to change things.

Eric Gardner was a moderately powerful attorney working for The Johnson Firm, one of Japan's most authoritative and powerful law firms. He'd spent his youth believing firmly in justice and equal rights -- fair treatment for all. A lucky break had landed him the scholarship money he needed to go to law school, and before he knew it, he found himself passing the Bar and becoming a full-fledged lawyer.

And things had been great for a while-- he'd had fantastic cases, worked his way up through the firm. But the moment he'd caught the eye of Mr. Johnson himself, Eric Gardner knew he'd found trouble.

Bits and pieces of information leaked their way down from the uppermost tiers of the Big 5 hierarchy... facts that sickened Eric to his very core. Johnson and his four associates --Gansley, Crump, Nesbitt, and Leichter-- were cruel manipulators, hiding behind the façades of "the normal businessman, the family man," equality for all, and the end of a destructive generation.

They extorted money from their own employees, siphoning funds intended for beneficial use --towards health benefits, sick leave, paid vacations, and scholarships-- to fund an operation on the side-- one that the head company, KaibaCorp, had no idea about.

The restoration of Frank Nesbitt's defunct military branch.

Though Eric Gardner had never worked nor spoken at great length with Nesbitt, he knew enough about the man not to like --let alone trust-- the man. Ever since the motivated Seto Kaiba had taken over his adoptive father's company, there had been no use for a military division of KaibaCorp.

Production of high-powered battle vehicles, weapons of war... things from a destructive past. The old KaibaCorp had profited greatly from wars around the world-- everything from mere skirmishes to all out revolutions. As a "middleman" to countries around the world, it provided firearms, tanks, grenades... everything you could possibly think of to **destroy**\-- the old KaibaCorp had it. They made it, they sold it to the highest bidder. It didn't matter what they planned to do with it, or who would be hurt.

Gozaburo didn't care, as long as it put money in his pocket.

When Seto Kaiba took over, he immediately junked the military division, and effectively putting Frank Nesbitt, military liaison to KaibaCorp, and president of Nesbitt Heavy Industries out of a job.

Yet, for some bizarre reason, Seto had let Nesbitt remain employed by KaibaCorp. Though the subsidiary companies they ran had little --if anything-- at all to do with KaibaCorp's main gaming technology branch, the Big 5 Board of Directors still maintained a firm grasp on their companies... and their wealth.

And if increasing that wealth meant restarting a defunct company... manufacturing weapons of mass destruction...

They would do it, by any means necessary.

No matter who got in their way.

Eric and Elizabeth Gardner knew of these risks. But likewise, they knew of all their coworkers with family members in the hospital, unable to pay their bills. They knew of sons and daughters trying to get into the best schools possible, finding that the scholarship money they'd expected to get from KaibaCorp no longer existed.

They refused to sit down and suffer.

They refused to see the hurt in their own daughter's eyes when they told her she couldn't live out her dream...

"Everything's going to turn out fine, Liz." Eric murmured softly. They would go to the police with Elizabeth's accounting records --solid proof that the four major subsidiary companies of KaibaCorp were embezzling money. The Big 5 would be arrested, and NEW people would be put in charge. And everyone that had lost out to those sleazy directors would get their just rewards... and then some.

Little did the couple entering their car know, they were being watched.

By Theodore Iwana, who was watching from his own car parked under the shade of many trees in the Crump Financial lot. His blue eyes were clouded with guilt, as he stared at the Gardners as they drove away in their Honda Accord. He knew what he had done... and he knew he would never see the Gardners alive... ever again.

* * *

Present

Konami responded to Téa's soft-spoken reply of when she'd last seen Theodore Iwana --no, Theodore Laroque-- by tapping the radio wired up his uniform. It beeped shortly, and Konami spoke, "Marks and Hendricks, I want you two to get back to the station and pick up whatever you can get on a Theodore Iwana, alias Theodore Laroque. He's most likely still employed by Jacques Mode, so get an APB out on the kid and grab a warrant for his arrest."

There was a brief silence before "Copy that, sir. Over and out" crackled over the radio.

"You really think he's connected to the Gardners' death?" Audrey asked in surprise.

Konami grimaced, "It's just too big of a coincidence. All the other employees stayed with the firm, why not him?"

"Well, he was pretty close to Mr. Gardner..." Michael began, "I never knew much about the kid, except that he didn't have any family out here. And he had a fiancée, but--"

"But what?" Konami asked sharply, "We don't have any time for more secrets or games."

"I heard she died." Michael stated simply, "She had leukemia, and though Theo was new to the company payroll, he moved whatever benefits he could scramble to her care."

"How awful." Audrey murmured, glancing sideways at Téa, who was still looking at the photo, and the riddle on the back.

"I thought you said the Big 5 directors were embezzling the company medical benefits for their own purposes." Konami began, "Why would this kid, a newbie to the firm, have access to the kind of medical insurance able to pay for a leukemia patient?"

"I-- I don't know," Michael stammered.

"The Big 5 got to him." Téa whispered. "Threatened him, probably. Said that if he cooperated, his fiancée would get the best care possible. And..." Téa looked up, "I need an envelope."

The adults present blinked.

"What?"

"It's what 'starts with e, ends with e, and contains only one letter.'" Téa explained the answer to the riddle, "Whatever's in the envelope we're looking for, I'm sure it leads to the evidence we need to bring the Big 5 down."

"This is a law office, Téa," Michael started, "there are thousands of envelopes everywhere."

"No, I mean one from in here. It's probably a special envelope, or hidden somewhere special." She glanced around, moving around Mr. Gardner's desk and opening the drawers to see if she could spot anything.

Maybe one of the drawers had a false bottom?

"There isn't anything else in the riddle? A clue as to where the envelope would be, or what it looks like?"

Téa shook her head, "That would be too obvious. But... something tells me Dad didn't choose this picture on accident."

"He couldn't possibly have known that Theodore boy in the picture was going to betray him and kill him!" Audrey exclaimed, "For heaven's sake, we don't even know if he was really involved!"

"It is just a hunch at this point," Konami admitted, "so we need something solid to back it up. We have to find the envelope."

"Where was this picture taken?" Téa asked Michael, bringing the round picture to the lawyer. He glanced at it, his eyes widening in surprise, "That... the plaque in the picture looks like your father's law degree." Michael pointed to the wall adjacent the doorway; the potted plant stood beside the closed door, while a single leather two-seater couch beckoned those with tired feet.

"So the couch behind them is this one, then?" Téa asked, moving towards the furniture.

"Looks that way." Michael examined the picture in the light, or what little sunlight came through the blinds. "Hey, Téa... do you think this is a coincidence, too?"

Téa walked over to him and looked at the photo. In the light, one could see that the ink in which the riddle had been written in was visible through the photo paper-- with one of the e's positioned right over the small gap between Eric Gardner and Theodore Iwana-- where the cushion of the black couch could be seen.

"Not a chance." Téa grinned, moving towards the couch. With one yank, she pulled the cushions off, sitting on the edge of the couch and examining them.

"I don't get it." Téa murmured. Nothing had been tucked between the cushions... and there was nothing but the usual cotton stuffing inside them. "Where else...?" Téa tried to envision the letter over the couch as she looked at it again. Kneeling, tea ran her arm underneath the couch, but still came up with nothing.

"Want us to lift it?" Michael asked, nodding towards Konami. The two men each took an arm of the couch and lifted it up with a grunt, straining as Téa ducked under the couch.

There was a hideous gray, thick fabric separating the box of the couch from the floor, and just as the weight shifted from Michael to Konami, Téa saw something move.

"Wait, there's something in there!" She ran her fingers over the fabric, looking for some sort of opening, even as Konami and Michael strained above her.

"Ugh, find it fast, Téa!" Michael muttered, "This thing is **not** light!"

Téa finally found the opening right where the fabric was stapled to the bottom frame of the couch. Sliding her arm in, she groped around until her fingers closed around a piece of paper...

"Got it!" Téa whipped the envelope out and scuttled out of the couch's resting place, just as the two men collapsed, panting as the couch dropped with a loud thud.

"Well, aren't you going to open it?" Audrey asked Téa. The younger girl nodded, carefully sliding her finger through the envelope and opening it with a rip.

She unfolded the single piece of paper inside, staring at it with curiosity.

"'Domino First National Bank?'" Téa read in confusion, "But that wasn't Dad's bank..."

"No, you're right," Audrey stepped forward, wearing a mask of confusion herself, "It certainly wasn't one of the financial institutions under Crump Financial, anyway. Why would your father have had a letter from there hidden so meticulously under his couch?"

"A safe deposit box." Konami replied immediately, glancing over Téa's shoulder as he caught sight of a string of numbers.

"Your father must have prepared for every possibility, and left copies of everything needed to convict the Big 5 in a safe place, where the Big 5 stood no chance of getting it. After all, you're the only one able to solve your father's riddles, and without you, no one would have found the letter at all."

Téa stared at Konami, bewildered, "You think my father really prepared for this-- knew that he'd probably die, and that-- that I'd--"

"No one really prepares for that kind of thing, Téa. But in our line of work, we have to be aware of every possible reaction to something... and your father must have known the Big 5 catching onto him was one of them."

Téa fell silent, staring at the paper. A safe deposit box number...?

"What's this?" Téa pointed to another set of numbers, this one directly below the first, but shorter in length.

"Probably a password. Domino First is known for incorporating the most high tech measures for financial security, and that means keyless boxes. Only the person with the password can open them."

"Smart." Michael commented, "But what about those?" He pointed to a strand of twelve digits that seemed to have no order or sense to them.

"Not sure..." Konami murmured, "I'll get Decryption on it. For now, I think it's best we head out and get to that deposit box."

* * *

And so they did. The bank manager had looked more than a little intimidated to see a police officer, a lawyer, an accountant --and a very upset teenage girl-- approaching him with purpose clearly evident in their stride.

But, he'd escorted them to the safe deposit area without incident, and disappeared while Téa entered the numbers to open up the box. A heavy silence had settled between the group, eyes widening and breaths hitching as Téa withdrew the sole contents of the metal container... a large, manila envelope.

Téa undid the brass brad that kept the envelope sealed, and then proceeded to withdraw the contents with bated breath.

The envelope had contained thick masses of paper-- some handwritten, some typed-- all bearing the Johnson Firm or Crump Financial headings.

"Th-These..." Audrey breathed, glancing at some of the papers, "It's proof." She murmured, as Téa distributed the papers between Audrey, Michael, and Konami to inspect.

"The paperwork that the Big 5 had to have filed in order to siphon the money from the employee benefits accounts." The older woman flipped through page after page, her eyes growing wider.

"Transfers to various accounts around Japan, all banks controlled by the Big 5. At least... seven different aliases for the Big 5... hundreds of excuses as to where the money was going."

"Look here." Michael began, showing the others the papers Téa had handed him, "There's a list of all the employees the Big 5 blackmailed into keeping quiet." His eyes narrowed as he found his own name circled on the paper. He, like hundreds of other KaibaCorp subsidiary employees, had been forced to stay silent about the disappearance of millions of yen-- or risk losing his job, and quite possibly his life.

The Big 5 were utterly ruthless , but they'd met their match with the Gardners. They hadn't stood for the Big 5's deception, and had gathered proof from the dankest basements, the darkest closets, and the most secured databases in all of KaibaCorp. And yet... they'd come through.

They'd stood up for what they'd believed in, stood up for their fellow employees, even knowing they might not stand behind them the whole way through; they'd given up their lives...

"And look," Konami motioned to Téa, "the only benefit account holder that didn't have any sort of change over a six month period was that Iwana kid. Says the funds went to Domino General Hospital, and were to care for... Liselle Franc."

"Funds abruptly stopped... August 12th." Michael read aloud, "It wasn't long after that when Theo disappeared from the firm, and we heard that Liselle had died."

"It's just too big a coincidence." Konami murmured, shaking his head, "Even if your father couldn't have known that Iwana-Laroque was going to betray him, these papers will be enough to get the Big 5 in trial."

"That's if we can find them." Téa spat out angrily, "They disappeared at the perfect time-- right when Seto was framed."

"We'll find them, Miss Gardner." Konami swore, "We will."

* * *

Hours passed.

Morning drifted into afternoon, as Téa sorted out bank paperwork with the accountants. Michael and Audrey rounded up other employees of the various KaibaCorp subsidiary firms, garnering their support for an all-out war against the Big 5. And finally, when the clocks were striking four and the sun was about to set, Konami received a call that Theodore Laroque had been found-- and a warrant for his arrest received.

Téa rode with Konami in the squad car, passing by Domino Park as the sun danced off the lake.

"Miss Gardner," Konami began abruptly, breaking the silence that had formed between them since they'd left the bank, "I'm afraid I can't bring you along for Mr. Laroque's arrest or interrogation."

Téa was silent a moment, but nodded faintly, "I... I understand."

"I'll drop you off here," Konami said, bringing the car to a halt outside the park, "and I'll call just as soon as we find anything out. If this Laroque kid is guilty, I'll be sure to let you know."

"And Seto?" Téa asked immediately, her eyes still riveted to the gold streams of light arching over the water.

"...I'll let you know." Konami repeated. Téa nodded and opened the car door, pausing briefly as she stood on the curb, "Thanks, Sergeant."

And with that, she slammed the door shut and watched Konami drive away.

_ 'So I'm back here,' _ Téa glanced at her surroundings, _'This park seems to be a place of a lot of endings... and beginnings.'_

Téa found the same park bench she'd sat on before... and here she was, staring out at the same lake, the same sky. Sure, months had passed, and she was getting by... her feelings for people had changed, and...

"Téa? Is that you?"

Téa turned abruptly, startled to suddenly see Yugi standing on the dirt path not three meters from her.

"What happened?" Yugi exclaimed, catching sight of the bandage on Téa's cheek-- and neck, and arms.

"Uhm, long story, Yugi..." Téa began sheepishly. The past several days had been nothing short of hellish for her-- and here was her chance at peace and quiet... or coming clean to Yugi about **everything**.

_ 'There's no such thing as a coincidence, right?' _ Téa thought absently to herself, waiting for Yugi to join her on the bench, _'Maybe... maybe I should tell him everything now, while... while I still have the courage to.'_

"Why didn't you come to school, today, Téa? The guys and I were worried."

"T-That's sweet, Yugi... I'm sorry if I worried you guys. I just-- there were..."

How could she possibly say it? How could she tell him that everything she'd told him in the past few months was built on a lie? That she--!

"Téa." Yugi's amethyst eyes met with Téa's bright blue ones, staring into hers with the utmost sincerity.

_ 'Yugi... He's **always** cared about me... he's always been there for me, and... I **lied** to him. My own best friend... I'm so horrible!' _

"You know, you can tell me anything. We're friends."

"Yugi..."

The walls crumbled.

Inside her, any resolve Téa had, to keep perpetuating the lie... faded. In the deepening sunset, Téa saw only her best friend, saw the one person she needed the most to tell... to admit **everything**.

One by one, the tears slid down her face, as Téa mustered every ounce of courage, and she told her story.

"I can't do this anymore, Yugi. I can't keep lying to you."

"Téa, what are you--" Yugi began, but Téa cut him off.

"All this time, I've been lying to you. Lying to the guys. And it's not fair, and now, when things really are at their worst again, I can't just cover up how I feel. I can't pretend..."

"Téa," The boy put a hand on Téa's shoulder, "you don't need to pretend around me." The concern in his eyes was genuine, Téa realized. But... would he still care, after she'd told him everything?

"This all started the day after my parents died. You remember Yugi, we all went to see a movie?" Yugi nodded slowly, keeping his position beside Téa on the park bench. His hands had fallen to his lap, and now he clenched his fists anxiously; something in his gut told him he wouldn't like what she had to say.

"I didn't have a place to go. My home... I didn't have the keys. The police couldn't find them in the scene of the accident, and they'd said it was illegal for me to stay alone, anyway. A minor, you know?"

Yugi nodded wordlessly. He always HAD wondered what had become of Téa, those few days between her parent's death and their funeral. Somehow, between those dates, Téa had found a place to stay, and a job...

_ "...Kaiba's... the one who, uh, referred me to my employer." _

Téa's words from over a two months ago suddenly echoed back clearly in Yugi's mind. All his suspicions... everything that had never added up...

"After you guys left, I tried breaking into my house," Téa chuckled wryly, shaking her head, "but then **he** showed up."

Téa didn't wait for Yugi to ask who; when their eyes met, it was clear to the both of them that he knew.

"Seto." Téa whispered, "Seto Kaiba."

"H-He's... he's your boss, isn't he?" Yugi stammered. Everything was coming together. Why Téa had been acting so strange around them that first week she'd been back from her parent's funeral... how Kaiba had been around Téa to ask her to that Ball of his...

"Yeah." Téa murmured. "Or he **was**. Yugi... he-- he's in jail!"

Yugi's eyes widened in astonishment; that was unexpected. Seto Kaiba in **_jail_**?

"He-He... the police think he murdered my parents!" Téa hiccuped, her voice rising, "I... I'm so scared, I just... all this time, everything that's happened... I just don't know what to think!"

"Téa..." Yugi began, but faltered. What could he possibly say to her that would be of any comfort? He hadn't known anything about what was causing his best friend so much pain... because she hadn't **wanted** him to know.

She hadn't wanted him to be part of her life.

"A-And even though I know Seto couldn't have-- I mean, there was evidence against the Big 5, and my parents had--"

"Slow down," Yugi interrupted, his voice an octave lower than normal, "I don't understand, Téa."

The brunette sighed, nodding as she sucked in a deep breath.

"The police... were conducting an investigation of what happened to my parents, ever since their death. Turns out they'd found... signs of foul play," Téa grimaced, "and were investigating the possibility that my parents hadn't died in an accident, but had been murdered."

"A-And," Téa continued, twisting her fingers together in her lap, "they found a grenade. Made by KaibaCorp."

"But I thought Kaiba shut down the military division of the company years ago!" Yugi exclaimed, surprised. Besides, what would Kaiba have stood to gain by the death of Téa's parents?

_ 'Other than Téa's constant company,' _ Yugi grimaced. That wasn't it at all. He was just being foolish. Kaiba had understood what Téa had gone through with the loss of her parents, and... well of course it had been odd, seeing him **reaching out** for someone other than Mokuba.

Why DID he help Téa, anyway?

"He did." Téa sighed, "But someone with connections... access to the old military branch of KaibaCorp had the grenade planted in my parents' car. No, five someones." Téa paused, staring at Yugi intensely, "The Big 5."

"Wh-- But I thought they were trapped in the virtual world! After they tried to do the same to Kaiba, and we--"

"I know, Yugi," Téa murmured, "But these guys are too slimy to get caught like that. They must have had a fail-safe or something, and have been working in the shadows ever since. They've been siphoning money out of the subsidiary firms of KaibaCorp-- trying to get the military branch running again, so they can oust Seto from office."

"..And your parents found out." Yugi stated. Téa nodded, "Yeah. I guess the whole headstrong thing is hereditary, huh, Yugi?" Téa squeezed her eyes shut, trying not to cry.

Yugi didn't know what to say; he'd known Téa since they were both in elementary school. Her parents were kind people --her mother passing on her beauty to Téa, while the spunky brunette girl got her attitude and stubbornness from her father. There was never any doubt in Yugi's mind that Téa was Eric and Elizabeth Gardner's daughter.

"A-And they knew, Yugi... they knew that they might die, and they didn't tell me, didn't warn me, and now..." The tears started to fall as she hiccuped out her words. Between gasps of air, Téa saw Seto in her mind's eye --he wasn't guilty! He didn't deserve to be in that jail cell!

And yet... for a moment, Téa had thought he did. That he HAD murdered her parents, and that he **deserved** to rot. That whatever young man she'd been deceived by was gone... and in his stead, the same, cold, callous, **murderous** Seto Kaiba that had always been there.

"I didn't trust him... when I should have. When he needed me the most, I... Oh, Seto... I'm so sorry!" Téa whispered under her breath, forgetting for an instant that Yugi was right beside her.

Suddenly, she glanced up, startled, "Mokuba!"

"Téa?" Yugi questioned, confused. "Mokuba! He- I know he had an afterschool thing today, but... if Seto's not there to pick up up-- oh god, Yugi, I can't tell him that Seto's in jail! Because of me!"

"It's not your fault!" Yugi insisted, grasping Téa by the shoulders even as she heaved, still sobbing, "Téa!"

"I-I'll go. I'll pick up Mokuba. Explain things to him."

"You'd do that, Yugi?" Téa looked up, the redness of her eyes a sharp contrast to her blue eyes.

"You know I would, Téa." Yugi swallowed. It hurt to see her in so much pain... to realize that she cared so deeply for... for HIM! It wasn't that Yugi hated Kaiba --he didn't, not in the slightest, but...

Yugi didn't want Kaiba to be with Téa. He didn't want Téa to love Kaiba.

Téa swallowed, hastily rubbing her face with her arm. She sniffled loudly, taking in the scenery around them. Even if the park never changed... even if things started, and things ended, always in that same place... on that same park bench...

The sky was always different. The sunsets, always a new myriad of colors; the clouds, always floating across the sky in a new pattern...

_ 'I've changed.' _ Téa realized. The last time she'd been at this park, she wouldn't have even considered loving Seto Kaiba. But now... they'd been through so much. He'd been there for her, and even though things got... well, "awkward" was probably the best word, he was always there...

Present, but ever-changing.

Like she was the same girl, but with new feelings in her heart.

Where once, she had fancied herself deeply in love with her best friend's "darker half," now she knew that such a relationship could never come to fruition. And that Yugi was her best friend...

_ 'I need to tell him.' _

"Yugi... there's... something else. I... I think... I think I'm in--"

But Téa didn't have a chance to complete her sentence. Yugi's own lips cut Téa's words off, and her voice died a quick death.

Crystal blue eyes widening, Téa barely had time to process what was happening. Her best friend Yugi --kissing her! Warm lips caressed her own in a manner that was entirely different from her first kiss with Seto -- Yugi's lips were gentle, soft...

And, just as soon as it had started, it was over. Yugi pulled away from her, his violet eyes opening and staring at Téa forlornly. He'd felt it; her heart didn't belong to him.

That the guys had been wrong, and Yugi's gut had been right all along...

"Yugi, but... why?" Téa whispered, her eyebrows furrowed in confusion as she tried to blink a fresh set of tears away.

"I..." Yugi swallowed hard, looking at his clenched fists in his lap, "I've been in love with you for a long time," He glanced up, amethyst purple meeting with sky blue, "Téa."

Silence claimed the space between the two teenagers… the same two teenagers who had known each other since elementary school, the same two teenagers who had grown to be the best of friends…

"Why... why now? Why not four months ago, when--" Her words came to a stop. Four months ago her crush for Yami had still lingered. She'd only **begun** to have doubts about whether she'd really be hurting her best friend, be hurting YUGI, if she were to admit her feelings for the spirit of the Millennium Puzzle...

Yugi gaze fell again, "I... I'm sorry Téa. I wanted to tell you, but I never could. And now... now it just doesn't matter anymore. You're...You're **in love** with someone else."

Téa stared at Yugi, "You... you knew?"

"I think part of me knew... for a while, now. It's Kaiba, isn't it? You're in love with **him**."

Yugi's last words weren't in the form of a question, though Téa felt the need to answer anyway.

"Yes."

And so the truth came out. Yugi knew. He knew everything, now.

"But," Téa began, smiling sadly, "four months ago, I... I was... I thought I was in love with..." She scooted a bit closer to Yugi, a hand reaching out to touch the Millennium Puzzle that rarely left Yugi's neck. Upon contact with the golden artifact, a tingle spread through Téa's fingers, and she shivered, "h-him."

Yugi's eyes widened, his expression startled, "You m-mean--" His voice cracked, for a moment deepening. Yugi still sat in the same place, but, for just a second, Téa swore she saw Yami there...

"And that was so horrible of me, Yugi-- to feel that way!"

"But why...?" Yugi asked softly, his eyes never straying from Téa's. His heart ached at the thought that at one time, Téa's affections had been returned... in some way.

"Because Yugi," Téa whispered, placing her hand on his, "he's not you."

For a moment, silence reigned, and the only sounds that were heard were the faint echoes of birds chirping in the park, and ducks splashing on the water.

"He's not my best friend... not the boy I've grown up with and come to depend on."

Part of Yugi wanted to protest, but he knew Téa's words were true; no matter how long he'd had Yami 'within' him, it wasn't as if they were one and the same person. They thought differently, acted differently... loved differently.

"I... I crushed on Yami for so long," Téa admitted, swallowing the acidic lump in her throat, "that when Battle City ended, and Yami... just disappeared, I... I didn't know what to do, or what to think. I started realizing... as the weeks went by, that he's a different person, Yugi. Someone inside you, maybe, someone that's helped all of us, but not someone that can... I couldn't possibly-- I didn't want to hurt you, Yugi!"

"But I... Téa, I love you." Yugi whispered. It was true, despite knowing that her crush on Yami was gone, and that she was now in love with Kaiba. His heart still kept beating, his feelings for her remained strong...

Téa dropped her head, her dark bangs covering her eyes as tears slid down the curve of her cheeks, "I don't... I don't love YOU, Yugi. I'm... I'm so sorry."

Yugi remained silent, though whether it was because he couldn't find the words he wanted to say, or because he was afraid of the words he COULD say-- not even he knew. He squeezed Téa's hand gently, wishing that he could just continue to sit there with her, holding her...

But he couldn't. She didn't love him, didn't need him. Not the way she used to.

On slightly trembling legs, Yugi rose, dropping Téa's hand back to her own lap, startling the girl into looking up at her friend.

"Yugi, what--?"

"Téa, I..."

What could he say? It wasn't as if anything could change things right then; nothing could make Téa change her feelings.

And, even if he were the Time Wizard, even if he could go back...

She still wouldn't have loved HIM. In his heart of hearts, Yugi knew he couldn't be completely happy, not with Téa in love with... with a part of him that wasn't REALLY him at all.

In love with Yami.

"Be happy." And with those words, Yugi turned and walked out of the park, leaving Téa alone, crying on the bench as the sunset closed around her.

_'And I wish you still loved me...'_

* * *

Mokuba Kaiba stared at the reddening sky with an exasperated sigh.

Where was Seto?

He'd gotten out of school hours ago, and had spent a few more hours with some of his fellow club-members, working out ideas for the upcoming sports festival.

But... Seto still wasn't there.

Mokuba knew that last night's --well, "disaster" might be a good word for the events concerning the ghosts-- events had sent Téa to the hospital. But he'd assumed that Seto and Téa had come back late at night.

But he hadn't seen them.

Maybe they'd left for school before him?

It was unusual, but Mokuba had to force himself not to worry. If he worried, he'd lose focus, and not be able to concentrate in school. And what excuse could he possibly give his teachers? That some ghosts had attacked the girl he liked and his brother, and now she was in the hospital, and his brother was god-knows-where?

Yeah, like that would fly.

"Mokuba?"

The ebony-haired boy looked up, startled to see not his brother, but Yugi Moto there.

"Um... your brother's not coming to pick you up." Yugi explained, a strange look in his eyes. Mokuba realized with slow certainty that it he looked so... sad. Never before had Mokuba seen such an expression on Yugi Moto's face... and it scared him.

"Yugi...?"

"Come on."

* * *

Téa walked down the streets of downtown Domino, doing her best to avoid all contact with other humans. Of course, it wasn't easy, given that it was the time of day when many salarymen were returning home, schoolgirls left their afterschool clubs and karaoke get-togethers, and boys left their sports clubs and arcades.

But she couldn't stay at the park any longer.

Téa didn't know what to do-- she couldn't go to the station, she couldn't go to the Game Shop, she couldn't go home...

She'd never felt so lost before.

"Hey girlie."

Téa did her best to ignore the voice; she didn't need any weirdoes coming onto her. She just wanted to tune the world out, and wait for everything to just go away.

"I said, HEY, girlie."

That voice didn't sound like a guy's. What, now she was getting hit on by WOMEN?

"Téa! Hello! Good god girl, you look like crap!"

Téa's gaze snapped up, and she met the source of the snappish voice-- Mai Valentine.

* * *

Mokuba put his cup down with trembling hands.

"He's... where?" He asked again, his gaze glazed and fixed at some invisible point, beyond the card cases and Duel Monsters displays.

"In jail. Téa told me the police think he murdered her parents."

"What? But Téa knows Big Brother would never-- I mean!" Mokuba protested, his shocked gaze finally reaching Yugi's.

"I knows. And Téa knows, too. She spent all day with the police finding evidence that her parents left behind."

"B-But if she did, and she knows who did it--" Mokuba trailed off meaningfully, wondering if Téa had told Yugi of her findings.

Yugi became stone-faced and grim; "The Big 5 were behind it, Téa said." Yugi uttered, "I don't know how your brother could have not known they were still working for him."

Mokuba scowled, "I bet he didn't. He doesn't check up on the smaller firms that they ran. He only stays on top of what KaibaCorp directly manages-- the gaming and amusement industries, and occasionally the tech divisions that cater to hospitals and schools."

"The police were on their way to get a warrant for arrest for someone that they suspected was involved... your brother's name should be cleared by the end of the night. I'll take you there."

Mokuba glanced up at the older boy who was his brother's hated rival... and at the same time, probably the closest thing Seto had to a best friend.

Mokuba wasn't entirely sure of the relationship Téa and Seto shared --not after last night, and certainly not now, with Seto having been accused of murdering Téa's parents... but Yugi **did** say that Téa had helped find evidence to prove Seto innocent. Maybe... maybe everything would just work out in the end, and they would both come home, and everything would be okay.

But something in Mokuba's gut told him it wasn't going to be so easy.

* * *

"HE WHAT?" Mai exclaimed loudly, her voice reaching into the higher soprano range as she slammed her palms against the Crown Cafe and Diner tabletop.

"Mai," Téa hissed, her lips curving into a frown, "sit down! The whole world doesn't need to know about my problems with Seto Kaiba."

"They should." Mai grumbled, "Especially if the jerk called you a 'curse.' Where does that ass get off? And you were right, weren't you? Damn place was haunted."

"I didn't expect you to believe me so easily." Téa said after a moment, chewing on her lower lip. She raised still-red eyes to meet Mai's violet ones, "I thought you would laugh."

"Well, you thought wrong. The way I figure it, why would you come up with such a cock-and-bull story if it **wasn't** true? Besides, with all the weird stuff that's happened to us, I'm not that surprised."

"...And the rest?"

"The murder thing," Mai admitted, turning her straw around in her shake, over and over, "was a bit of a shock. But you know now that Kaiba didn't do it. Much a prick as he is, he's no murderer, and we both know that."

"...I didn't."

"Huh?" Mai asked eloquently, the straw from her shake dropping from between her rosy lips.

"When-- when they first arrested Seto, I... I thought he did it. I really did, Mai. I thought Seto Kaiba murdered my parents."

"B-But Téa, that's-- come on, that's preposterous!" Mai protested, "Why would he have done something like that?"

"I know, I know! It's just, I can't stop thinking about how-- how I'm supposed to be in love with him, and how this big secret is ruining every relationship I'm ever had," Téa looked up at Mai momentarily, "sans this one, of course."

"Yeah," Mai smirked, "your little secrets might actually be making **our** relationship better. We never had any friendly rapports about your dirty little thoughts before." The blonde smirked. Téa rolled her eyes and continued.

"I was supposed to trust in him, Mai. To believe in him no matter what... but I didn't. I couldn't."

"But you found out the truth, Téa. Why is this bugging you so much?"

"It doesn't matter!" Téa exclaimed sharply, sucking in a cold breath, "It doesn't matter how long it took before I figured it all out. I doubted him --Seto, the man I'm **supposed** to be in love with-- for even an instant. That's... that's not how it's supposed to work."

"Hate to break it to you, hun," Mai began with her brows raised, "but love never is **supposed to** do anything."

"I can believe in myself. I can believe in my friends. But Kaiba, who I've known just as long, even though I've gotten to know him more than most people would realize, I still-- I can't trust him! I can't tell the guys where I've been staying, I can't tell them that I-- I don't even know what I'm feeling anymore. I'm just... god, Mai, I'm so scared."

The older blonde wondered exactly how to phrase the words that would bring comfort to Téa. The thing was, there really **weren't** any such words. Comfort had to come hand in hand with pain, and right now...

"Bakura knows. And you told Yugi. When the time's right, you'll work up the nerve to tell the other guys too, and they'll just have to accept it. Kaiba did you a huge favor by taking you in."

"Mai, you don't get it! It's not like I've even been doing my job! I've... I've crossed that line between employer and employee-- even the line between classmates, or acquaintances! I think I'm in love with someone, and I can't even trust him! He's in jail because of me, and I know-- I know he won't ever look at me the same. Mai, I can't go back to that."

Mai sighed. Téa had a point... trust was a major issue where love was concerned. It was something Mai knew all too well...

"Téa," She began in a softer voice, "if you ever need a place to crash, for whatever reason, or for however long, you just," she scribbled her address and phone number on her placemat, ripping the corner off and handing it to Téa, "let me know."

Téa took the scrap with trembling hands, finally looking up at Mai with watering eyes. "Thanks, Mai."

* * *

Less than an hour later, Téa found herself back at the Kaiba mansion.

She couldn't exactly call it 'home' anymore, because it sure didn't feel like it. She felt horribly unwelcome in the place, and it gave her the same cold shivers that she'd gotten during her first unexpected 'visit.'

_ 'Okay girl... this is it.' _ Téa zipped up her duffel bag, packed with a week's worth of essentials. She just needed some time away...

From the house.

From Seto.

Maybe what she needed to do was be by herself for a while, and sort her feelings out. Figure out if what she really felt was love-- or something else. If what she really wanted was to do was take the risk of admitting everything to everyone... or to just pretend it had all been some horrible, warped mistake.

As Téa walked downstairs, she caught sight of the last rays of sunlight making their way into Seto's office and shining onto his desk.

The tri-dragon paperweight she'd bought for his birthday present sat there, gleaming in the dying light.

"I'm sorry, Seto," Téa murmured aloud, "for everything."

And with that, Téa Gardner left the Kaiba mansion --the place that had, for the past several months, been her 'home'-- without once looking back.

* * *

Téa walked a bit aimlessly, though in the general direction of the Domino Police Department, curious as to if they had successfully interrogated Theodore yet.

She wanted to know what he'd had to do with her parents' murder... and why he'd become Jacques Mode's fashion assistant, knowingly going to the Kaiba mansion where he would see Téa...

Her cell phone rang loudly in her purse, startling Téa to the point where she nearly jumped into the air.

"H-Hello?"

# Miss Gardner? This is Sergeant Konami, from the Domino City Police. #

"Oh! Oh hi... Sergeant." Téa's voice dropped. For just an instant, a feeling of anger boiled within her, hating the man who had inadvertently turned her life into disaster. Not Seto Kaiba, but Konami. The bearer of such horrible news...

# Miss Gardner, would you be able to come to the station now? Mr. Laroque has something he'd like to say to you. #

_ 'W-What?' _

Téa hadn't expected that. Nodding if just to reassure her own self, she whispered, "Okay. I'm on my way," and then hung up.

Back to the DCPD... back to where it had all began...

_ 'And where it's all going to end... all over again.' _

* * *

"Is this it, Yugi?" Mokuba asked softly.

The boy beside him wasn't even looking at the DCPD; he was staring at the last line of the sun as it disappeared under the horizon, his eyes transfixed on some invisible point in the distance.

"Yugi?" Mokuba repeated, his voice a bit louder.

"Oh, sorry." Yugi shook his head, trying to rid his thoughts of his earlier 'conversation' with Téa. Things... things were different now. The sun was setting... not just on another day, but on their relationship. It could never be the way Yugi had hoped.

"I-I think you should come in with me, Yugi." Mokuba started, looking nervously at the imposing brick structure that was the police station. He was terrified of what his brother would be like when he saw him-- would he be all beat-up and bruised, like those guys that got arrested on COPS?

The two boys stepped into the building, completely unaware that Téa was just rounding the corner just behind them.

* * *

"Can I help you boys?" The policewoman at the reception desk greeted Yugi and Mokuba kindly as they entered; they were looking about the place with some level of awe and fear.

"Y-Yeah," Mokuba stepped up to the desk, suddenly feeling rather diminutive, "My-- My brother, Seto Kaiba..." He began softly.

"Say no more. This way." The woman smiled slightly and led Mokuba and a silent Yugi to a room around the corner. The wire-and-glass windows were small, but through their transparency, Yugi could see Seto Kaiba hunched over a small table, filling out papers.

"Big Brother!" Mokuba cried out as he flung open the door, his voice echoing loudly off the hallways' concrete walls.

Seto turned and rose to his feet immediately, barely prepared for Mokuba thundering into him.

"Mokuba!" Seto squeezed his little brother in a tight hug, even if the gesture was more reassuring for himself than his younger sibling.

There was a niggling presence fighting for Seto's attention, drawing his steely gaze upwards, and it was then that Seto Kaiba noticed Yugi Moto standing in the doorway as if he belonged there.

Seto was about to open his mouth and demand what the hell Yugi was doing there, but Mokuba had noticed his older brother's expression and spoken first.

"He brought me here, Big Brother!" Mokuba explained, "He picked me up from school and explained everything to me. If it hadn't been for Yugi, I never would have known."

Seto was silent, wondering briefly how Yugi had even known he was in the jail. But then, that Moto boy always **did** find a way of showing up when he was least wanted-- er, expected.

"...Thank you." Seto finally said, his gaze dropping from Yugi's. The boy only nodded, an odd sort of sadness in his violet eyes as he regarded Seto. Kaiba wasn't sure what to make of the expression, and so sat down with Mokuba, explaining as much as he could-- hardly even noticing that Yugi had turned on his heel and closed the door behind him.

* * *

"Ah, Miss Gardner--"

Yugi froze where he stood.

_'Téa?_'

"...Yeah, well it's not like I want to be back here. But Sergeant Konami said Laroque had something to me."

He couldn't face her.

Yugi scanned the walls and found a sign leading to a back exit. As he hurried down the hallways, Téa's voice became more and more faint. It hardly mattered that he could hear it clearly in his ears, echoing over and over again...

_ "Seto. Seto Kaiba... the man I love." _

* * *

Téa found herself alone in the same room she'd spoken to Audrey and Michael just hours earlier.

It seemed like an eternity before the door clicked open and Konami walked in, two police officers gripping the arms of a skinny boy whom Téa had grown to recognize since her visit to her father's office.

And her own re-visitation of her memories... when this selfsame boy had come to the Kaiba mansion, under the guise of Jacques Mode's assistant...

_ 'Murderer!' _ Whispered a voice in the back of Téa's mind as she met the young man's eyes, blue clashing with blue like a violent storm at sea.

"All right Laroque, you've got one minute." Konami gestured to the young man, offering no other introduction to Téa, who was so anxious that she'd twisted her fingers together in her lap, preferring they be stuck that way and cramp rather than allow them to shake and reveal her fright.

"I'm sorry!" Theodore blurted immediately, his eyes pleading.

"Excuse me?" Téa asked, her voice a whisper. "You might want to repeat that for me... because to me, it sounded like you tried to apologize-- for murder!"

Theodore dropped his head shamefully; he knew that an apology wouldn't change things. It wouldn't bring the Gardners back... it wouldn't bring Liselle back...

"That's not how it works, Laroque-- Iwana-- WHOEVER YOU ARE!" Téa couldn't fight the tears streaming down her face, leaving red streaks on her once-milky cheeks.

"Gone. Gone for good." Téa shook her head in despair, as if finally realizing how utterly **permanent** her parents' death really was.

"Maybe... maybe I'm the one who should apologize." Téa whispered after a moment, surprising everyone present.

"I know... I know you were forced into doing it, Theodore." Téa said at last, "I know the Big 5 are the real culprits behind this, and they deserve to be the ones behind bars. But that doesn't mean you don't, too."

The blonde looked startlingly afraid as Téa continued, her voice growing stronger and her crying ceasing.

"Maybe you could have saved them, maybe you couldn't have. Maybe if you hadn't done anything, Liselle would still be alive today--" Theodore looked crestfallen --- "but maybe she wouldn't be. I can't change the past, and what's done is done." Téa said softly.

"But that doesn't mean I have to forgive you." Her voice was cold and deadly serious as she met Theodore's gaze. Silence reigned in the small room before Konami broke it.

"Minute's up."

* * *

"Finished your paperwork?"

Seto Kaiba turned around and saw Konami standing just to the right of the receptionist desk, where he was filling out the last of his papers to ensure everything that had transpired was indeed, a mistake, and he was cleared of any and all criminal charges.

Moments later, two stocky officers with a young man in their grip emerged from a room off to the side, and Seto felt a jolt pass through him. So this was him.

"Laroque."

"Sorry, Mr. Kaiba, but we're escorting this guy off to where he belongs-- jail." Konami spoke up as he gestured to the two officers.

"M-Mr. Kaiba!" Theodore suddenly twisted in their arms, struggling with the officers as mightily as he could, "I did what I had to to save her! To save Liselle! I had to do anything! Surely you know what that must feel like-- a man in love!"

_ No one will ever truly love you, Seto. You'll always be alone. _

_'... I **am** alone. I'll always **be** alone. It's better that way. Safer that way.'_

It was only a moment later when Seto Kaiba replied, raising his gaze from where it had fallen briefly to the floor, "No. I'm afraid I wouldn't."

Kaiba recognized the look of shock on Theodore's face --the last time he saw the boy-- before he was bodily forced around the corner to the jail cells.

With one last signature, that was it.

Seto Kaiba was free.

* * *

Seto was more than glad to be finally released from that dank, stinking jail. Every minute was a moment longer than necessary. And it all could have been avoided, if Téa had only believed in him...

_'I don't need that pathetic **cheerleader's** faith. I went and got out of here on **my own**. If I had never been foolish enough to let her in in the first place, I wouldn't have even **wasted** my time here in the first place!' _

"Téa!" Mokuba exclaimed in surprise, his own dark eyes meeting with Téa's. She'd been sitting outside the Domino City Police Station on a cool, concrete bench, wearing the same skimpy shorts and sleeveless blouse as she'd been wearing over twenty four hours ago.

Seto refused to meet the girl's gaze, despite the minor discomfort it brought him, knowing she was staring at him so pointedly. He regarded the girl with as little emotion as possible; he knew what he had to do, what he had to say... what had to happen.

"I-... I'm glad... that you're out." Téa mumbled, "I'm sorry about all this mess... I was being really stupid earlier, and I should have just said in the beginning... I know I should have trusted you Seto! I just-- Maybe I think... I shouldn't go back to the mansion... I'm sorry..."

There. She'd gone and said it... suggested that maybe... maybe it was best if they spent time apart. It was for the best, after all...

_''What am I apologizing for, anyway? "I'm sorry for not believing in you from the start?" How can I say that, when he didn't even **try** to believe in me... when I needed his trust the most? When... when it could have meant my death?' _

Everything had gone so horribly wrong in the past few days, Téa just wanted to curl up into a ball and forget that the outside world existed. But it wasn't so easy.

"Amazing that a foolish girl like you could be sharing my thoughts exactly, Gardner. I don't think you should come back to the mansion, either." Seto spoke. His gaze lowered to meet hers, and it was then that Téa realized just who she was speaking to. Not the Seto Kaiba she had fallen in love with... but a cold, sarcastic Kaiba. Mokuba stood agape, his feet riveted in place, staring from his brother to Téa, watching as tears brimmed the girl's lashes.

While before, her tears might have stirred **some feeling** in Seto Kaiba, now there was nothing. Only the simple thought that he'd been right all along, and that trivialities like friendship and love were nothing more than a waste of time.

The black night wrapped itself around Téa's frame, Seto's gaze chilling her soul more than any night wind ever could.

But... hadn't she expected this? She had known that he would never treat her the same way, never trust her again...

_'You weren't supposed to agree with me!'_ Téa wanted to cry out. But he was right. He was always right. He was a genius, after all, and she was just a 'foolish girl...' Her head bobbed in a slight nod; she deserved Seto's callousness.

"It's probably for the best... if we spend some time apart." Téa whispered, biting her lip to prevent the tears from falling. But it wasn't working very well; the tears went slip-sliding down her face, even as she turned her head down, her gaze averted from the Kaiba brothers. She clutched the handles of her pink duffle bag tightly, as if they were her only lifeline.

"I'm so sorry!" Her voice came out as a whisper, a choking sob. Unable to hold her tears back any more, Téa wheeled on her feet and dashed into the inky darkness of the night, not looking back once.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> ** It's Review Reply Time! **
> 
> Check my LiveJournal for my replies to some of the great reviews I've gotten thus far! All kinds of goodies await therein...


	11. Separation, and then…

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Okay, so Seto was obviously not guilty of the Gardners' death-- but the fact that Téa couldn't trust him from the start has wounded both of them. And now Seto is back to being cold and callous, desperate to prove to himself that he never needed Téa in his life. Téa, for her part, has run away from the Kaiba mansion...so where will she call home?

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> **What Doesn't Kill You  
> Chapter 10: Separation, and then...  
> Version 2.0 - Svelte Edits (Thanks!)  
> A Yu-Gi-Oh Fanfiction**  
> **By:** Azurite - azurite AT seventh-star DOT net  
> **Site: **seventh-star DOT net  
> **Conceptualized/First Written:** 5/9/04 - Happy Mother's Day!  
> **Completed/Final Edit:**8/19/04 - This. Took. Way. Too. Long.   
> Posted: 8/21/04
> 
> **_ Notes:_** Anyone here watch Fushigi Yuugi? The the chapter title will be familiar to you. Don't worry though, no one's going to die. That's about the only thing I can promise, though.
> 
> **Since FFnet has changed their "policy" regarding songfics, I'm removing all the lyrics from the below songs, just in case. However, I highly recommend you look up the original version of the fic on my site or on MMorg, or else find the lyrics for the songs below.**
> 
> I don't own the song "Stupid," by Sarah McLachlan. It's on her "Fallen" CD, which I **do** own. The lyrics in the official booklet, btw, are a bit wrong. I fixed them as appropriate. No, I'm not imagining things, thankyouverymuch. I also don't own Yu-Gi-Oh, or the Evil Blue Thing (snagged from ) Waha! Lyrics to "In Your Life" by La Bouche, and reference to t.A.T.u's "All The Things She Said," belong to them as well.
> 
> **DO NOT** try and print this, for whatever reason. I warn you in advance, it is **120 PAGES LONG!**
> 
> **_ Harlequine -- Without you, that certain scene never would have gotten written. Thanks for 'punching my lights out' with great ideas!_**
> 
> **_Atlantis2 -- You're a plethora of great ideas and constructive criticism. Every compliment from you deserves to be printed, embossed, and hung on my wall in a gold frame._**
> 
> **_Mamono -- You always catch the little things that make it past every other filter I have. You are my third, fourth, and fifth eyes. THANK YOU SO MUCH!_**
> 
> **_akaVertigo -- Thanks for pestering me. This chapter is all yours. :D_**
> 
> * * *
> 
>   
> ** RECAP: ** Okay, so Seto was obviously not guilty of the Gardner's death-- but the fact that Téa couldn't trust him from the start has wounded both of them. And now Seto is back to being cold and callous, desperate to prove to himself that he never needed Téa in his life. Téa, for her part, has run away from the Kaiba mansion... so where will she call home?

It was raining.

Téa Gardner wandered the streets of Domino as night wore on, clutching her pink duffle bag and a tiny scrap of paper as if they were the only things left in her world.

If you wanted to be technical about it, they were.

_'Stupid, stupid, stupid!' _Téa thought to herself with each step, punctuating her angry thoughts with stomps. One of her misplaced angry feet landed in a puddle, splashing her legs and what little of her shorts weren't already wet.

It was official, she looked like a drowned rat.

_'Stupid drowned rat who just **let** herself get kicked out of the only home she's known for the past few months. God, what was I thinking?'_

Earlier, Téa went and suggested that maybe and she and Seto Kaiba should spend time apart. And at the time, it had sounded like a perfectly good idea. They were having serious problems trusting each other as of late, and Téa was well-aware that she'd gone too deep when it came to her feelings for Kaiba.

He wasn't the kind of person that opened up easily. He wasn't the type to sit down and **talk** about his past... No. Before he'd say **anything **about his past, it would resurrect itself and throw his little brother's tutor against a mirror.

Literally.

_'And this was the guy I thought I was in love with?'_ Téa shook her head, but most of her hair still clung to her face and neck. She could barely make out Mai's angled print on the small piece of paper-- and the ink was starting to run.

Finally, Téa found the place. Or at least, she thought she did.

_'There's no **way** Mai lives in a place like this!' _Téa had her eyes locked on the towering penthouse apartment complex-- one of three towers in a wide, round area. The grounds were surrounded by tall gates and manicured gardens, while the inside of the building was, at least from what Téa could make out through the rainy haze, floored with solid marble.

But by the time Téa had finished gawking, the small slip of paper she'd held had turned into mush. There was no going back-- if this wasn't the right place, there was nothing she could do. Nowhere she could go...

Trying to swallow her fears, Téa took a hesitant step forward and toward the door. With trembling, dripping fingers, she searched the directory-- and to her astonishment, found an M. Valentine listed for Apartment 2333 in the Yoake Tower.

Keying the code into the apartment bell phone, Téa waited with bated breath, hoping that it wasn't some sort of cosmic mistake and that Mai would actually--

"Took you long enough, Téa. Get upstairs, it's pouring out there."

And then there was a click. Téa didn't even have the chance to say a word; Mai just knew.

Heaving a great sigh of relief, Téa pushed the great glass door open as it buzzed. She hurried across the marble floors to the elevator, eager to get up to the 23rd floor and get warm and dry.

* * *

Téa winced as she left the elevator and headed down the ivory-carpeted floors of the 23rd floor in the Yoake Tower-- she'd left pools of dirty rainwater wherever she stepped, and her clothes were still soaked to the core.

After a few moments of wandering --and admiring the perfectly wallpapered halls, the elegant lighting, and the tall, supporting pillars-- Téa found it: 2333. A small bronze plaque beside the door read 'M. Valentine,' so Téa knew she was in the right place.

Realizing that she was dripping all over the floor, Téa knocked. Moments later, the door swung open, Mai wearing a vaguely cocky smile as she stood aside and welcomed Téa in.

"What's up with the drowned rat look, Téa? Didn't have time to grab a raincoat?" The older blonde disappeared into the hallway just right of the doorway, coming back with a fluffy lavender towel.

She tossed it at the brunette, who quickly dried herself off to the best of her abilities.

"No, I... I just kind of cut and run," Téa admitted quietly, shaking her head. When she glanced up, she had an inquiring expression on her face. "How did you know it was me?"

"Truth?" Mai asked, gesturing Téa to follow her. "When I saw you earlier, you looked like a total hang-dog. And after our little chat, I had a feeling I'd be seeing you sooner, rather than later. I admit, I know what it's like to be on the run, so I... well, I made my offer, and look, here you are." Mai shook her head, as if trying to brush away bad memories.

"In any case, you stink to high heaven, so take a shower. I'll give you some of my smaller clothes, and we can stay up talking all night if you want. Or you can go straight to sleep-- I've got the most comfortable couch this side of Domino. Guaranteed, according to the sofa salesman."

Téa smiled crookedly.

"Thanks Mai," she whispered, her eyes watering suddenly. "I really mean it."

Mai blinked, a bit surprised, but nodded back all the same. "No problem, Téa. It's what friends are for."

* * *

One steaming shower later, Téa found herself back in Mai's darkened hallway, staring at the scant few picture frames lining the walls and decorating the tops of cabinets and shelves.

Mai's home was modestly decorated; humble and monotone, and more like what Téa would have envisioned the Kaiba mansion had looked like-- before she had moved in. The very thought brought pangs to her chest, and an acidic taste to her mouth.

"Finished, are you?" Mai asked, emerging from her bedroom. Téa nodded wordlessly, stepping forward into the main entryway. The side hallway that housed the bathroom and the closet rounded the corner back to the living room and kitchen; the balcony spanned out from the edge of the living room, while Mai's bedroom was catty corner to the kitchen.

"Hungry?" Mai stepped into the kitchen, her eyes darting from Téa to the photos. For a moment, she looked as though she wanted to say something else; do something else maybe, but Téa couldn't fathom what. The older blonde busied herself in the kitchen, grabbing things from cabinets, while Téa moved toward one of the frames perched on a tinted glass bookshelf.

_'I know that face...'_

There was a startlingly familiar face smiling alongside Mai's and another person's --a young man in the photo Téa discovered. And then, it hit her.

_'Fran!'_

The woman from the festival-- from the Domino Performing Arts Company.

Fran, with her shoulder-length, curly red hair. There was simply no one else that it could be.

_'Mai knows her?'_

Well, judging by the picture Mai did. And rather well. The two girls were standing cheek to cheek with one another, the young man on the far right of the photo smiling. While Fran was smiling brilliantly at the camera, Téa noticed, upon closer inspection, that Mai's violet eyes were tilted in the direction of the man beside her. More than that, her cheeks were stained a bright pink...

"Mai, who--" Téa held up the frame to the blonde, who was just exiting the kitchen now with two steaming mugs of cocoa in hand.

Mai exhaled deeply. She set the two mugs down on her glass coffee table, flopping onto her couch with a soft plunk.

"You were going to find out sooner or later, even if you never **had** noticed those photos. Stupid me... I expected you'd come, but I forgot that Fran asked you to come to a rehearsal this week."

Mai was right. Back at the Festival, Fran has presented her, Chieko, and Serenity with a flyer regarding the DPAC's new recruitment auditions and rehearsal period. Interested parties were asked to show up to a special meeting only two days from now.

"So you **do** know her."

"Know her?" Mai shook her head, the regret plain in her voice. "Yeah, I know her. We used to be best friends."

"W-What happened?" Téa asked hesitantly. She knew they weren't friends anymore; after all, Mai had run away from Fran at the Festival, and running away was simply something that the Mai Téa knew **didn't** do.

"More like 'who' happened," Mai corrected Téa, her gaze drifting to the photo still in Téa's hands. "His name is Vincent Lohrs..." Mai let her head drop, long blonde bangs hiding her face from view, "and he's Fran's husband."

* * *

Téa had only known Mai for a year or so, and though the woman was a good seven years older than her, they'd found they had a lot in common-- to an extent. It was now that Téa discovered the true extent of their similarities and differences, and the story went back all the way to when Mai had been a third year senior high school student-- over five years ago.

"Back then, DPAC wasn't even around yet," Mai explained wearily. "We were both in the same high school class. She was the outgoing, wild one, and I was the shy and quiet type."

Téa's eyes widened and she tried to suppress the astonishment that came through plain in her voice. "_**You**_, shy and quiet?"

Mai laughed shortly, nodding. "Yeah. Things change in five years, Téa. Back then, I was different. I wasn't the girl you know now."

As it turned out, Mai and Fran had once been the best of friends. They'd gone through all of high school as inseparable companions, having met at the high school exams the spring prior to their first year. The two couldn't have been more different, which made them best friends-- they offset one another in every possible way. But in their third and final year of high school, everything changed.

That year, a handsome young teacher arrived at their school-- and his name was Vincent Lohrs. From the moment Mai had laid eyes on him, she'd had a deep, intense crush-- that, as the year went on, developed into something much more.

Vincent had the fantastic idea of starting a dance company, and he wanted to start by recruiting interested students at Domino High, the prefecture's largest public high school. Mai and Fran both were only too eager to help, and ended up spending long hours helping put the company together.

From getting a building in which to practice to distributing flyers across Tokyo, the two girls had done everything in their power to make DPAC a success. And that included spending after school hours with their dance teacher.

Mai was sure that Vincent felt at least _something_ for her, but was too afraid to tell him, and as the year wore on, she found herself deeper in love and more confused about what to do. While initially, Mai managed to maintain her grades **and** help with the company, the more time she spent with Vincent, the more perplexing her feelings got, and the less focused she became on her other courses.

Worse, her parents noticed the sharp decline in her grades, and forced Mai to quit the dance club-- or else.

"Well, that's another thing we have in common," Téa muttered blandly. "What _is_ it with parents and not accepting dance as a viable thing to do? I mean, ballet dancers make loads of money each year, don't they?"

"Don't ask me, Téa," Mai shook her head remorsefully. "My dancing career ended on February 14th, five years ago."

After her parents had forbidden her to dance, Mai had done her best to bring her grades up and ignore her growing feelings for Vincent. But things hadn't changed-- not with how she saw Vincent everyday. So she'd rejoined DPAC, but in secret. Nights she claimed to be studying at the library were really spent at the DPAC studio, practicing for the debut performance. As one of the co-founders of the company, Mai was given a leading role... and she hoped that if all went well, her parents and **all** of Domino would come to love the Performing Arts Company she'd helped put together.

"Valentine's Day? What happened then?" Téa asked curiously. She settled on the couch in a cross-legged position, tossing a blanket haphazardly over her legs as she listened to Mai. But the older girl remained sitting on the couch, stiff-backed and staring off into space.

"'Then' was the debut recital of the Domino Performing Arts Company," Mai whispered. "'Then' was the day I found out that Vincent and Fran had been seeing each other for months, and were so enthralled with each other that they didn't even notice me."

What that translated to was Mai walking in on Fran and Vincent when they'd been kissing passionately just before DPAC's dress rehearsal, prior to the debut performance. She'd stared at them, wide-eyed and open-mouthed, for a good two minutes, but they never noticed her.

Mai had made it a point to show up extra-early for their dress rehearsal that night, because she'd made up her mind to give Vincent a love letter that she'd spent countless hours penning. She had called Fran before leaving her home, as well-- but her 'friend' hadn't answered her cell.

In all the months that they'd known Vincent, Mai had not once revealed that it was **he** she had fallen in love with. She had hinted at it in the way she spoke around Fran-- talking about someone who was older, handsome, gentle, and funny. How she saw him every day, and even snuck out at nights to see him. But Fran...

"She betrayed me," Mai responded flatly. "They both did. They went on and had their performance, and no one even knew I was supposed to be up there. My parents were furious that I'd snuck out, but I let them ground me. I didn't speak to Vincent or Fran after that, even after we graduated and... well, the minute I got a chance, I flew the coop. And I swore to never deal with dance companies or back-stabbing men ever again."

"Oh, Mai..." Téa whispered. She never knew that her friend had such a sad story behind her lifestyle.

Mai went on to tell her that she'd changed after that-- she decided that she was tired of being the shy, quiet, obedient girl. She wanted to get out and try new things, and explore the world. She didn't want to be the kind of person that waited months before timidly attempting to return someone's affection. She wanted to be the "get it and go" type, the kind that saw something they wanted and TOOK it without hesitation.

And, after world travels and some more heartache, she became that person-- and the woman that Téa knew. Confident, assured, beautiful, and... scared.

"But... what about Joey?" Téa suddenly asked.

Mai blinked at Téa, looking at her for the first time since she'd started her story. "Joey? What about him?"

"Well," Téa began, smiling slightly, "he **has** changed your mind about guys, hasn't he? You know he's not out to betray you or anything."

Mai was silent a moment, and she looked away. "It's not that simple."

"Sure it is, Mai! You've trusted Joey on plenty of occasions before and--"

"I said it's not that simple!" Mai snapped. She sucked in a breath, noting Téa's astonished expression.

"I'm not doing it, Téa. Before you even ask, I'm not going with you to that rehearsal audition. Fran and I have nothing to discuss. And you are hardly the person to be talking to me about trust," Mai continued, rising from the couch. "After all, look what happened with you and Kaiba."

Téa fell silent, her resolve for argument dissipating. Mai was right. Maybe there was a moral to her story that Téa hadn't wanted to see at first-- those you trust and believe in the most will betray you. That was how it had been with Seto, and...

_"...Be happy."_

Yugi had looked at looked at her with an expression so infinitely sad, Téa was struck immediately by the thought that he might be saying 'goodbye.' And Yugi was her best friend in the whole world-- her most **trusted** confidante. Yet, she'd never known until earlier that he was in love with her.

And now, she was paying the price. For her blindness, and for her foolish trust in the world...

"I guess you're right," Téa spoke after a moment. "What's the point of loving anyone when you can never tell them your deepest secrets," she raised her gaze to meet Mai's, "without getting betrayed?"

The night ended like that; the only sound in the living room was the pounding of the rain on the glass windows. Mai retreated into her bedroom, leaving Téa alone on the couch with only her thoughts for company.

* * *

"You're crazy," Mai remarked from the couch, lifting her legs up in a half-stretch and glancing at Téa from the gap. It was now early Monday morning, and Téa had woken up in a panic, exclaiming that she had to go to school.

Sunday passed without much incident... Téa slept most of the day away, willing the daylight to leave her be. Luckily, she got her wish-- Mai went to work, leaving her friend alone in the apartment for hours, until late night, when the two of them curled up on the couch watching movies, but not saying a word about anything that transpired over the past week-- be it the ghosts that haunted the Kaiba mansion on Halloween, Yugi's confession or Kaiba's cruelty the night before...

And now it was early Monday morning, and Téa was busy digging through her now-dry duffle bag, muttering incomprehensible things under her breath.

"Augh! The one thing I knew I was going to need today and I left it at--" Téa's voice dropped to a dull whisper, her eyes suddenly flitting to the floor, "home."

"Hah. Home is where your **heart** is, Téa, and I doubt your heart would be very at home in the freezer box that is the Kaiba mansion. And for the umpteenth time," Mai said, getting up and walking toward her hall closet, "you **do not** have to go to school today. Or for the rest of this week, for that matter." She reached into the closet, but paused, turning to Téa to stare at her dead-on in the eyes.

"You are the top student at that high school. You're a pretty, enthusiastic, outgoing girl. You're class representative, co-president of the dance club and--"

"Still going to be screwed without my uniform! But showing up in something is better than not showing up at all, oh..." Téa renewed her search through her tiny duffle, hoping that a second run-through might find her the parts to a make-shift uniform.

"Téa, listen to me. You have been through so much more than the rest of the kids at that school. You deserve a break every now and then! Why should you have to go to a school where you have to be surrounded by the very people that are going to make you miserable?"

Téa shook her head in a firm, resolute 'no.'

"My friends are there, Mai. Even if Se-- even if **Kaiba** is going to be a total jerk to me, well, I asked for it. I figured it was best that we have some time apart, and this is it. He's giving that to me. Besides, it's my fault that he got into that whole mess in the first place..."

"Oh, please, Téa! That is so far from the truth, it's not even funny! Look, what happened the other night--" Not even Mai could bring herself to go into Téa's discovery that her parents had been murdered and how Seto had been framed for it. "What happened was out of your control. That whole thing was totally orchestrated by a bunch of suit-wearing fat cats, and YOU never entered their equation once. If it hadn't been for you, Kaiba would still be sitting on his ass in a jail cell, wondering if he'd look good in an orange jumpsuit."

Téa tried to stifle a giggle, but it came out anyway. He really **wouldn't** look good in orange...

"I know, Mai, I know. But I caused a lot of problems for him, so... I don't know," Téa shrugged, "the least I can do is say I'm sorry."

Mai fell silent. She knew that once the younger girl had her heart set on something, she followed through. That was Téa-- her nature, her spirit, her very essence. Determined, emotional, and... apologetic. Even for something she didn't do.

The blonde pulled out the garment bag that had been hanging in the dark depths of her hall closet.

"What...?" Téa blinked confusedly at Mai, who just held the black garment bag out to her. Téa unzipped it, her eyes widening with surprise.

"My old Domino High uniform. It might be a bit big on you, but you can always stuff your bra."

Téa laughed, looking up at Mai and smiling gratefully.

"Mai, I had no idea--"

"No time for reminiscing. Go get dressed!" Mai shooed Téa off into the bathroom, smiling the whole time.

* * *

The shrill bell signaling the start of class rang, but Téa was still dashing through the hallways, having entered school from the opposite side, which she was not used to. She'd had to navigate through halls she'd never even known **existed** before, and now, she was late to class!

Téa just rounded the corner toward Class 2B, hearing Mr. Kinomoto, the History teacher, announce the start of class. She reached out her arm seconds before she slammed into it, sliding it open breathlessly.

All eyes immediately turned to her, while she panted in the doorway, bowing apologetically. "Sorry... I'm...late... Mr. Kinomoto..."

"It's quite all right, Miss Gardner, class has not yet begun. Please take your seat."

Absolutely exhausted from her dash across campus, Téa settled gratefully into her seat, resisting the urge to glance toward Kaiba and see if he was looking at her. She did feel someone _else's_ pointed stare boring into her head though-- and that person was Chieko.

Téa blinked innocently at her friends, whose eyes were wide, a smile tugging at the corners of her lips. "What?" Téa mouthed silently, pulling her textbook from her desk. Chieko only smirked, gesturing to Téa's blouse-- or rather, Mai's.

It was easily a size too small, and Téa remembered Mai saying, back at the Festival, that the Domino High uniforms had barely fit her then. Téa was far from being Mai's height, but obviously that didn't matter where _shirts_ were concerned.

Téa shook her head wryly; there was nothing she could do about it now.

* * *

So far, so good.

It wasn't easy pretending that life had gone back to normal --back to the way it had been before this whole mess with Kaiba-- but he was ignoring her, and she was doing her best to ignore him.

It was strange to be thinking that she wouldn't be going home --to the place that had _been_ home for many months now-- tonight. Rather, she'd be staying at Mai's. It was a far cry from the house she'd lived in with her parents, or from the Kaiba Mansion, but...

_'It'll have to do for now. I'll figure something out, and get out of Kaiba's way completely. I'll find a way... to fall out of love with him.' _

She'd done it before, so why not again? Why not just accept that Mai was right? All guys were just out to hurt you in the end.

Well, not all guys, Téa smiled lopsidedly. She still had her friends.

Today she didn't have any particular desire to explain her whole situation to Chieko-- she'd rather tell the guys, and hope that, as they had been for her when her parents had died, they would be her support again.

Maybe now she could admit to them that she'd been living with Kaiba, and that, for a brief while, she'd tinkered with the idea of being in love with him.

Except, that 'tinkering' had lasted a good solid two months so far.

It didn't matter anymore, though! Now her situation was different, and she was going to get back on her feet-- and start fresh, all over again. No matter how much it hurt, she _**would**_fall out of love with Seto Kaiba...

"Yugi!" Téa called to her friend, moving toward him in the crowded school cafeteria. He paused and turned to see who was calling his name, but when his eyes met with Téa's, she froze.

It was that same look from before...

_"I... I've been in love with you for a long time, Téa."_

How could she not have seen it before? And now, the look in his eyes... there was simply no denying. He was going to--

_'Don't say goodbye. Don't go Yugi, please!'_

But Yugi bowed his head, his gaze broken from Téa's. And he turned and walked away-- completely ignoring her.

Joey bounded up from the side, Tristan and Duke following behind, their own lunch trays in hand. "Hey Yug', hold up!" Yugi glanced back at them once, his eyes meeting with Téa's for another brief second. But he shook his head and kept walking.

Joey was perplexed; why wasn't Yugi waiting? He raced to catch up with his friend and find out what was wrong. Tristan and Duke paused in front of Téa, Tristan casting an unsure glance back at Téa.

"Sorry, Téa," he murmured, hurrying after Joey. Duke just stared at her, an eyebrow raised. Her hands were trembling on her tray, as if she might drop it any second. And though she wasn't openly crying, he could tell she was upset. But...

After a moment, he too, followed Yugi, Joey, and Tristan, leaving Téa to get swallowed by the crowds.

* * *

It all went in the trash.

Every last shred of her lunch.

After Yugi and the others had just... just **_abandoned_** her like that, Téa had made for the one place in the school where she knew she could be utterly alone. In the janitorial wing of the third floor, there was a lone staircase leading up to a side of the roof that wasn't usually accessed by students eager for a quiet lunch and a nice view.

There were only pipes and vents on that side of the building, and it was dark and dirty...

But Téa didn't care. She didn't care about eating lunch, or where Kaiba was, or what Yugi was telling the guys right at that moment.

Her only friends had deserted her... and left her completely alone.

_'I thought they would understand!'_

But they hadn't even stopped to listen. Didn't even bother to ask her what was wrong, or try to stop Yugi from leaving. They'd just followed after him...

After all, she wasn't the 'leader' of their group. She was the lone female, and a silly sidekick...

_'Just another dumb cheerleader...'_

The tears began their trek down her face long before Téa even reached the roof, but by the time she stumbled out, she was crying wholeheartedly. She didn't give a damn if anyone heard her, or if anyone thought less of her. She'd been keeping her heartbroken feelings in for so long, shedding few tears and forcing herself to get angry instead.

But no one noticed.

Everyone else at Domino High was busy enjoying their lunch. With friends. With boyfriends, or girlfriends...

They were all laughing and smiling. If any of them had any cares in the world, it sure didn't look like it. Their biggest problems had nothing to do with where they were going to sleep that night, but everything to do with the latest cell phone game or next period's exam.

It was all so trivial.

None of them had really lived life like she had. They hadn't loved and lost so utterly. They hadn't lost their parents, been involved in a murder conspiracy, and spent sleepless nights fighting off ghosts and horrifying phantasms.

None of them could even grasp what she'd been through, and what was in her heart.

No one but her friends, and they...

The lunch period wore on, but Téa didn't stop crying. And when the bell rung, she stumbled down the stairs to the girl's bathroom, scrubbing her face dry and willing herself not to care.

If she could just brush it off --forgive and forget-- then she could go about her 'normal' life, as if the past two months had never happened.

She wasn't even considering Yugi's feelings, after all. Maybe he, like Kaiba, just needed some 'time apart' from her. But to have Yugi --her best friend in the whole world-- suddenly ignore her, and treat her so coldly... It wasn't like him.

Téa just didn't have the courage to approach him. How dare she, when she'd broken his heart? She'd been oblivious to his feelings all this time, and had rejected him, even though she'd known that her relationship with Kaiba was going to change.

Kaiba was back to hating her.

When Téa had dared to look at him in any of their classes, he'd glanced up sharply-- shooting her a withering stare, glaring daggers at her with his eyes. There was simply no doubt in her mind...

_"You're a curse."_

He **hated** her.

It hurt so much...

Japanese Literature was next, and with Miss Ninomiya's "interactive" style of teaching, Téa was sure she could distract herself from the boys. And if there was some kind of project, she was sure she could just work on it with Chieko...

To Téa's surprise, when she entered class, people were already paired up, their desks turned to face one another-- and Chieko's was turned to face another girl's.

"What's going on?" Téa asked, sliding into her seat.

"Oh, Téa," Chieko frowned sadly, "I didn't get a chance to tell you! When you were absent the other day, Miss Ninomiya assigned us a project. We have to work in pairs."

And she was already paired up. As were the boys --Yugi with Joey, and Tristan with Duke. Everyone was already engrossed in their projects, even though class had no yet begun. Miss Ninomiya didn't even need to say anything to the class when the bell rang-- everyone was already started.

Even Kaiba.

The perpetual loner had probably given the teachers an excuse for Saturday, when he'd spent the day in jail. And now he was working by himself-- he didn't need anyone. Not for class, and not for...

"Miss Ninomiya?" Téa approached the older woman's desk with a small measure of trepidation; at times, Ninomiya was charming, funny, and almost childlike, but other times she exuded a supreme mastery over her class, commanding silence and getting it-- because you simply didn't mess with her.

"Ah, Miss Gardner. You were absent Saturday, so..."

"Th-There's no one I can be paired with?"

Anyone at that moment would have been okay. Just so long as she wasn't alone...

"I'm afraid not, Miss Gardner," Miss Ninomiya shook her head. "Everyone's already started." She handed Téa a set of papers. "You'll need to catch up quickly. It was intended to be a pair project, but I'm sure you can handle it on your own."

Téa stood there with the papers in her hands, wishing that Miss Ninomiya could see how much she needed to be with someone at that moment. Anyone. Couldn't she just bend her rules for once, and allow her to be the third wheel in a pair? She could be with Chieko and Miho, if Yugi and the other boys wouldn't take her in...

"Is there anything else, Miss Gardner?" The teacher's tone made it implicitly clear that her business with Téa was finished.

"N-No, Miss Ninomiya. Thank you."

And Téa stumbled back to her desk, utterly alone.

Her thoughts had been in a downward spiral ever since lunch, and ten minutes before the end of Lit. class, she'd reached rock bottom. She quietly approached Miss Ninomiya's desk, turning in her completed paperwork.

She hadn't put much effort into it, distracted by her thoughts as she was, but Téa wasn't in the mood to care. She didn't even want to be at school anymore. She felt sick...

"Miss Ninomiya, is it all right if I go to the restroom?" she asked quietly. Miss Ninomiya nodded silently, making a gesture with her hand for Téa to step out. Téa hurried out of the class with her hand over her mouth, sure she was about to throw up. She hadn't looked at any of the boys as she'd left, sure that she would just get more upset and sick to her stomach if she did.

As if heartache wasn't enough...

Once Téa reached the bathroom, she proceeded to regurgitate what little was in her stomach-- her meager breakfast from earlier that morning. She didn't care if she was going to become even skinnier because of it, or if the enamel on her teeth wore down. She just didn't care about any of it anymore...

The bell rung while she was still in the restroom, cleaning off her face and trying to rearrange herself. It didn't work. She still looked like a horrible mess, and she didn't feel like going to gym and having her gaze drawn to the boys time after time, only to have them ignore her.

Her mind was made up

She couldn't stay.

* * *

By the time Téa returned to class 2B, the room was empty, devoid of any presence, including Miss Ninomiya's. The students had headed downstairs for gym, their desks neatly packed away for the day. Only Téa still had her papers and pencils spread out over her desk, items which she carefully stored away before reaching for the lone plastic bag that contained Mai's winter uniform sweater.

She couldn't do this.

Téa halted in the doorway, staring at the classroom with glassy eyes. What if... what if she just never came back? She wasn't **required** to be here, just like Mai said. Plenty of people got by on junior high educations alone...

_"Are you going to go for it?" _Seto's voice echoed clearly in her mind. A voice from a time that seemed too far away to be real. It hadn't been all that long ago, but...

_"Yeah! Yeah, I am!" _She'd dreamed of going to Juilliard ever since she was small. And big, overseas dreams like that meant she had to graduate high school. She had to conquer all her fears and hurdles, and make it.

Even when the odds were against her.

But now... things were different. Now Téa wondered if any of it had been worth it. Maybe it was better to just fade into the shadows.

"Move." Téa practically jumped out of her shoes, startled to hear a voice behind her. Shockingly enough, the voice belonged to none other than Seto Kaiba.

He'd returned to the class to get something-- and though Téa's eyes were locked on him the entire time he was in the class, he didn't even spare her a glance. There was only the cold, callous stare he'd given her when demanding she get out of his way. When Kaiba got what he'd come for, he breezed out of the classroom, completely ignorant of Téa's presence.

Until the last moment when he rounded the corner and headed down to the gym, Téa couldn't pull her gaze away from him.

But he didn't care.

If he ever did... he didn't show it. He hated her now, and that was the start and finish of it. There was nothing left for her here.

She was leaving.

Once and for all.

* * *

"Going somewhere, Téa?" a smooth voice halted the brunette dead in her tracks. She hadn't expected anyone to see her dashing out of the school grounds --she'd hoped she'd slip out just as invisibly as she came.

After all, who would notice?

"Bakura."

The white-haired boy pushed himself off the wall of cubbies he'd been leaning against; he was still dressed in his normal school clothes, while all the other boys and girls in their class were busy getting changed for gym.

But Téa couldn't stay... she just couldn't.

Kaiba was one thing --she expected him to be cold to her-- but Yugi, too? And Joey, and Tristan?

It wasn't fair. This was exactly the kind of misery she'd been hoping to avoid, and yet by following her heart and being true to her feelings, she ended up in the same rut that she would have landed in, had she kept lying all along.

"I haven't collected what you owe me yet."

Téa winced; she knew she still owed Bakura a great deal for saving her life back when Gozaburo Kaiba had nearly killed her, but...

"What do you want, Bakura?" she asked in a resigned voice, turning around and letting her body go slack. She owed him her life... and she wasn't going to run away from a debt like that.

Bakura looked thoughtful a moment, cocking his head to the side and narrowing his deep brown eyes.

"You."

Instantly, a vision of Seto appeared before her, murmuring words filled with the same intent, the same desire.

_"I want you."_

"W-What?" Téa stuttered, stumbling backward with surprise.

"I said I want you," Bakura repeated, the irritation plain in his voice. "I... need your help with something."

Well, he hadn't gone and shoved her against the wall, kissing the daylights out of her. That was a good sign... right? Téa shook her head warily; Bakura was not **that** type of person in the first place. Then again, neither was Seto Kaiba, but...

"What do you need **my** help with?" Téa asked, forcing her thoughts away from the callous CEO who had stolen her heart.

Bakura looked away, his expression bordering on angry. He didn't care to admit that he needed help with anything --perhaps the only thing he had in common with Seto Kaiba-- but he needed to explore that connection with Téa as much as possible. And to do that, he...

"Not myself. Rather... my host." Bakura made a sweeping gesture toward his own body; the body of Ryou Bakura, vessel of the Spirit of the Millennium Ring.

"What?" Téa repeated, her eyebrows knitting together. What in the world was Bakura talking about? Since when did he speak for Ryou --let alone **care** enough about him to request a favor on his behalf?

"Contrary to what you might believe, I'm not some sort of soul-sucking leech."

"You're not?" Téa's reply was sarcastic, but her tone of voice made it sound as though she were genuinely surprised by Bakura's words. The boy scowled.

"No, I'm **not**. I do care for my host, as it were, for without him, I'd still be trapped in that fool Ring."

"And would your other half really complain about that?" Téa whispered. Bakura's hollow gaze fixed on her face, and she found herself unable to look away.

"While we're far from living in the sort of pathetic 'harmony' the Pharaoh claims to have with his other half, I do let my other live his life. But he is weak-minded, and unable to block so much as a single thread of darkness from within."

Téa knew what that felt like. In order to save her life, Bakura gained entrance to her very soul. He'd been inside her, part of her... and she'd willingly let him control her. Seduced by darkness...

It was such an easy thing to succumb to, but so terrifying to remember. Ryou had undoubtedly learned the hard way that fighting did him no good.

"What do you expect me to do, exactly?" she asked, averting her gaze. She hesitantly twisted her fingers together; Bakura's presence still made her somewhat edgy, even though she told him at the hospital that they were starting fresh, on a clean slate.

Perhaps even as friends.

"Befriend him. Strengthen him. I cannot be in control of this vessel forever, and if he collapses, I lose my only means of living in this forsaken modern world."

Téa could hardly believe what Bakura --legendary Spirit of the Millennium Ring-- was asking her to do. But... if it cleared her debts with him, and if it eased the discomfort that rose in her soul so easily whenever the thief were around... perhaps it wouldn't be such a foolish endeavor after all.

"Agreed. But... not now. I can't stay here, Bakura."

She didn't need to explain why.

"They are fools for letting you slip away this easily. I, at least bothered to seek you out and stop you."

Téa allowed the faintest of smiles to curl her lips; "**Try** and stop me, Bakura. You can't really prevent me from leaving, no matter how much power you possess." She shook her head, sighing. "I don't belong here anymore. Not with... them. But I will stay true to my word, I swear it."

And with those words, she gave Bakura a brisk nod before turning on her heel and dashing out of school grounds, slipping between the bars of the front gate without a single bit of struggle.

"You had better be true to your word, girl," Bakura hissed under his breath. "I shouldn't like to seek you out if you aren't."

* * *

"It's not like her to pull a stunt like this," Tristan murmured, shaking his head.

"Even if she wasn't feeling well, she would have told us, right?" Duke asked. Joey nodded in the affirmative. "Man, I don't like this. I really don't like this."

"Do... Do you think maybe she was upset about earlier?" Tristan mused. Téa had stared at them when they'd walked away from her at lunch-- and Tristan had held her gaze just long enough to note that she hadn't blinked, and was standing stock-still.

That wasn't like her.

"Maybe," Joey agreed after a second, "I still don't get why Yug' was avoidin' her in the first place. Maybe they had a fight or somethin'?"

"We _are_ talking about Yugi Moto, right?" Duke quipped, sarcasm thick in his voice. The two other boys shook their heads; Duke was right. It wasn't like Yugi to get into a fight, not with his best friend --and the girl that they all knew Yugi was head over heels in love with.

"I'm gonna go talk to him," Joey stated, springing up from his seat. Duke immediately yanked down on Joey's jacket, as the blond's sudden movement had drawn the attentions of the Mr. Takahashi, the Chemistry teacher. They'd been ordered to have a study period that day, and had been sitting quietly in their seats filling in a blank copy of the periodic table-- until Joey's bouncing out of his seat drew the attentions of everyone around him, including the teacher.

"At least wait until class is **over**, dunce," Duke gritted out, trying not to draw attention to himself. Joey sat down with a resigned sigh, eyeing the clock on the far right wall with extreme distaste.

When the bell signaling the end of school finally **did** ring, Joey practically jumped over three desks, nearly causing a catastrophe in his efforts to catch up with Yugi. But the shorter boy hadn't made a serious effort to escape the confines of the classroom before Joey, and was thus easy to catch up with-- after all, the spike-haired boy was still at his desk.

"Hey uh-- Yug'?"

Yugi turned to him, and it was then that Joey got a truly good look at his friend-- his usually bright violet eyes were muted and almost glassy, rimmed underneath with thick red circles-- proof that he'd not slept the last night, or had been through one hell of a sob-fest.

"Yug' uh... I was kinda hopin' we could talk."

"About what?" Yugi murmured quietly, shoving his textbooks into his bag.

"Erm... about Téa. What happened?"

Joey Wheeler was never known for his tactfulness nor his sensitivity, but it was that brute honesty that made him a good friend. If you ever needed someone to tell it to you like it was... Joey was your man.

Yugi swallowed, unwilling to admit everything to Joey. After all, it meant revealing that he hadn't listened to Joey, Tristan and Duke. He hadn't gone and told Téa about his feelings, not when he should have, and not when it really mattered.

She was in love with someone else now, and...

Kaiba was just leaving the classroom, not even sparing them a glance. He didn't seem the least bit disturbed that Téa was absent from the latter half of her classes that day, though he **had** seemed mildly surprised at Téa's sudden entrance earlier that day.

_'They didn't come to school together,'_ Yugi realized. Téa probably left the Kaiba mansion, but where had she gone? She hadn't called any of the guys, that much was obvious.

_'And even if she had,' _Yugi realized sadly, _'I'm not sure I would have wanted to put her up anyway.'_

He knew it was selfish of him to be thinking that way, but Téa... beautiful, sweet, charming Téa had gone and broken his heart. When she'd told him that she once loved his other half, but had never loved **him**...

"S-she..."

He would be betraying her trust forever if he told them the truth-- that she'd been employed by Kaiba, and that, up till recently, had been living with him. That she was in love with him, and though Kaiba probably didn't realize it yet, the feelings were mutual.

"I told her how I feel," Yugi whispered. "She doesn't feel the same."

Joey froze, not expecting this answer. How could it be? Duke and Tristan had come up alongside Joey at the last moment, hearing Yugi's whispered admission-- and they'd all exchanged a glance.

One long conversation later, everyone agreed that perhaps they couldn't do anything at the present time. If Téa had felt the need to leave school early --and go wherever it was she was staying-- then maybe they needed to give her some space.

Chasing after her wouldn't change things, Yugi told them. She was in love with someone else, living somewhere else. She was completely out of their reach.

One more day they would wait. After all, Téa was in all their classes... surely by the next day at school, she would be back to her old self, and things would start returning to normal again.

* * *

Mai took one look at the bedraggled Téa that walked in her door that afternoon, and immediately claimed that they were going to go out and have fun that night. Téa would put all her miseries behind her, and enjoy herself-- no matter what lengths Mai had to go to.

"Where are we going, Mai?" Téa asked, tugging nervously on the hem of her mini-skirt.

If you could call it that. The black lace number barely skimmed Téa's thighs, hugging her upper curves like a second skin.

_"You've got to be kidding me, Mai. Why would I wear this? It looks like lingerie!"_

_"For the place we're going, it's 'appropriate nightwear.'"_

_"Isn't that what I just said?"_

Téa groaned. But she'd gone along with Mai's plans --including those that involved the brunette getting dressed up in a strapless corset top, complete with velveteen rosebud designs stretching across the mesh-covered front.

She felt like she'd walked out of a Victoria's Secret catalogue.

"There." Mai pointed a perfectly manicured finger at a place surrounded by crowds of people-- the line wound around the block and beyond, at which point it disappeared from Téa's sight.

"DV8?" Téa furrowed her brows, "But that's a club, Mai, and I'm only 17--"

"No problem, darling." Mai grinned, tugging Téa along. "I have a hook-up."

Téa allowed herself to get dragged along, offering a sheepish smile at all the people in line that they barged past. When they finally reached the fore of the line, Mai took one look at the imposing bouncer and grinned.

"Donny!"

The intimidating, thickly muscled guy stopped in the middle of reprimanding a pair of girls who were obviously too young to be going inside, and grinned at Mai.

"Mai, darling! My goodness, it's been so long!"

Téa blinked. Had that guy just--?

"Tell me about it, Donny darling. Listen, I know I'm off tonight, but my **friend** here," Mai nudged Téa forward, poking her in the ribs to indicate that the younger girl should at least smile, "has never been here! So I figured I'd show her what we've got."

"Oh, totally understandable, darling. Go right on in." Donny moved aside, his hulking mass brushing against the crowded line. Several girls, in their teetering stilettos and off-balance kitten heels, nearly fell over and into the street, but regained their balance by clasping onto one another.

Each and every one of them shot Téa a dirty glance as she walked in without a single problem.

They were glaring at Mai too, but the blonde was either unaware of the dagger-like stares being directed at her back, or she was an expert at ignoring them.

Inside DV8, the music was loud and the crowds thronging; the entrance opened up into a wide balcony that split off to the left and the right, giving one the perfect view of the dance floor and bar below. Bright purple and blue neon lights curved around one another, forming the club's name high up on the ceiling, where bright lights flashed quickly from one color to the next, adding to the pulsating rhythm of the club.

Téa was so amazed by the scenery that she hardly realized Mai was yanking on her wrist, toward the bar.

"Brucie!" Mai waved at the tall, wiry man behind the bar, a perfect burgundy ponytail sprouting from the back of his head as he bounced from customer to customer.

"Wait! Don't tell me!" Brucie covered his eyes with one hand, pointing at Mai with the other.

"Mai! And you're going to get... a Screw on the Rocks!"

"A what?" Téa hissed in an astonished voice. Mai didn't respond; she only strode up to the bar and grinned at the bartender. Brucie grinned broadly, leaning over the glass counter to reach out and hug the tall blonde.

"Kisses, darling! It feels like it's been forever!" Mai sat down, signaling Téa to do the same, though the young brunette looked more like a rabbit caught in the headlights than a girl ready for a night of clubbing.

"Your friend needs..." Brucie gave Téa a once-over, and then snapped his fingers, "a Pink Pussy!"

"Excuse me?" Téa gasped, her face turning crimson.

Mai laughed as the bartender procured a few bottles and started to mix and pour the liquid substances in a pair of glasses.

"Relax, Téa. They're drinks, and damn good ones at that."

"Thank you, Mai darling, I know you love my drinks."

"Of course I do, Brucie. Besides, if I didn't, I wouldn't work here!"

"You... work here?" Téa glanced at Mai, an eyebrow raised in query. Well, she **had **said something about 'not working tonight' to Donny, back at the door.

"Three nights a week, I bartend here with Brucie. He owns the joint, and we've known each other for years."

"Three years, six months, and twenty-seven days to be precise."

"Since when are you such a stickler for dates?" Mai smirked, grabbing her glass. The 'Screw on the Rocks,' as Téa discovered, was technically called a 'Screwdriver,' and 'on the Rocks' meant 'with ice.' The actual drink was simple enough-- orange juice and vodka-- with some 'secret ingredient' which Bruce refused to divulge.

"The day I met YOU," Brucie smiled, stirring Téa's drink, "was the same day I met Donny!"

_Oh. So they **are**... _Well, that answered that. Donny and Brucie were...

"That's because I introduced you two, goofball." Mai laughed, downing her drink. "God, it doesn't seem like it's been that short of a time. Three years ago I was stuck on the damn _Midnight Star_."

"_Midnight Star_?" Téa queried, staring into the rose-colored depths of her glass. It certainly smelled strong. Surely Brucie knew she was under aged, but he didn't seem to care. He was Mai's friend, and he worked at the bar...

"Before I bought up this delish space, Mai and I used to be globe-trotters on this casino cruise ship," Brucie explained. "In my case, I was stuck as an overworked, underpaid travel agent. The _Midnight Star_ was taking its special 'Caribbean Summer' voyage, and as spectacular as the ship was, I was bored out of my mind."

"And it showed," Mai chimed in. Téa nodded slowly, reaching for her glass and taking a tentative sip of the concoction.

"If I hadn't gotten hold of you, you probably would have gotten smashed off the horrible drinks they had and dropped yourself overboard!" The two of them laughed, just as the sensation of vodka flooded through Téa's mouth.

Her eyes widened and her lips puckered as she tried to swallow, the burning sensation building in her throat despite the tart cranberry flavor mixed in.

"Oh, don't look like that Téa. He wasn't serious about it."

"Goodness no!" Brucie exclaimed. "I love my life. I love this bar, I love bartending..." He cast a warm gaze toward Donny, who had a free moment at the door and gazed down at him. "I love Donny!"

"You two are solid." Mai grinned. "Too bad not all of us are that lucky."

"Oh, shush you, Mai. I thought you said you didn't need a guy."

Mai laughed, standing up from her chair. "And I don't. What I need to do is prove that same fact to my friend here. So we're going to get her as far away from your kind as possible and party as hard as we can tonight."

"My kind!" Brucie shouted in mock hurt. "Hey, my kind is gay! You have nothing to worry about!"

Mai only laughed, tugging an astonished Téa back to the dance floor.

* * *

By the time the two girls got home, it was after three on Tuesday morning, and they were both incredibly tipsy, if not drunk. Mai of course, could hold her alcohol a lot better than Téa --who'd never before had such strong drinks-- so she appeared a lot more in control than the brunette did.

Since DV8 hadn't been far from the upscale apartment complex where Mai lived, the two ladies had walked all the way there. Luckily, the weather had stayed dry, though the temperature had dropped significantly as the hours wore on.

"Loads of fun," Téa hiccupped, giggling. Her face was flush and she felt warm and tingly all-over-- only when the wind blew did she really get the shivers.

If this was what being drunk was like, it wasn't half bad. She was almost euphoric. Téa had successfully pushed all her thoughts on Yugi, Seto, and everything in-between to the darkest corner of her mind.

"I told you," Mai smiled, laughing loudly. Her voice echoed off the soot-gray buildings, enveloped in the shadows of nightfall. Neither of them cared if anyone heard them. They didn't want to care about anything at that moment. It was like the world existed only around them, and their problems had flitted off to somewhere else, vacationing for a while.

"Get out here," Mai gestured from the balcony of her apartment.

"We were JUST outside," Téa pointed out, stumbling from the darkness of the apartment. She blinked sleepily at Mai, who was clutching onto the railings and staring out at the eastern city skyline.

Mai shook her head. "We're not done yet. You have to do something."

"I hafta--" Téa began, but Mai silenced her with a finger to her lips.

"Repeat after me."

"Repeat after me," Téa echoed, and burst into a fit of laugther. Mai only rolled her eyes, straigthening as best she could in her high heels and on wobbly legs.

"I DON'T NEED A GUY!" Mai yelled, her voice bouncing off the buildings.

Téa blinked, but smiled widely, clearing her throat and preparing to yell.

"I DON'T NEED A GUY!"

"GOOD FOR NOTHING--"

"GOOD FER NUTHIN'--" Téa hiccupped and laughed, "RUDE--"

"STUPID!"

"INSENSIT-Inshinshi-- Insho-- INSENSITIVITIBLE!" The two girls laughed and gripped the balcony railing tigther, leaning out as far as they could, shouting for all their lungs were worth.

"BOSSY!" Mai shouted.

"EGOTISTICAL!" Téa added with a frown.

"SELF-CENTERED PRICKS!" Both girls yelled at the same time.

By now, several dogs had started barking, and lights flickered on from the various apartment complexes. Mai and Téa exchanged one last glance and nodded to each other.

"GUYS SUCK AND WE DON'T NEED 'EM!"

And with that, both girls stomped into Mai's apartment, slamming the balcony door after them. They sank to the floor in peals of laugther, faces pink from the cold and their bouts of screaming.

"That was therapeutic." Mai grinned.

"Def'nitely," Téa slurred, the tiredness evident in her voice. She glanced toward the couch that had been her bed the previous night, and waved to Mai.

"I'm gonna sleep now. Sleeeeeeeep." She collapsed bonelessly onto the couch, her fingers tangling up in the knit blanket before throwing it crookedly over her body.

"You're drunk, Téa. Sleep is good. If you wake up and need water, you know where the sink is."

"Hey! If I'm drunk, what're you?" Téa cried, bolting up from the couch. Mai only laughed, closing her bedroom door with a click.

"Hey!"

* * *

Joey Wheeler was absolutely exhausted.

His job had taken him all over the city today, and it hadn't been until just an hour ago that he'd finished his last delivery. He'd had to swing by the office to fill out the delivery slips and then finally clock out.

But, despite the fact that he was tired enough to collapse on the nearest bench, Joey took the long route home. This meant wandering through the entertainment district, through the upscale apartment complexes, and... to his neighborhood. Where his drunken, lay-about dad was probably waiting with an empty bottle, ready for throwing.

He didn't want to go home.

He never DID want to go home. It didn't even **feel **like home. Where he lived was just... it was a house where he crashed every now and then. He couldn't even say it was the place where his bed was, where he ate...

"Hah, if I'm eva' that lucky..." Joey whispered under his breath. Few things in Joey's life made him happy. They were, in no particular order-- his sister, dueling, and--

"I DON'T NEED A GUY!"

Wait a second. He knew that voice.

"I DON'T NEED A GUY!" He knew that voice too.

Joey wandered down the streets, following the two voices that were startlingly loud for that time of night.

"GOOD FOR NOTHING--"

"GOOD FER NUTHIN'--" There was a loud hiccup and a giggle.

"RUDE--"

"STUPID!"

There. Joey glanced up-- he knew that apartment complex. He knew that balcony.

"INSENSIT-Inshinshi-- Insho-- INSENSITIVITIBLE!"

He knew those girls. Leaning over the railing like they were about to tip over--

"BOSSY!" Blonde. Streams of golden blonde hair falling over slender shoulders, exposed to the autumn cold.

Mai always **did **wear the oddest clothes out of season.

"EGOTISTICAL!" And Téa. TÉA? What was she--

"SELF-CENTERED PRICKS!" Both girls yelled at the same time.

"GUYS SUCK AND WE DON'T NEED 'EM!"

Joey blinked.

"Guys... suck?" The two girls had been utterly unaware of Joey's presence, and had retreated into Mai's apartment, a loud bang signaling the closing of the balcony door.

Still, his chest had ached at the two girls' words. He could imagine fiery, violet eyes boring into him, those words ringing in his ears as if they'd been meant for him all along.

Mai hadn't been around lately. Had been avoiding him, Joey now realized. Téa too. She wasn't sick or...

Something was wrong, though. It wasn't like either of them to just up and get drunk like that.

And Joey **knew** they'd been drunk. He could recognize drunkenness even from kilometers away... because he'd spent most of his life with a drunk. His damn dad...

Téa and Mai **weren't** like that, though. Mai was too smart to let herself go like that, as was Téa. They were two of the girls that, aside from Serenity, meant more than anything. He couldn't let alcohol claim them, not like it had his father...

His father.

The father that would yell and scream at Joey, chuck bottles at him until he was locked in his bedroom... that father would be enraged if Joey took any longer getting home.

Joey cast one more glance up toward Mai's apartment, the neighborhood now quiet and black once more. Shoving his hands in his pockets, he quickened his pace, though he hated the thought of going home.

But it wasn't as if he could just march up to Mai's apartment and... do anything. He was a guy. They **hated** guys.

He'd tell the guys st school later on. And they'd do something about it. They had to.

* * *

Joey was in his seat nearly thirty minutes before the bell rang.

Even Kaiba entered the class after Joey, pausing in the doorway with a strange expression on his face. Never before had Joey been so extremely early to class.

But he had good reason.

He was waiting for someone.

No, not just anyone, but Téa.

And as the minutes slipped by and more and more teens came into the class, Joey grew increasingly worried. It wasn't like Téa to be this late. She was normally one of the first people in class...

Was she really going to skip out on school that day?

It just wasn't like her-- to go out and get smash drunk.

But Joey had seen her --had **heard** her! There had been no mistaking that head of brown hair, and that high, soprano voice. Even if she'd been shouting, her voice slurred with drunkenness... he knew it had been her.

Joey's gaze constantly drifted between Téa's empty seat and the clock. The ticking continued, its march endless. She still wasn't here...

The bell rang, loud and shrill.

Classes began, and Téa remained conspicuously absent.

It wasn't like before, when she'd been excused from classes for a week by the teachers. The boys had been unaware of her excuse for being absent, but nonetheless had understood. Her parents had just passed away, and Téa, determined girl that she was, had kept going, even if she was falling apart on the inside.

But that obviously wasn't the case now.

She'd been at Mai's apartment --not wherever she worked. She'd yelled about the infidelities of men, her drunken state plain to see --or rather, hear. Something big had happened, and now she wasn't showing up to school.

Yesterday she'd only been in half of her classes, but she'd looked fine...

He had to tell the guys what he'd seen last night. They would help him come up with a plan to find out what had happened to Téa and get her back.

He was sure of it.

* * *

Unbeknownst to Joey Wheeler, others had noticed Téa's absence and were equally disturbed by it.

One was Chieko, the co-president of the dance club she and Téa had helped found. She had a feeling she knew who she could ask, but...

The same person Chieko was thinking of also happened to be thinking of Téa. She was gone-- defaulting on her promise. He would have to **find** her then.

No one but Chieko saw Bakura clench his fists tightly, his hands turning distinct patches of red and white with the pressure. The irritation and anger was plain on his face, yet Chieko couldn't help but remember Yugi's words from last month:

_"Bakura's not-- You can't trust him!"_

But if Bakura knew where Téa was...

* * *

"Yug'!" Joey called out to his friend, dodging fellow classmates cramming their way toward the hot bread stand.

Yugi was small --but far from easy to miss. He couldn't possibly hide himself, not with that hairstyle of his. Joey was glad that Yugi stood out from the rest of the school, especially now, when he _really_ needed to talk to him.

"Yugi!"

The shorter boy turned decidedly tired eyes on his friend; it was the same expression Joey had seen on Yugi the day previous. He wasn't sleeping, and Joey had the feeling it had something to do with Téa.

_'Of course, you nimrod! He told her he's in love with her, and she didn't feel the same! Any guy would be hurt by that!' _

Suddenly, Joey remembered exactly what he had seen and heard last night-- most especially Mai, and how she'd done a good deal of "guy-cursing" herself. It wasn't just Téa --who was no longer living with her employer, it seemed-- but Mai as well.

She hated guys... didn't want anything to do with them. And for some bizarre reason, that hurt-- a lot.

Joey would never admit --aloud-- that he liked Mai. He did _care_ for her, but then, he cared for all his friends. Still, hearing her scream that "guys suck"...?

"Joey?" Though Yugi would have rathered to just just spend his day in silence, contemplating where he went wrong with Téa, Joey suddenly became distracted. What was wrong with him?

Joey shook his head furiously, as if ridding himself of memories. "Yug', I know you're upset about Téa and all, but there's somethin' you gotta know."

Had Joey found out who Téa's employer was? Who she was --**had been**\-- living with and... who her heart belonged to?

"I probably already know, Joey," Yugi mumbled, not wanting to discuss Kaiba at all. The very thought of the older boy brought a sour taste to Yugi's mouth. It wasn't just a matter of rivalry now-- Kaiba really _had_ beaten him, and this wasn't like a duel... there couldn't **be** a rematch.

Téa wasn't some kind of prize to be won.

"Nah, I don't think you do, Yug'," Joey continued, motioning Duke and Tristan over. The boys eyed Joey with a measure of curiosity, waiting for him to continue. "Téa ain't livin' with her employer anymore, whoever he is. Last night I saw her-- and she was smash drunk."

* * *

"I still don't believe it." Duke murmured, shaking his head.

"It totally doesn't sound like Téa..." Tristan began. In the back of his mind, he thought that it _maybe_ sounded like Mai, and perhaps the older girl had coerced Téa into getting drunk. But Joey would flip his lid if Tristan dared to say something bad about Mai, and so he wisely kept his mouth shut.

"Yug', is there something you're not tellin' us-- I mean, about when Téa told you..." he trailed off nervously, not wanting to upset his friend even more than he already was.

"If you don't mind my asking, when did she tell you, anyway? Téa's been absent a lot lately-- half of yesterday, and all of the day before that, too."

Yugi hadn't the sligthest clue where Téa had disappeared today, but the day before yesterday... that was the day she'd told him everything. The day Kaiba spent in jail, while Téa worked tirelessly to get him out.

And Kaiba didn't even know.

If they'd had some huge fight that had resulted in Téa --who had been completely honest with Yugi when she'd admitted her true feelings for Kaiba-- left the mansion, and then...

"...She told me the day how she felt on Saturday," Yugi murmured. He could tell them everything-- and betray both Téa and Kaiba's trust. He could tell them that Kaiba had been arrested for the murder of Téa's parents, and that Téa had worked her butt off trying to prove him innocent-- because she loved him that much.

That wasn't exactly how Téa had told him-- initially, she'd said that she thought Kaiba really **had** killed her parents. But as the day had worn on, she'd found more evidence that made clear the fact that Kaiba had been _framed_, and she'd been terrified of what would happen. Not just to herself, but Kaiba and Mokuba, as well.

They were part of her life, and... she loved them. Loved **him**.

"Well, what happened to her?"

They had a right to know why she'd been absent. Maybe... maybe if he could just omit some truths... it would certainly take a weight off his chest. He was tired of being in the dark all the time, and he was sure his friends felt the same.

"S-She found out... that her parents were murdered," Yugi admitted quietly.

Joey pulled back in surprise, unable to blink or even look at his other friends. Duke and Tristan both wore similar expressions of astonishment. The Gardners... _murdered_?

"By who? Did they catch the guy?" Duke blurted after a moment.

Yugi shook his head, "I don't think so. They had a suspect, but... well..." How could he tell them that the real murderers --the Big Five-- were still out there? Duke and Tristan wouldn't understand, having not faced them in the Virtual World back when Kaiba had premiered his RPG program, but Joey would.

The Big Five were just as much a threat in the real world as they'd been in the virtual world. Only now, they didn't bother with five-headed dragons and mystic rituals, they just skipped straight to the killing part.

"Oh, man..." Tristan shook his head, "that girl just never has it easy, does she?"

"No, I guess not," Duke agreed. He looked up suddenly. "Joey, if she was getting smash drunk only three days after finding out about this, don't you think we should go find her?"

"Yeah," Tristan agreed, "getting drunk just isn't like Téa, and if something's happened with her job too, then she's pretty much stuck where she is. She might do something stupid and dangerous if we don't try and talk to her."

Duke turned and looked regretfully at Yugi, "I know it must be tough for you, Yugi... if you don't want to come, you don't have to."

Yugi shook his head resolutely, "No. It doesn't matter what Téa does or doesn't feel for me. She's my friend and... I care for her. We **should** go out and talk to her."

Yugi realized that he had to, as well-- he had to ask her so many questions. What had happened between her and Kaiba? Why was she now staying with Mai? Why had she gone and gotten smash drunk the previous night? What else was she hiding from him that could put her in so much pain...?

In the back of his mind, Yugi thought he should probably tell Kaiba. As much as he detested the older duelist for gaining Téa's affections --even if he didn't know it-- he had a right to know what was going on with Téa.

_'But what if he doesn't care?' _Yugi suddenly realized that Kaiba acted the same as he always did-- at least, when Yugi was around. But perhaps he'd said something to Téa yesterday, and that was more the reason why she left.

_'You just want to take blame off yourself, after you were so cold to her yesterday,' _ Yugi frowned, thinking to himself.

_ That's not true, Yugi. _

Yugi shook his head, forcing Yami's voice out. He didn't need input from him at the moment. No, this was an issue that went deeper than dueling, and beyond the time that Yami had existed in this world.

Yugi had to do this... on his own.

* * *

"This isn't going to be easy," Tristan groused, dumping the remains of his lunch in the trash can. "If Téa's really stayin' with Mai in that classy apartment complex, then how the heck are _we_ gonna get in to talk to her? Somehow I doubt Mai'll be on **our** side."

"Yeah, especially after that whole 'guys suck' thing," Joey grumbled. He'd grudgingly elaborated to the guys how he'd known who Téa was with and how he'd known she was drunk.

"What I wanna know though," Duke began with a smirk, "is how you knew that place was Mai's. Something you're not telling us, Wheeler?"

Joey frowned, not liking the implications in Duke's voice. He knew the guy was probably just making a joke, but it stung-- after all, it wasn't like he really was...

"I went there once," Joey mumbled. "Dropped Mai off at her place, after the whole RPG affair."

Back in the RPG Virtual World, Joey had defended Mokuba from what would have been a lethal blast against him-- and he'd fallen. The Big Five had altered the digital world so that there was no way to know that if you died there whether or not you'd ever wake up in the real world.

But Joey had, and once away from the intruding gazes of the Kaiba brothers and their friends, she'd embraced him warmly, glad that he was still "in one piece." Joey hadn't expected any such warmth from Mai, but he certainly wasn't about to complain.

Contrary to what people believed, Joey was a gentleman-- and after a quick stop at a local eatery, he'd offered to walk Mai home. And she'd let him, without a single word of fuss. Miss Mai Valentine, headstrong, no-nonsense, don't-need-a-guy Mai had let Joey Wheeler take her home.

All the way upstairs, and right to the front door of her apartment.

The place was so ritzy, Joey couldn't keep his jaw from dropping or his eyes from bugging out. He was amazed. Mai really _did_ live the high-life. This was life on the other side of the tracks, for people like Joey. He worked hard everyday just to ensure he could eat dinner, but Mai...

Though he was astonished and more than a bit jealous, Joey didn't let it show. He told Mai he was glad she was okay and bid her goodnight-- but she'd grabbed his arm to get him to face her, and she'd kissed him, ever so softly. Her perfume had wafted in the air around Joey long after she'd gone inside-- and Joey still stood outside her apartment, eyes wide with shock.

His lips still tingled after that, but he hadn't told anyone. Not even his stupid father, who wanted to know why Joey was so out of it when he finally returned home that night. He'd paid for his silence with bruises, but Joey didn't mind-- the memory of Mai's sweet kiss made up for everything.

And then... and then Battle City had begun. So many things had happened, and while Mai never made mention of the kiss, she _did_ look at him in that devilish, coy way-- the same way she had before parting from Joey at her apartment door and sauntering inside.

Joey grew increasingly unsure of his feelings toward Mai throughout the Battle City tournament-- it was confusing enough, dealing with mind-controlling enemies and all-powerful God Cards. In his duel with Odion, Joey had fallen unconscious... and seen all his friends --even Mai and Serenity, who didn't go to Domino High-- encourage him to get up and keep dueling.

He'd locked eyes with Dream-Mai, reaching out for her hand beyond everyone else's. Joey had wanted the rest of his dream-friends to fade away, so it would just be him and her, and he could finally admit that he--

But no. He'd woken up, and gone and blurted that Mai hadn't been in his dream at all. And who had reprimanded him for that-- and told him that lying would never get him anywhere? Téa.

That brought everything full circle, now. Téa-- his first high school crush, his cheerleader, his best girl friend, his sister's confidante, and Mai's best friend. Mai... the girl he'd fallen in love with.

Even if Mai _did_ think guys sucked, Joey couldn't just leave it like that. Not when two of the girls that mattered most to him were both obviously in pain. He wouldn't back away from this... not a chance.

"Well, do you think we'll stand a chance of getting inside?" Duke asked, breaking Joey from his train of thought.

"Wh-- aw, man, no way." Joey realized they were still on the subject of Mai's apartment complex. "That place has got a phone-dial entry, a security guard at the front desk 24-7, and a card-swipe apartment lock. No way we'll get in there."

"Then that only leaves us with one option," Tristan murmured.

"Yeah," Yugi whispered, "we have to find Téa ourselves."

* * *

"Are you **ready** yet?" Téa asked in an exasperated tone, tapping her high-heeled boot against the hallway in Mai's apartment.

A muffled voice came out from the bathroom, followed by a bang and then a string of colorful curses. Finally, the door opened and Mai emerged, fumbling with a pair of stilettos with lace-up straps that refused to stay tied together.

"Why are you so gung-ho to go to DV8 tonight, anyway? I thought you hated yourself for getting drunk last night."

"No," Téa began, trying to sound a bit cheerful, "I hated the hangover. I don't mind the distraction, I don't mind the drinks, and I sure as hell don't mind the dancing."

"Hmph," Mai grinned. "I knew you'd see it my way. You're just lucky I can party with you most of tonight. My shift doesn't start until ten."

"Good. I need a dance partner, anyway."

The moment Téa had spoken, Seto's face came to mind. The way he'd looked at her when they'd danced back at the Ball... and then, lightless eyes glaring at her just before he--

_'I promised myself... I would fall out of love with him. I've got too many things to worry about besides Se-- besides **Kaiba**!'_

And promises... promises reminded her of someone else. Maybe...

* * *

The music pulsated throughout DV8, urging the dancers crowding the semi-circular floor to dance faster, more energetically. Téa and Mai were in the center of it all, their faces flushed and glistening with a thin sheen of sweat. They were completely surrounded by adoring guys --many of them surprisingly Téa's age, and even younger.

She didn't know how they'd gotten into the club, and she could have told Mai... but it didn't matter. She was having fun. And she was **not** thinking about Kaiba...

_'Ugh. Thinking about him by thinking I'm not thinking about him is the same thing...' _Téa groused to herself. She slid and pushed her way out between the throngs of people, flashing some of the boys sweet smiles.

Mai was getting most of the attention, really, and what Téa wanted at that moment was someone to pay attention JUST to her. Sure, it was a selfish thought, but Téa wasn't entirely confident of herself at the moment.

The alcohol she'd consumed earlier had a double-edged effect-- sometimes it blocked out her painful memories and saddening thoughts, but sometimes it just brought them to the fore of her mind. Her loneliness grew tenfold in times like those, and she found herself wanting to be in a world outside of DV8-- a place where she could be herself, and not have to hide behind so many lies, broken hearts, or forgotten promises...

_'I didn't forget.'_

Ducking into the dimly lit hallway, Téa pulled her cell phone from her purse and quickly skimmed her phone book for one particular number. She stared at the bright screen for a moment before taking a deep breath and pressing TALK.

_'Here goes nothing.'_

* * *

It had been easier than he would have expected.

People eager to get into the darkened, thronging club surrounded the place, and Ryou Bakura would have thought a snowball would have an easier chance of making it into hell in one piece. But two older girls had latched onto his arms, and brought him in. When he'd politely thanked them and told them he was looking for a girl, they'd exchanged nasty looks and stalked off.

So now, he was looking for Téa.

What an odd situation. He never would have imagined himself in a place like this-- at least, not in Tokyo. In London, he'd been to a few clubs just like this, but... that was a lifetime ago.

Why **had** Téa asked him to come, anyway? They rarely did anything together, and yet... she'd asked him to come. Him specifically --and him alone. He'd asked about the others, but she'd just said she wasn't on good terms with them.

That was surprising.

She didn't want to talk about it, Ryou realized, and he completely understood.

It was then that he spotted a head of familiar, thick blonde hair-- Mai. He approached the older woman at the bar with a bit of hesitation-- she was surrounded by muscled boys his age or older-- all of them not looking the least bit ready to step aside and let **him** talk to her.

Fate must have intervened, for the moment Ryou cleared his throat, she looked up and noticed him, a measure of surprise plain on her pretty face.

"Bakura! What the... are you here for Téa?"

Téa had told Mai the entire ghost story, including the bit leading up to her 'debt' with Bakura. Mai wasn't entirely sure what to believe when it came to dark spirits and Millennium Items, but after her adventures during Battle City with Marik, she learned not to question them.

The white-haired boy nodded solemnly, averting his gaze from the older boys surrounding Mai that were now growling faintly at him. They probably didn't appreciate the fact that Mai's attention had suddenly been drawn away from them, let alone to a another guy that she actually knew!

"Ryou!" Before Mai even had the chance to tell Ryou where Téa was, the brunette came bounding out of the crowds of people, her face flushed a bright red and her face and neck glistening brightly. The straps of her tank top were sliding off her shoulders, and Ryou was well aware that he wasn't the only one staring. But he was probably the only one who resembled a candy cane, with a head of snowy white hair and a bright red face.

Much to Ryou's surprise, Téa wrapped her arms around him and dragged him off into the crowds, much to the bewilderment of Mai and her entourage, as well as the boys that had been eyeing Téa like hungry wolves.

What Ryou would have given for an ounce of his other half's confidence-- how he wanted to shoot an evil glare their way to tell them to back off, to stay away, because Téa was--

_'Smash drunk.'_

"Téa," Ryou began slowly, "are you drunk?"

She just bobbed her head up and down rapidly, smiling.

"But... why?"

"Why not?" Téa hiccupped. "The drinks here are delish, and Mai's the bartender, sooo..."

But that obviously wasn't what Ryou wanted to hear. After a moment of swaying to some nameless song, she finally responded in a soft voice, "I just... for a few days, I wanna forget. I wanna forget about stupid ghosts, stupid love confessions and... and stupid Kaiba."

There. She'd gone and said it. Practically admitted that Kaiba was still on her mind, even though she'd told Ryou --well, his other half, technically-- that Seto was still very much in her heart. No matter how callous he was to her.

"Ah." He couldn't really think of anything better to say, so they just continued dancing.

* * *

"All the things she said, all the things she said, runnin' through my heeeeeeeaaad..." Téa slurred in a loud, off-key voice. She slumped against Ryou's shoulder, giggling quietly and then slipping off into sleep.

"Okay, that's one too many Rum and Cokes for you, Téa," Mai tsked, pulling the few remaining shot glasses surrounding Téa away from the barely-conscious girl.

"Do me a favor, Bakura, could you wait with her outside while I finish cleaning up? I'll be out in a few."

DV8 was closing up, and Mai was wiping off the counters and herding the straggling dancers --and drunks-- out of the club. It was well past four in the morning, and hardly a time Ryou would have thought himself to be out-- let alone with a girl. Least of all Téa. Obviously his initial impressions of her had been horribly wrong... or drastically left-of-center.

Now he had a completely drunk Téa hugging onto his arm, more asleep than anything else.

"A-Ah, of course," Ryou nodded slowly, his gaze drifting to the brunette slumped against his arm. She was awfully close...

Mai glanced up at him from behind the counter, an eyebrow raised in question. She apparently wondered why Ryou just stood there --staring at Téa's rosy face and slightly-parted lips. Embarrassed that he'd been caught, Ryou quickly mumbled something under his breath and scooted out into the night, guiding Téa out with his hand on her shoulder.

The crisp cool night seemed to awaken Téa a bit, but it did nothing for her drunken state. She stumbled from Ryou's light grasp, twirling in a crooked circle and plopping down on the rim of a large cement tree planter, a few meters away from the DV8 entrance.

"Ba-ku-ra..." she enunciated slowly, giggling. "Nope, nope, nope! You're not him!"

"Téa? Are you-- are you all right?" Ryou hadn't had much experience with drunk people, truth be told. It came as a bit of a shock that Téa was the first, and a huge relief that she wasn't stereotypically throwing up everywhere or accusing him of anything. Or throwing things.

"You're Ryou!" Téa continued deliriously. "That's a good thing! That you're Ryou and not Bakura, because it means I kept my promise and I'm doing something right for a chance. Means that I-- I don't have to bother with those stupid **other** guys!"

Maybe she was being a **bit** stereotypical. Didn't drunken people tend to spill their deepest secrets?

Ryou blushed at the thought of Téa leaning against him, telling him things that not even Yugi and her other close friends were allowed to hear. It was just the two of them now... late at night. All alone.

Why had she invited just him, anyway?

"Téa..." Ryou had to still her constant movement by placing a firm hand on her shoulder, gently turning her to face him, "Why? Why did you ask me to come tonight?"

Her gaze dropped to her lap, where she began to twist her fingers anxiously. "You really wanna know?" she whispered.

Ryou nodded firmly, though a hint of trepidation arose in his throat; what if he didn't like what she was about to say?

"I-- I'm pretty lonely. I mean, I came here last night and partied just the same, and it was fun... but it's not the same. Mai... Mai had to work, and all the guys that ask me to dance... none of them care. None of them know me, you know? And Yu-- the **other** guys--" Téa frowned, unwilling to refer to Yugi, Joey, Tristan, and Duke by name, "are mad at me now or whatever. I don't care. I just needed to get away from them, from school and everything and... well, I remember you could dance..."

"Not as well as you, Téa," Ryou whispered, unthinking. The moment the words spilled from his mouth, he looked up at Téa, expecting to see a horrified expression on her face. But instead she wore an odd cross between a smile and no expression at all.

"Let's get out of here!"

Mai was walking from the DV8 entrance, looking entirely exhausted and ready to go home. Ryou didn't dare say anything further to Téa, and the silence lingered between them even after they'd started walking home.

Mai and Téa arrived at what Ryou surmised was Mai's apartment complex --a very upscale place, to be sure-- when Téa reached out and grabbed Ryou by the shoulder.

"Tomorrow night," she murmured. "Come."

"Téa..." he hesitated. She was drunk, and there was a pretty large chance she wouldn't even remember his appearance at DV8, let alone her asking him to come again. But...

"All right."

Téa smiled widely, her cheeks still flushed a bright red. She bowed a bit too deeply in thanks, prompting Mai to lead the younger girl upstairs, a quick wave to Ryou signaling her goodbye.

Ryou didn't walk away until long after Téa and Mai disappeared. What was he thinking?

* * *

"What are we thinking?"

"That's the problem," Duke grumbled to Tristan. "We aren't thinking at all. There's got to be a way to find Téa."

"But how? She ain't answerin' her phone, she ain't here at school, and she ain't wherever she's supposed to be, workin' with her employer or--"

"That's it!" Tristan snapped his fingers, rising from his chair.

"What?" Duke and Joey asked in unison, blinking widely at Tristan.

"Kaiba!" Tristan said flatly. "He's the one who introduced her to her employer, right?"

Yugi was the one with the memory for such conversations, so all eyes turned to him. He nodded slowly, not wanting to divulge the truth, out of respect to both Téa and Kaiba. Part of him insisted that he could tell the others the truth, and make Téa out to be a bad person... but he couldn't. He didn't **hate** Téa Just because she didn't love him the way he loved her? Just because she'd told him the truth about how she'd felt for so long, and how after not getting any signals in reply, and understanding that Yami and Yugi were two different people, she'd moved on?

To his rival, no less.

Yugi spent so much time trying to encourage Kaiba to be more social, to bring them into their circle... and now he'd gotten what he wanted. Just not **how** he wanted. Everything was so horribly confused now, and who knew what Téa could be thinking... or doing.

It wasn't like her to go off and get drunk. It wasn't like her to put herself in danger, or to ignore her troubles, rather than face them head on. Something happened outside of what Yugi knew... and Kaiba had all the answers.

"Yeah," Yugi finally murmured, "he was. I should go talk to him."

"Yug'..." Joey mumbled, surprised that his best friend --after all he'd been through with Kaiba-- would readily volunteer to speak to his rival about where Téa was. Though Joey didn't want to admit it, it would make sense if Kaiba knew where Téa was. He'd been able to find her when none of them could, and...

_'What if Seto Kaiba **is** her boss?'_

Funny how Duke's words came back to haunt him. Joey doubted that Tristan and Duke even remembered that-- but Joey did. If only because Mai brushed that theory off so easily, and now... now Téa was off getting drunk with her. Not that Joey doubted that Mai could take care of herself, but... There was so much he didn't know. About Téa... about Mai. If Téa really felt desperate enough to throw her problems into a glass of alcohol, then who knew what _**else**_ she'd be willing to try?

**That** was why they had to find her-- and fast. If they pretended that Téa would just reappear and things would go back to normal, confusion would escalate, and the problems increase tenfold. That was just how it went in their little circle. A day ago, maybe he would have held out hope... but with Téa being gone a third day in a row, it was just too unlikely.

"Yeah, Yug'. You should talk to him. Maybe he'll listen to you."

Maybe. Joey sure as hell hoped so.

* * *

If there was one thing Yugi had learned from Joey, it was that bluntness had its moments. Now was one of those such moments, when he only had a few seconds to get through to Kaiba, or risk never knowing about Téa again. It would be so easy for her to disappear from their lives entirely... and he couldn't let that happen. Regardless of his unrequited feelings, Téa was very much apart of his life...

"Where is she?"

Kaiba didn't turn around to face Yugi; he barely favored him with more than a sidelong glance. If he wanted, he could have ignored Yugi altogether, but it apparently Yugi's direct question caught his attention.

"Where is who?"

"You know who," Yugi frowned. "Téa. Where is she?"

Kaiba frowned in distaste, "Why should I know where your little cheerleader is?" He started gathering things to get up and leave, to return to the classroom. Lunch was almost over anyway, and didn't want to have to spend a single second more around Yugi Moto than he absolutely had to.

Yugi clenched his hands around his Millennium Puzzle, resisting the temptation to allow Yami to take control and-- and what? Knock him senseless? Duel aibahim to death? It was all pointless. He just wanted Téa back.

"Because you were living with her for the past three months, **that's** why!" Yugi hissed, trying to keep his voice as low as possible. His words had the expected effect-- Kaiba froze where he stood.

Yugi refused to be the one that ran around to look Kaiba in the eye-- rather, Kaiba had to do the turning. He had to be the one to look **him** in the eye. A single moment could have lasted an eternity, and Kaiba spun around to face him. Had he been wearing a trench coat instead of his school uniform, it probably would have swooshed in that gravity-defying arc, like all of Kaiba's coats.

"How do y--" Kaiba started, but Yugi found his voice again and barreled onward.

"Because Téa told me everything! Because the other day when you were stuck in jail--"

"How dare you--" Kaiba started, his eyes narrowed in anger.

"I dare because of Téa!" Yugi exclaimed vehemently. He hardly cared if anyone overheard them now. Kaiba deserved just what he was getting. "She was running around without sleep, without food, putting herself in danger to save you! Because she cares about you--" his voice quieted, "more than she cares about me."

Kaiba was going to snap at Yugi, but the smaller boy's words caught him off-guard.

"I-- I told her that..." Yugi fumbled for the words, hating the memories that burbled forth, "that I was in love with her. And she told me that she doesn't feel the same. She cares for someone else," Yugi looked up from behind his blond bangs, violet eyes wide and filled with sincerity. "You, Kaiba."

Kaiba wanted to accuse Yugi of lying, but-- he wasn't. Yugi **didn't** lie. But...

"You should dare too," Yugi continued in a softer voice. "Because she stuck her neck out for you, spending all day to prove you were innocent. She could have let you rot in there, and die for her parents' murder, but the minute she knew the truth, she did her damndest to prove you innocent."

"...She should have known in the first place."

"How? How do you expect her to know when all she hears is that her parents didn't die in an accident, but they were murdered in cold blood? If someone told that to you, do you think you'd be able to keep a straight face?"

Yugi's words hit Kaiba harder than he expected. His parents were already dead. If someone came up to him now and told him that it hadn't been an accident that they'd died in, he...

_'I don't know what I'd do. I don't know who I'd believe.'_

"None of us know where she is, Kaiba. We thought-- I thought... Look, there's got to be a reason why she's not coming to school, but instead she's off getting drunk and yelling from the tops of roofs!"

"She's _**what**_?" That didn't sound like her. That wasn't Téa at all. But how could he possibly he claim he **knew** her when he couldn't even trust her? And now she apparently **cared** for him? It was all a bunch of lies.

"Joey... saw her the other night. With Mai. We're afraid Téa's going to do something... dangerous, and we don't know how to find her. Please... Kaiba."

_"I'm so sorry!"_

That night, she cried. He'd seen her tears, but steadfastly ignored them. It was her fault he'd landed in jail in the first place, her fault that he'd gotten tangled up in her problems... her fault that he was starting to **feel** something for her... and he didn't know what.

Seto Kaiba hated not knowing things. It meant that he was at a disadvantage, that he was...

_ Weak! _

But had Téa really **made** him weak, like his inner-Gozaburo insisted? Wasn't it also true that no one could change you, or force you to feel anything-- that you made every choice yourself? Seto Kaiba didn't believe in fate or destiny-- he made his own decisions. His own choices... his own feelings.

Maybe Téa really wasn't the one to blame.

"What did you say to her?" Yugi asked suddenly, no longer pleading. Kaiba was the last one to see her --to talk to her. He knew why she was like this.

It couldn't be because of that one single lunchtime when Yugi couldn't face her. The thoughts of how to act and what to say to her terrified him. Out of the need for something akin to self-preservation, he'd run from his very best friend. From the girl he loved with all his heart.

"I--"

_"I don't think you should come back to the mansion, either."_

No, it wasn't as simple as that. She'd suggested it in the first place --for whatever reason!-- but he was the one to call her foolish. To stare at her coldly... without a shred of regard. She'd cried, and he hadn't given a damn... but now, now he did. Now he had to.

Because she was gone.

"Yugi?"

A quiet voice interrupted the boys' private conversation, drawing their attention to the speaker-- Chieko. Kaiba frowned at her appearance; he still wasn't very fond of the blonde, and she'd grown decidedly close to Téa since arriving at Domino High. Yet no one bothered to interrogate **her** regarding Téa's location.

_'She wasn't the one that left Téa homeless.'_ A previously silent voice in Kaiba's mind spoke. The very thought of Téa brought **feelings** to the fore again, and Kaiba became unsure as to what to do or say.

"What is it, Chieko?" Yugi asked, almost tiredly.

"I am aware that Téa is missing," Chieko said softly, "and I believe I know who to ask to discover her whereabouts."

Kaiba stiffened, trying to look as though he didn't care, but the truth was, he **did** want to know. If none of them could get hold of Mai, who was obviously with Téa, then who...?

"Bakura."

Yugi froze in place, his face entirely placid. But his eyes betrayed his shock... and how **overwhelmed** he was by Chieko's words.

Someone would have said something --anything-- to fill the air, but the silence was abruptly broken by the slamming of the hallway's double doors, banging loudly against the wall. The crowd of students returning to their classes --including Joey, Tristan, and Duke, lingering in the hall, waiting for Yugi-- halted and turned to the source of the disturbance.

"Serenity!" Joey exclaimed in a shocked voice.

The redhead marched right past her brother, Tristan and Duke, not even sparing them a glance. She stopped right in front of Seto Kaiba, not at all intimidated by the older boy's height, nor his icy blue gaze.

With a movement swifter than any eye could catch, she slapped him clean across the face, the action making a noise heard clear across the hallway.

"Seto Kaiba, this is all your fault! I was supposed to shadow Téa at school this week, but because of you, she's not coming. She's not even picking up her cell phone to talk to her **friends**!" Serenity snapped at him, daring Kaiba to challenge that he _was_ Téa's friend. Still in a state of shock from the diminutive Wheeler girl's slap, Kaiba forced himself to hear her ramble, unwilling to be the coward that walked away from a girl --let alone a **Wheeler** one.

"Try as you might to be king of the world, you're far from perfect, and I know I'm not the only one that knows that! Everybody makes mistakes, and 'everybody' includes you! So you better find Téa and admit you've made a mistake, and you want her to come back to school!" Serenity continued, her voice taking on a suspiciously familiar Brooklyn accent.

"If you don't, I swear to high heaven that I will kick your sorry ass from here into the next millennium! And I won't be the only girl you'll have to fear either, you got me?"

Of course, Serenity didn't even favor Kaiba with the option of responding. She just stalked off, leaving an amazed crowd of people behind. It wasn't long before the murmurs began: "Who was that girl?" and "Does anyone have her number?"

After that, Tristan and Duke got into a series of arguments, while Joey ran around doing damage control.

Seto Kaiba only blinked, his eyes drawn to the double doors Serenity Wheeler had just stormed out of. His face still burned from her sudden slap, but what echoed in his mind were her words.

_"You better find Téa and admit you made a mistake!"_

A mistake... huh?

"You said Bakura knows where Téa is, right?" Yugi murmured, turning to Chieko abruptly. She nodded, still a bit surprised that the gentle girl she'd met at the school festival just slapped Seto Kaiba clean across his face. His cheek still burned a bright red, too.

"We gotta trail him," Tristan spoke up, breaking from his argument with Duke. The dice master frowned slightly, but nodded in agreement.

"Much as I hate to say it, Tristan's right. I just wanna know why the heck Bakura knows where Téa's been these past few days."

"She saw him," Chieko stated firmly, "before she left school on Monday. I did not hear much of their conversation, only Téa saying that she couldn't stay, and Bakura expecting her to do something."

This struck a chord in Kaiba as he remembered Bakura's words from several nights ago-- _"You owe me."_

He'd agreed to do anything if it meant saving Téa from Gozaburo, and now...

"You don't have to come, you know," Yugi murmured, standing alongside Kaiba. The spiky-haired boy didn't meet Kaiba's split-second gaze, but he didn't need to. "It's up to you. We're meeting up tomorrow evening in front of the game shop. If you want to come."

Kaiba didn't need to be enrolled in a university-level course to know reverse psychology when he heard it. Yugi just wasn't doing a very good job at it. Still... why should he bother? Gardner, who had screwed up his life so royally. Who... was still on his mind.

Constantly.

_ You never should have trusted her! _

It didn't matter that Seto had forgiven Gozaburo for all the suffering he'd put everyone through. It didn't matter that the Kaiba patriarch was never again to see the mortal realm. He was dead --long buried-- and a shade of the past.

But Gozaburo's voice lived on in Kaiba's mind, constantly reminding him of the fool Téa made of him. She had wormed her way into his heart, given him feelings that he'd never experienced before. And right when he was on the verge of giving into them, she had delved into his past, abused his trust, and landed him in jail.

She could not be forgiven.

Yugi knew the truth-- but he hadn't told the others. They were all utterly clueless. He could easily tell them that he bore no fault for whatever happened to Téa, and that he didn't owe her anything. She owed **him**.

But he couldn't say it... not even now, given the opportunity. Probably because the words sounded so hollow and false, even in his own mind.

Yugi Moto didn't wait for Seto Kaiba to respond; he just walked out of the hallway, leaving Kaiba alone with his thoughts.

* * *

"Ah, Mr. Kaiba, you've returned."

Seto glanced toward the once-secret mezzanine entrance; since the ghost catastrophe, he hadn't yet replaced the tall mirror with anything else, and now there was a gaping black hole in the wall right next to the front door.

Charles was coming down from the dimly-lit staircase, an odd expression on his face.

"What is it?" Kaiba asked his head of security. He'd never seen Charles look so uncomfortable before, and the young CEO had the sligthest inkling that he wouldn't like whatever Charles had to tell him.

"Please come with me, sir." Charles motioned Seto to follow him up the stairs and into the security room; along the way, Seto couldn't help but shiver as he passed the panic room. The steel door had since been replaced, and the room was dark once more, devoid of any ghostly presence.

But the image of Téa blasting that door out of its grooves --a two ton door, pushed away by powers possessed by a girl so slight, so delicate... it was unthinkable. Téa had gone and changed everything in his life and he...

_ She brought you down to your knees! _

It was all he could think about. Gozaburo's voice still echoed in his head, but the face... the memories that had once burned him, of painful times and hard-learned lessons... they were gone. He'd actually **forgiven** the man. It was all a thing of the past, and now...

"Sir? While preparing our quarterly security report I... came across some odd videos. I thought you might like to have a look at them."

A short stack of videos sat neatly next to one of the monitors on the right side of the room, the leather Commodore chair already pulled out and waiting for him. A pair of thick headphones sat jacked into the console, a single screen blue and blank and waiting.

"What about them?" Kaiba asked, sitting down in the chair. The videos weren't labeled with anything other than the dates they were from-- and few of them stuck out in Kaiba's mind as being important dates. Most were from the previous week, but there was one video... from the last week of August.

The night of the Ball.

"It..." Charles began. He wasn't the type of man to duck around the truth, but what he'd seen in those videos defied explanation. "It is rather hard to explain, sir. It is probably for the best if you watch them yourself." Charles began to walk out of the room, and then paused. "The last video, sir, from the week of August the 24th? I believe we had some sort of error, as there is hardly any actual video feed, but there _is_ audio. I thought you might find it interesting."

Charles didn't elaborate further, and exited the security room, closing the heavy door behind him with a click.

It was just Kaiba and the videos now...

He took one of the cassettes and inserted it into the nearest monitor's VCR, pressing Play and putting the headphones on.

"Here goes nothing."

* * *

The film was from the kitchen camera, placed just in the corner of the hallway between the laundry room and garage door, and the open entrance to the kitchen. It was the only camera in the area, given its appropriate placement and ample swivel room-- but it did not capture where Téa emerged from. She looked completely exhausted when she slipped by the camera, the device sensing her movement and following her with its lens.

She was still wearing pajamas-- a simple tank top and loose sweat pants. While no one else would have thought this odd, it struck Kaiba as such, since he always remembered her being immaculately ready every morning when he saw her. Even though he was the one who got up willingly at 5 o'clock in the morning, here she was... a good ten minutes ahead of him, yet still in her nightwear.

Téa hurriedly started preparing coffee --odd again, Kaiba realized, since he knew she didn't drink the stuff. She preferred teas and sodas, given the option. But it wasn't as if she told him as much, it was just something he noticed. But somehow, he doubted that she was hiding a secret caffeine addiction, and **that** was what Charles wanted him to see. No, there was something else here...

Midway through pouring the grinds in, she visibly stiffened, nearly dropping the cup of grinds all over the counter. She turned around slowly, her gaze first and her body following-- she sensed someone watching her. But not the camera-- no, some**one** else. She suddenly pressed herself against the counter, fear written in her eyes as clear as day. She was downright terrified-- but of what?

There was a crackling in the sound --not made by any human, or by anything in the kitchen. It wasn't the sound of the coffee grinder or of Téa breathing. Rather, it was a crackling, staticky sound mixed with that of a whisper...

_"Hello, dear."_

Raspy, like a snake's. Familiar...

He wasn't visible-- not on the screen, anyway, but somehow Seto Kaiba knew that it was Gozaburo. It **had** to be. There was only a blur --not even a hint of color, but a distinctive warping in the screen, and not caused by any smudge on the lens. It was as if the ghost's presence somehow imprinted itself on the camera film, but not entirely. Things of a supernatural nature weren't meant to make sense to the scientific, electronic world...

But the tape was... from over a week before she'd told him about the ghosts! Before the situation had spun wildly out of control, and...

_'That morning. I woke up... and she was gone.'_

He remembered pressing hands to her sheets, panic racing through his veins when he realized that she hadn't slept in her bed recently. Where was Téa? And then he'd nearly stumbled into Mokuba, amazingly awake at that early hour. His younger sibling claimed to have seen Gozaburo, but Kaiba had just brushed it off... impossible, he thought. Utterly, completely impossible.

But he'd still been afraid.

Up until he'd walked into the kitchen and saw Téa --alive and whole-- he hadn't been sure what to expect. But now he knew. Now he saw everything that happened when he wasn't there.

"Gozaburo Kaiba," Téa gritted out, her arms still bent sharply toward the counter, gripping the edge like lifelines. She was trying to mask her fear, but it showed anyway.

Another staticky rasping, this time he could clearly make out what had to be Gozaburo Kaiba's voice: "Téa Gardner."

How had this all started? How was any of it even **possible**?

The staticky sound in the background increased, as if someone were crumpling paper in the video camera microphone. He couldn't make out any distinct words except for the hissing rasp that echoed in every decibel of sound.

"Oh yeah? What have you seen?" Téa said, trying to sound snappish. Her voice wavered ever so slightly, her palms still gripping onto the counter's edge as if it could provide her with a mode of protection.

Abruptly, the crackling sound in the background stopped, and Kaiba could make out a single word: "Happiness."

An expression of fear -mixed with curiosity- replaced the grimace of revulsion masking Téa's face as she leaned forward ever so slightly. "Why are you here?"

The blur shifted, darkening on the edges as it came closer to Téa. The crackling sound began again, this time louder and tinged with a deeper hiss. "You know what?" the sourceless voice asked.

"W-What?" Téa was trembling visibly now... seeing what Kaiba could not.

"Games are fun," the voice leered, moving outwards. Suddenly, a black shape appeared in what could only be the phantom's hand-- impossible to make out from the distance the camera was at, but somehow familiar to Kaiba.

_'What is it?'_

Téa obviously recognized whatever it was, as her eyes widened in fear as the shape drew ever closer to her.

Again, the background noise stopped abruptly, as though Gozaburo's words were intended to be heard later on, by Kaiba. But it made no sense. Gozaburo... long dead, reawakened somehow in his own household... thirsting for vengeance. Threatening and harming Téa when she hadn't even known the man! And these fragments of audio didn't answer any of the questions surging forth in Kaiba's mind.

"I like games." Without warning, the blur that could be no one but Gozaburo Kaiba disappeared and reformed just behind Téa, spinning her in a semicircle and twisting her arms up so that she was pinned against him, unable to move. Although Kaiba recalled that he wasn't able to see anything at the time, the camera, albeit not very clearly, had the ability to detect Gozaburo's spectral presence.

"You'll soon learn, Téa dear, that this is no game."

"You think this is funny?" Téa spoke in a trembling voice, "That haunting this place-- doing this is going to change anything? You haven't been part of Seto's life for years now. Your haunting this place isn't going to threaten him in any way." The specter drifted slightly to the right, as if looking toward the swinging door between the kitchen and the dining room. The gray shape in Gozaburo's invisible hands protracted unexpectedly into a slender blade, pressing directly against the skin of Téa's neck.

_"It's not a damn hickey!"_

Kaiba suddenly remembered Téa yelling at her friends at school... tearing the bandage on her neck off with such force and swiftness that her wound, upon coming into contact with the air, bled, trails of crimson arcing down her neck.

She'd asked him if he believed in ghosts... and he'd said no. Told her that the very thought was completely preposterous.

He hadn't even given her a chance, and she...

"YOU'RE the problem here," Gozaburo rasped, still an obscure haze to the camera. The rustling noise continued, growing louder still. "...He'll never know true happiness."

Moments later, Kaiba saw himself burst into the kitchen, staring at Téa. He remembered what he expected to see-- something horrible, something beyond his imagination. And just as quickly as he'd realized she was all right, he'd dismissed every notion of ghosts or Gozaburo reappearing in his household. He hadn't seen...

Téa remained frozen in place, tense with anticipation. Gozaburo pressed the blade closer to her throat, daring her to speak, to move.

_'She could have died.'_

And he never would have understood.

"He doesn't believe in you and your stories enough to see me. Doesn't believe I even exist anymore," the phantom chuckled. "But you know different, now don't you, Téa?"

The camera angle hid most of Téa's face from view, and Kaiba was only able to see one side of her face-- her eyes darting from him --sitting at the table with a fresh cup of coffee-- and her captor, invisible to all eyes but her own. She was terrified. And he hadn't seen. Hadn't noticed at all...

"What's wrong with you?"

Not, "Are you all right?" but "What's wrong with you?"

_'What was wrong with **me**?'_

Barely an instant passed before he saw it-- a crimson trail of blood sliding down Téa's neck, the result of that blade he'd seen before, slicing her open. Her eyes widened and her knees buckled, but Kaiba --the one in the video-- didn't even notice. Téa mumbled something to him and clapped a hand over her wound. The Kaiba on film continued to read his newspaper, as Téa stared at him with mournful, desperate eyes.

_'I didn't even see...'_

Téa's gaze dropped to the floor as she stood, standing, shaking in place. Moments later, she looked up ever so slightly... and noticed that same dark blur on the floor. Only now, there was no blade protruding from its base. With trembling hands, she lifted it up, facing away from the Kaiba on film. The Kaiba watching the video immediately took the opportunity to slide his fingers over a few buttons and zoom in on the object-- a chess piece.

A rook... its turrets covered in a fresh sheen of blood. Her blood.

* * *

Kaiba fast-forwarded through the next several hours of tape... there was nothing to see. At least, not until the afternoon of that same day. Téa appeared on-screen alone, glancing about as if waiting --no, hoping-- that someone would appear. And she probably wasn't hoping for a ghost.

The distortion in the screen that Kaiba now identified as Gozaburo materialized not a meter away from Téa, hovering over her like a cape.

The phage hissed, his voice unaccompanied by any static this time. Kaiba could clearly hear his words: "Welcome, welcome, dear Téa."

Téa steadfastly ignored the ghost, clenching her fists at her side. She was trying to appear strong --resolute-- but in the face of something that couldn't even be seen, let alone understood... how could she not be afraid? She was pretending. For him. She was pretending to be strong in the face of someone so dangerous for him-- Kaiba. He'd told her that he didn't believe in ghosts...

So she couldn't rely on him. Not for support, information, or protection.

He'd left her utterly alone, and she'd paid dearly for it.

And now, Kaiba realized, feeling the incredible emptiness of the mansion that he'd never dared notice before, so was he.

"Ah, pretending to ignore me, are you? It won't work." The blurry mass that was Gozaburo Kaiba's ghost sidled closer to Téa, even as she took a plate and prepared a snack for herself. She was distracting herself, but failing miserably. She shook slightly as she cut a few slices of cheese, Gozaburo's presence irritating her to the point where she slammed the knife on the counter sharply and wheeled about, facing the specter that remained invisible to the lens of the camera.

"What do you want, anyway!" she yelled, the exasperation plain in her voice. "It's not like Seto's here anyway, and if you're here to drive me crazy, well then, Mission Accomplished!" Téa heaved a great sigh after that, sitting down at the kitchen table and taking out her schoolwork. She nibbled lightly on her snacks, desperate to prove that she could ignore the apparation's presence.

Much to Kaiba's surprise, the next sound he heard was laugther. A sickeningly familiar laugh, too. "No wonder you bring him such... joy." The disgust in Gozaburo's voice was plain, even if it wasn't be echoed on a visible face.

_'Joy...?'_

Gozaburo haunted the house long before this incident. Long before Téa and Mokuba first saw him. How else could he have known...?

_'When did she bring me joy?'_ Kaiba was so dead-set on reminding himself of the messes Téa had gotten him into that he'd forgotten about the little things she'd said and done that --Gozaburo was actually **right**\-- had brought him joy.

_"Smile. For me?"_

Her eyes, riveted on him throughout the course of his speech. Gloved fingers pointing at the corners of her mouth, urging him, up on stage and in front of a crowd of people, to smile.

_"Duel Monsters cookies!"_ She'd taken boring old sugar cookies --that they'd made together-- and shoved him out of the kitchen. Under a cloak of secrecy, she'd gone and decorated them to such a degree, Kaiba couldn't find a single flaw in their design. And they'd tasted delicious, too.

_"These are a family secret." _She'd blushed then, and looked...

The memory caused Kaiba's mouth to dry suddenly. She'd looked **beautiful**. It was probably one of the few times he could really admit it, without engaging in a fierce battle with his inner voice seconds later. Beautiful. That was all there was to it.

And she **did** bring him joy.

Kaiba shook himself out of his reverie, focusing on the screen again. Gozaburo's ghost loomed large and intimidating over Téa, who stared up at him quietly, regarding him with a coolness that looked out of place on her usually-smiling face.

Usually.

It was then that Kaiba remembered her tears when he'd told her that she was no longer welcome in the Kaiba mansion. She hadn't even returned to get all her things. She still filled the house with her presence, even without being there. But it wasn't enough. It wasn't the same.

"Quiet, girl! Don't speak of that which you have no idea!" Gozaburo snarled, his form growing larger and more menacing. As a normal man, he intimidated corporate giants and presidents alike. He scared his own adopted sons into submission... and he terrified an innocent girl without reason.

"No idea?" Téa chuckled, her voice soft and her eyes drawn downwards, "No idea." She looked up a moment later, her eyes startlingly clear.

"I don't care how long you've been haunting this place, or how well you think you know me. Haunt me all you want-- you don't know a damn thing about me or what I've been through! I know what it's like to lose someone you love-- I know what it's like to suffer! All you Kaibas are the same-- you think that by wearing a smile, I've forgotten! I'm doing my best just to stand right now!"

She wobbled a moment later, collapsing into her chair and sighing.

Kaiba was silent in the face of this admission-- and startled by her words. Somehow... they were familiar.

When next he looked at the video screen, Gozaburo Kaiba was gone.

* * *

Where had he heard her words before?

Of all the spats he'd gotten into with Téa (The fact that there had been multiple instances rather embarrassed him), he couldn't remember an instance in which she'd said anything remotely like "You think that by wearing a smile, I've forgotten!" But still, the words... he'd heard them before. From her, and he was sure of it.

But he couldn't remember.

Seto Kaiba prided himself on having a perfect memory. The good, the bad, and the ugly-- he remembered all. It meant that he could catalogue his opponents' weaknesses and strengths. It meant that he could adapt to any situation, based on past experience. It meant... that things like this wouldn't happen! He hated not understanding what Téa meant when she'd snapped at Gozaburo, and not remembering...

_'The night of the Ball.'_

There was one time in his life when he couldn't remember what happened to him-- and it had been the night of August 24th. Later on, Yugi and the others approached him, showing him a newspaper photo that Kaiba didn't remember having taken. He'd held a glass in his hand. The contents must have been alcohol. Why else wouldn't he have remembered...? But why would he have gotten drunk in the first place? He wasn't that kind of person-- he was too smart to just down one drink after another.

So why...?

_"It's a little late for that!"_

After the beach trip, he'd practically admitted that he wanted to-- to...

_'I wanted to kiss her.'_

Téa nearly drowned that day, and he hadn't performed proper mouth-to-mouth on her. He claimed that he didn't want to have her mistake his intentions, or do anything before they were ready. She knew exactly what he was taking about-- "Didn't want me to mistake it for a kiss?" It was no use dodging the truth around her. Yet when it came to **finding** out the truth from her, it was a whole other story.

He still didn't know what happened the night of the ball. Téa never told him.

The answers were just one video tape away.

Maybe... maybe all his questions could be answered from that one tape.

* * *

It was just like Charles said. No video. No anything. The time still displayed in the lower right corner, but there was no error message to indicate why the video suddenly went black. The sound of the door being opened drew Kaiba's attention back to the audio --if the video couldn't tell him what he needed, then maybe the audio could. There was a brief flash of light from when the door opened, and it was then that Kaiba understood.

The bulb in the camera burnt out, and now the only source of light was whatever came in near the camera. Given the positioning of the device --in the narrow corner next to the mezzanine stairway-- no wonder it was so dark.

There was the scuttling of feet --Mokuba-- going up the stairs, and finally, Téa's voice.

"Seto Kaiba, what is wrong with you? Why are you so grouchy-- I thought tonight went well! Everyone liked your speech, and you danced wonderfully, and the press didn't annoy you..."

Kaiba wondered why he didn't respond. He didn't remember coming in with Téa... in fact, as he racked his brain, he realized he couldn't remember much after dancing with her. Those memories were locked in a confusing haze.

"How can you do it?" Kaiba pressed the headphones closer to his ear, turning up the volume. Why did he sound so... harsh? What was he talking about, anyway?

"What? Do what? What are you talking about?"

"How can you..." There was a pause, one that Kaiba recognized as the sort that crept into his voice when he grew frustrated, "**do** that? Pretend to be happy, or smile the way you do, after everything you've been through? Have you forgotten that your parents are DEAD?"

His fingers slid to the pause button without thinking, freezing the blank screen and the accompanying audio.

_'I said... **that**?'_

He wasn't just drunk, he was incredibly idiotic! No wonder Téa had been so... silent with him the next day. So quietly upset. How dare he?

_"I dare because of Téa!"_ Kaiba remembered Yugi yelling at him. Téa was gone now. Missing. Unreachable. It was in his power to go with them --to try and find her-- but... to do what? To accomplish what? How could she possibly forgive him after all he'd said and done?

He would only know if he continued watching... if he heard what came next. Pressing the Play button, Kaiba closed his eyes and listened intently.

"Wh... How **dare** you? I haven't forgotten my parents, I **can't** forget about them, not for a second I'm breathing on this planet!"

Her voice caught, as if she were beginning to cry. Still, she continued strongly, despite the wavers in her voice. "I honestly thought we were getting somewhere, Seto Kaiba, where you at least TRIED to understand me and what I'm going through-- what I've BEEN going through! You should know, better than anyone else, that I'm always going to be in pain, that I can't just forget anyone or anything! I smile because if I don't, I'll fall apart! I'll break into tears, I'll scream, and I'll suddenly realize that I have NOTHING left!"

So that was where he heard her words before.

She was gasping for breath now, having expended all that she had in her brief rant. No words were spoken, but there was a sudden thumping, and then a gruff, hardly audible voice-- his.

"I don't know..." The rest was unintelligible. Kaiba paused the tape and rewound, turning the volume up slightly. "...how you... no matter...say."

"Damn," Kaiba cursed under his breath. Even the audio was of poor quality. Still, he listened.

"You're everything... when I lost them..."

Kaiba didn't need subtitles to realize who he'd been speaking of. His own parents. And it was the truth. Thoughts that he'd pushed to the deepest recesses of his mind suddenly came surging forth-- those of jealousy, confusion, and... desire.

"I want... determination... courage, your... ability to smile..."

Kaiba turned the volume up as high as it could go, noting how his audio-self's voice had become gruff and his breathing heavy. Téa said nothing, but if he listened close enough, he could hear her slight, gasping breaths, slowing as she regained her composure. There was silence for a moment, and then what Kaiba heard almost caused him to slip out of his chair.

"I want you."

He rewound the tape and played it again, thinking he'd perhaps misheard his own words.

"I want you."

There was no mistaking it. Following those words, there was an extended period of quiet-- and then the sound of a door slamming. Téa's breathing came in quick, high-pitched breaths-- and he realized the moment she sobbed aloud that she was crying.

Because of him.

To his surprise, something flickered on the monitor. Kaiba again rewound the tape, removing the headphones he wore and staring-- Téa, just barely visible in a blue light, tears streaming down her face, her fingers covering her mouth as she raced upstairs.

_'What did I do to her?'_

* * *

Thinking about it didn't work. Not thinking about it didn't work. Everything just came back to the fact that he **still** couldn't remember what happened the night of the Ball, and the video footage --or lack thereof-- hadn't helped answer his questions, either.

Therefore, the only conclusion was that he had to speak to Téa.

Speaking to her meant... apologizing. Not because he **had **to, but because... he wanted to. It was odd, thinking that he wanted to be sorry for anything, but the videos with Gozaburo revealed just how she'd been feeling-- when he hadn't been willing to believe in her. That and... if he wanted to remember the night of the Ball, he had to ask. He couldn't **demand** answers from her, not after what he'd said and done.

She'd put up with the spectral presence of his adoptive father for an entire week before she'd told him about it. Him and...

_"Your adoptive brother."_

Noah. Kaiba had only encountered him in brief spurts --once at the festival, and again, when Gozaburo nearly killed Téa.

_'And I couldn't help her...'_

Maybe it was best if he **didn't** try and approach Téa again. It would be selfish of him to do so, just to get answers --to resolve the bizarre feelings cropping up in his heart. Imagine --him, Seto Kaiba-- with a heart. But it ached, thinking of her. Of never seeing her again, of... having her **angry** at him, for the rest of their lives. He couldn't have that.

There was so much to apologize for. For not believing in her. For not giving **her** the faith in him she needed. For not understanding...

Kaiba put the old tape --from the week the ghosts had first started to appear-- back in the player, daring to watch more.

"You shouldn't have said anything."

Noah. Kaiba recognized that voice, but, like Gozaburo's phantom on camera, the source of the sound remained unseen.

"Your father's an idiot," Téa said frankly. Her words brought a slight smirk to Kaiba's lips; she always did say whatever was on her mind, didn't she? Around Noah, she didn't seem half as afraid as she was around Gozaburo. There was something she knew about him --Noah-- that put them on equal footing. Besides that, she'd gone and said what Kaiba had ached to tell his foster father for years.

Gozaburo Kaiba was an idiot, whether he was alive or not.

"Sometimes." Noah, like Gozaburo's phage in that he was transparent --at least, partially-- pulled out a chair and sat in it. To the camera, it looked as though the chair moved out on its own, and the space that Noah occupied was a mix of blurry and static-filled.

"H-How do you do... that?" Téa asked, looking more confused than afraid. How did she know Noah? If both he and Gozaburo haunted the Kaiba mansion, invisible to even Téa and Mokuba up until recently, why had they revealed themselves when they had? Why... why Téa? Why was she the one able to see them, and the one to get entangled in problems that were of Seto's past... and no one else's?

Kaiba frowned when Noah smiled winningly at Téa, a chuckle escaping from his ghostly lips. "What, this?" His gaze never broke from Téa's as his arm faded to invisible and he picked up a nearby napkin holder, the object appearing to hover in mid-air.

"Never been too sure of that myself," Noah continued, putting the holder down, "I've just been playing with my options recently. I can touch things sometimes..." Kaiba's eyes narrowed, catching the way Noah licked his lips while looking at Téa. But-- he was a ghost! Surely he couldn't have--

_'I am **not** jealous of a dead guy.'_

"But most of the time, it's like I'm in a different dimension. Can't touch, can't feel..."

Maybe **that** explained why no one else could see the ghosts until recently. Something about the dimensions intersecting, and the time being right for ghosts to appear, and certain events to happen...

Suddenly, a vision of a card --not a Duel Monsters card, but a tarot card-- appeared in Kaiba's mind. At the festival, when Bakura told Kaiba and Téa's fortunes... he'd known. Gozaburo Kaiba appeared in that spread-- as The Devil.

_'He knew all along,'_ Kaiba realized with a dry mouth. Bakura knew all along of the ghosts, and that Kaiba would turn to him for assistance. He **had** to have, or why else would he be the only one **now** with knowledge of Téa's whereabouts? He'd been the one to take her to the hospital, the one to be at her side when she first awoke... the one to save her.

_"You owe me."_

Maybe he'd blackmailed Téa too, and that was why...

_"...Bakura expected something of her." _Chieko had said.

The pieces were coming together. The ghosts... Bakura...

But everything went back to Téa. Kaiba turned back to the video, startled to see that the slightly amused smile disappeared from Téa's face. She regarded the teenage ghost beside her with curious eyes.

"Do you... even know why you're here?"

"Too soon. I died too soon. It feels like-- like I've been living here for years and years, but... asleep. That's why I take this form more often, I think."

_'A different form?'_ But it was useless wondering now-- Noah, like the other spirits that appeared only a few nights previous, was never to appear again.

"How... I mean, if I can ask... how did you die?"

Téa had voiced the very question Kaiba wondered himself --but asking it aloud would have meant he **believed** in the ghosts. Seeing **was** believing for Seto Kaiba, but looking back on the whole incident, it sounded a bit crazy in his own mind. And yet... here was solid proof. An undoctored tape, with the sourceless voice and mysterious events...

"I..." Noah cocked his head to the side, as if trying to remember, "I--"

"Don't tell her ANYTHING, Noah." Gozaburo's voice snapped, calling Kaiba's attention back to the tape, and away from his questioning thoughts. Gozaburo Kaiba's phantom now occupied a very visible space-- a mass of darkness, shifting and sliding about like black smoke. To the camera, Gozaburo still had no face nor body, but it didn't matter-- so long as his words were heard.

"None of this makes any sense!" Téa yelled staring angrily at Gozaburo, "You two both died under mysterious circumstances, Seto doesn't even know who the heck YOU are," Téa gestured to Noah, "and I'm the only one who can see either of you."

And to anyone else watching the video, she would have appeared crazy. But...

"Mokuba can see us," Noah replied quietly.

Though he didn't realize it as he watched the video intently, Kaiba's skin went ashen. They'd threatened Mokuba?

"Don't drag him into this. He's just a little boy--" Téa started, her voice trembling.

"And a Kaiba!" Gozaburo interrupted. Seto wanted to scoff-- that was his foster father's way of thinking, all right. Once a Kaiba, always a Kaiba. Live up to the name, or... else. Seto never wanted to find out what 'else' really was.

"It doesn't matter WHAT his name is! Don't hurt him!" Téa cried out, surprising both phantoms and Seto with the intensity of her voice.

"So then, better you than him?" Gozaburo asked in that crisp, business-like manner of his. Kaiba waited for her answer with bated breath.

_'Would she really have--?'_

"Yes."

* * *

  
_'She'd sacrifice herself... for him? For me? For... us?' _The thought was almost incomprehensible. Téa stood up to forces beyond anyone's understanding, and practically dared them to kill her. If it meant Seto and Mokuba were protected...

_"Because she cares about you more than she cares about me!"_

Yugi didn't lie. The boy was sickeningly honest about everything, practically displaying his weaknesses in kilometer-high neon lights above his head. But he didn't care.

Likewise, Téa was nothing if not up-front with her feelings. Yet, for the past several months, Seto found himself entirely confused by her-- her words, her actions... her expressions... Everything was a puzzle, and she... she was the key to it all.

Seto skimmed the rest of the tapes-- pausing to watch one where he saw himself entering the kitchen and catching sight of a slew of papers on the kitchen table. That day, he'd come home early... wanting only to talk to her. He remembered the feeling.

It was strange --a sort of desire, but... simple. It wasn't like the desire he had for the God Cards, or his desire to see Yugi defeated once and for all. It was different-- the desire to merely see her face, to hear her voice.

But when he'd seen his own adoption papers mixed in with news articles and hand-written notes, that feeling drained away from him like water down a drain. It was replaced by a feeling Kaiba knew only too well by now --betrayal.

_'How dare she?'_ He'd thought. He hadn't even bothered to ask her questions. To give her a chance.

_'She was trying to save us.'_

"What the hell is all this?" Seto wrenched his gaze away from the security monitor, unwilling to see himself treat Téa so cruelly. Yet he made no move to remove the headphones from his ears, knowing that he had to listen --to her.

_'If I couldn't listen to her then, maybe now...'_

Maybe now, it would make a difference.

Somehow.

She tried to explain things to him-- tried to tell him about the ghosts and their threats. Of the danger Gozaburo Kaiba's presence put them in... but he wouldn't listen. The single thought of Téa --who he'd wanted to see for no reason at all-- betraying him ignited his anger. He couldn't escape it...

"STAY THE HELL OUT OF MY PAST!" Kaiba cringed as he heard himself yell at Téa. It wasn't until **she** came along that Kaiba ever bothered with emotions-- at least, not ones like the regret threatening to swallow him whole that very instant. With a great deal of reluctance, he glanced at the monitor, the guilt within him multiplying when he caught sight of Téa's tears. Strong as she made herself out to be, his words had hurt her-- a great deal.

She stumbled out of sight, and Kaiba paused the video-- his video-self staring in the direction Téa ran to, an odd expression on his face.

Hours of video later, Téa reappeared onscreen, her steps hesitant and her gaze wild. The timestamp in the corner of the monitor revealed that it was very late at night.

_'She wanted to avoid me. Protect me, but avoid me.'_

He hadn't understood...

"You should stop. Go." The voice that Kaiba now recognized as Noah's sounded, but there was no form onscreen. The light in the kitchen where Téa diligently worked was dim, the camera not able to see the blur that Kaiba was sure was there. But to Téa, there had never been any blurs-- only phantoms.

"Noah."

"I don't know why he's so dead-set on hurting you... but I know you're a good person Téa, you don't deserve this--"

_'The damn ghost realized it before I did,'_ Kaiba cursed under his breath. Seto Kaiba hated feeling inferior, but as of late, it was all he felt. Compared to Yugi, compared to a ghost, and compared to Téa.

"You're damn right I don't! And you didn't deserve it either! I'm trying to help here! I just want to know the truth."

"I want to know why, too, Téa! Please... just **don't** anger him anymore. I'll find a way... we won't bother you anymore. Please, just don't..."

His voice faded to a soft echo, and Téa was left in the kitchen, alone again. Moments later, she resumed her work, heedless of Noah's warning. It was then that it became inescapably clear to Seto --Yugi had been right. She **did** care. Too much. She willingly --knowingly!-- put herself in danger... for people she barely knew. For people that her own best friend claimed she cared about more than him.

_'But why...?'_

Of course there had been a few instances when everything seemed muddled, and maybe --just **_maybe_**\-- she felt something for him. But now? After everything that happened, after all he'd done and said... how could she ever forgive him? How would he ever know unless he spoke to her?

Kaiba went through each tape, committing the scenes to memory. If he could apologize for what he couldn't have known --for what he was unable to see-- then maybe... maybe...

Maybe the house wouldn't feel so cold and empty anymore.

Maybe she would come back.

Maybe she would be herself again, and he...

Kaiba stopped, suddenly seeing Téa dangling mid-air and then, in a blur of motion, flung against the tall mirror that once guarded the door to the mezzanine he now occupied. It all happened so fast-- he rewound, and played it again, this time careful to wear his headphones and listen to the audio.

"What a pleasant surprise to greet Seto when he comes home-- young Téa Gardner, broken and bloody in his very doorway!"

Gozaburo. Kaiba's eyes narrowed-- he was the one, invisible to the camera lens, unseen by even his own eyes... _**he**_ was the one that had hurt Téa like that...!

As a man, he'd been strong-- terrifying. But in the end, his own mental instability bested him, and Gozaburo Kaiba flung himself out of a twenty storey window. But as a phantom, he possessed strength unlike anything he possessed as a human. Téa, struggling futilely with her captor's grip on her neck. Her movements slowed, and Kaiba realized that had Gozaburo **not** thrown her when he did, she would have died of suffocation.

She would have been dead when he walked in.

_'Am I supposed to be grateful...?'_ Kaiba wondered mutely, forcing himself to watch --repetitively-- as Téa sailed through the air, the force of Gozaburo's throw sending her careening into the mirror.

The suffocation hadn't killed her. The fall hadn't killed her. The glass hadn't killed her.

_'I didn't understand. I didn't see... I couldn't be grateful that she was in my life for even that much longer...'_

Everything had gone awry after that. Gozaburo, sucking the very life from Téa... Bakura exorcising demons...

_'Mother...'_

Only now did Kaiba remember that he'd seen her. His mother. The one other time he thought he'd seen her... was years ago. When Gozaburo locked **him** in the panic room, and he'd been terrified that he'd starve to death. Each and every doubt that flooded his mind back then came back to sting Seto painfully now-- in the present, when he already had so much to regret and feel guilty for.

He hated it.

He'd seen her, and she'd comforted him in a time of despair, and...

And he'd gone and thrown away everything she'd taught him. He'd become the very man Gozaburo **trained** him to be-- which was the exact opposite of what Kaiba wanted.

It was then that he made up his mind-- he wouldn't succumb to the echoes of Gozaburo's faded memory anymore. No more would he believe that a single person could force weakness upon you, or that feelings of any sort detracted from your chances of success. Seto made his own choices, forged his own destiny... felt what he wanted to feel.

Though Seto Kaiba was far from figuring out exactly **what** it was he felt for Téa Gardner, he knew one thing-- he didn't want to let go of that feeling. He wanted to keep feeling it and... and have her back. Back home.

* * *

"Téa!"

The brunette looked up in shock, her blue eyes wide as Serenity Wheeler came bounding up to her.

"Serenity, what--"

The redhead was soon accompanied by another familiar face-- that of Téa's classmate, Chieko Sagusa.

"We did not think you would come, Téa," Chieko smiled. The three girls stood on the foyer of the Domino Performing Arts Company's small building, only a few minutes from the starting time Fran had specified for the "rehearsal auditions" back at the Festival.

"But I'm so glad you did!" Serenity embraced Téa tightly, "Where have you been? I've been going nuts trying to get in touch with you."

"Wh-You have? But... but why?"

Serenity fixed Téa with a stare that plainly said 'Why **not**?'

"Because I was supposed to shadow you this week at school, dummy," Serenity grinned lopsidedly. The smile quickly faded from the younger girl's lips. Her hands remained fixed to Téa's shoulders as she regarded the older girl with a measure of concern on her face.

"I'm not the only one, too. When I showed up at Domino High--"

"You went all the way to my school, Serenity? But... why didn't you just call me--"

"I **tried**," Serenity interrupted flatly. "You haven't been answering your phone."

Téa blinked and rummaged around in her bag for a moment-- realizing sheepishly seconds later that she didn't have her cell phone with her because, aside from the one night she'd called Ryou to meet her at DV8, she had no one to call. No one she wanted to talk to. She'd forgotten entirely about Serenity and Chieko also being invited to the audition, and neglected to remember that the young Wheeler girl was apt to calling her.

"Besides, even if you **had** your phone on you, I doubt you would have heard me over the music at DV8."

Téa stilled, turning startled eyes on Serenity. She only looked at Téa with a blank face, regarding her almost coolly.

"How did you--" Téa began, but Serenity cut her off again.

"I have classmates --friends-- that go there. Old friends of Joey's really, back from his gang days--"

"You know about that?" Téa gasped. She always figured that Joey's stint with Hirutani's gang remained his biggest secret from his precious little sister. After all, Serenity always seemed so enamoured with her brother's goodness and generosity, Téa figured that finding out her brother had once been a rebellious bad boy would shock her to death.

Yet here she was, talking about it as if the knowledge were commonplace.

"Of course I do!" Serenity snapped, looking slightly upset with herself at her outburst. "It doesn't really matter **how** I found out, just that I did. Why are you hanging around in a place like that, anyway, Téa? It's smack in the middle of gang territory."

Téa hesitated. She actually **liked** DV8, despite some of the strange characters --Donny and Brucie excluded, of course-- that frequented the place. Besides, Mai worked there...

"It's not that bad, Serenity," Téa tried to reassure her. "I haven't even seen any gang members--"

"Maybe because you weren't looking." Serenity's voice dropped to a dull whisper, "Téa, look-- I heard about everything. My friend from school... his older sister goes to Domino, and you know that anything involving you, Yugi, Joey, and the others is always big news. I knew you'd stopped showing up to school, but when Chieko called me saying something about Bakura and you being drunk--"

"How do you guys know all this stuff?" Téa cried out, exasperated. It wasn't as though she could change the past, though. There was no way to undo what she had said and done... including getting smash drunk and yelling from the balcony of Mai's apartment. But...

"People talk, Téa," Chieko murmured, shaking her head remorsefully. "The whole school is gossiping about you-- everyone but your friends, of course."

"Hmph," Téa scoffed. _'Some friends.'_ The same friends that had abandoned her when she would have needed them? Second only to her parent's funeral, Kaiba's abrupt cruelty to her left her jarred and terrified. But her own friends hadn't cared...

"Joey's been rallying up the guys to see if they can find you. He was the one that found out you were staying with Mai, but told everyone that her apartment was super high-class, so none of us could get to you through her."

Briefly, Téa wondered how Joey would know about her taking up residence with Mai-- and what was more, how he knew about her apartment complex. Mai vehemently denied that she had any sort of relationship with Joey, and Téa had believed her. After all, how else could Mai be so honest with her about her tumultuous past with guys? Mai yelled right along with her that night on her balcony-- _"Guys suck and we don't need 'em!"_

But had either of them really meant it?

"They were actually running out of ideas, until Yugi approached Kaiba," Chieko continued Serenity's summary.

_'Yugi... and Kaiba?'_

The last two people she would have thought would care about her fading from existence. After all, her once-best friend had to hate her now-- for rejecting him as she did. And Kaiba...

Well, no surprise there.

"And that was when Serenity came in," Chieko finished, a smile spreading across her lips. Téa blinked in confusion, staring from the blonde to the redhead.

"What happened?"

Serenity only looked away, her cheeks colored a brilliant red. She refused to say anything, her lips pursed together tightly.

"She slapped him. Kaiba, that is," Chieko finished with a triumphant grin.

"You WHAT?"

Serenity nodded meekly, but she couldn't disguise the smile curling the corners of her lips.

"After all that I'd heard from everyone at Domino and even my own school, Téa, you can understand why I was pissed at him. Come on, he treated you like a total jerk, and he deserved it!"

"I'm not exactly going to argue with **that**," Téa mumbled. But it still perplexed her about how much everyone knew-- and how they all found out.

"Ladies! Time for the auditions!" A voice called from the studio, disrupting any chance Téa had of questioning Serenity or Chieko further.

_'Time for me to start my life all over again.'_

* * *

The final video in the pile didn't seem to feature anything out of the ordinary. At least, not compared to the others, with their ghostly distortions, blacked out screens, or scratchy audio. However, it was from the same week the ghosts started appearing, so Kaiba deduced there **_had _**to be a reason why Charles indicated he should watch it.

Tuesday, October 28th.

Kaiba wracked his memory for what happened that day, but nothing significant came to mind.

And then, the video flared to life-- Téa walked down the marble stairs at an ungodly hour of the morning, slowly and stiffly as if...

_'As if she were following someone.'_

Perhaps there was someone there he couldn't see. But why would Téa have willingly followed a phantom down the stairs, when they proved to be such a danger to her later on?

_'She wanted to protect me.'_

Maybe... maybe it didn't matter whether she was willing, or whether she'd be put in danger. Maybe she just cared too much for her own good.

Abruptly, the camera view switched from the one nestled high in the ceiling above the stairs, to the one inside Kaiba's own office-- as Téa walked in. She froze, staring at the wall for a moment, before she turned around, glancing about in surprise. The light that captured her face was dim at best, but there was no mistaking her, or the look she wore.

She flicked on a light, revealing herself to the camera in her entirety-- and revealing to Kaiba the subtle trembling of her body that he hadn't noticed before. There**_ had_** to be a ghost behind this...

Téa trailed her fingers over the books in his office --his study-- as if searching for one in particular. But it made no sense-- why would she have the sudden urge to read Latin at three in the morning? Her fingers paused over one title, her expression hesitant. And finally, with firm resolve taking over her form, she gave the book a tug-- and, to Kaiba's astonishment, the entire bookcase shuddered and slid backwards, and behind another row of shelves.

Téa stepped into the secret room revealed by the doorway, and vanished from the camera's --and Kaiba's-- sight.

His breath lodged in his throat, Kaiba finally stopped the video.

Ghosts were one thing. But a secret room in his own house?

Slinging the headphones off his neck and returning all the videos to their neat stack, Kaiba stood up --his legs startlingly wobbly-- as he made his way out of the security center. A secret room... he had to find it.

What had Téa found within?

* * *

Within minutes, Kaiba got his answer. It didn't take him long to figure out which book it was-- it was one of the few without dust covering it in a thin sheen, and the only one with a slightly upturned rug right below it. His fingers found the binding of the book with ease, and after a second's hesitation, Kaiba pulled-- and the door opened.

The first thing his gaze met with was an old chessboard... and a single rook lying haphazardly across the left side, its turrets coated in dried blood and rust.

_'Téa...'_

To his right, a strange device-- something that vaguely resembled his own Virtual World Pods, but in a state of disarray. Cords leading from the chair went across the small space, and into sockets on a large computer. The machine still flickered with power, prompting Kaiba to move toward it. He pressed several buttons in quick succession, the computer whirring and beeping as it processed his commands.

Countless files scrolled past, far too fast for Kaiba to make any of them out. All of them were ancient-- at least, by Kaiba's standards. Files authored by Gozaburo Kaiba himself... Several of them encrypted.

Kaiba easily could have decrypted them, but the shrill ringing of the nearby phone disrupted his train of thought. The moment Kaiba stepped from the small room, the sliding bookshelf immediately slid back into place, as if the space weren't there at all.

"What?"

"Mr. Kaiba, glad to hear you're back to being your businesslike self."

Kaiba's eyes narrowed; he recognized that voice. "What do you want, Konami?"

He didn't understand how Konami had gotten access to his private line anyway; most of the time, his calls were routed through a switchboard operator or secretary. But Sergeant Konami **_was_** a police officer, so...

"I'm not sure if Miss Gardner informed you, but we've obtained a warrant on all five of your AWOL Directors-- alias 'The Big Five,' if I'm not mistaken?"

"...What do they have to do with anything?"

Konami was silent a moment, surprised that Téa hadn't told Kaiba everything... about how she'd gone without food or sleep, desperate to prove Kaiba not guilty, the moment she knew the truth. She'd stood up to a whole crowd of adults, insistent that she didn't care about the consequences to herself-- she _**had**_ to prove Seto innocent.

"Mr. Kaiba, you weren't able to reach your attorney the night you were here, isn't that correct? Didn't it ever cross your mind as being **odd**, that the one time when you would need an attorney, Mr. Johnson couldn't be reached?"

Well, of course it had crossed his mind, but...

Come to think of it, why **hadn't** he put further thought into it? The Big Five attempted that stunt --to trap him in the Virtual World-- over a year ago, yet they'd all escaped, and he'd let them come back and work for him. And he hadn't put a single thought into the Board of Directors since.

Were they really stupid enough to try something new-- a fresh conspiracy, all to get him out of the CEO's chair-- of his own company? Well, if they had, then they'd succeeded-- at least temporarily. But what Kaiba didn't understand was how it all tied back to the Gardners.

"Go on," Kaiba ordered, not giving a second thought to pleasantries.

"Miss Gardner discovered from her parents' former co-workers that the Big Five were blackmailing your own employees into silence regarding their activities. Mr. and Mrs. Gardner decided not to go along with the plan, so the Board of Directors initiated a plan to remove them from the picture-- and frame you in the process."

Téa... cleared his name? She stood up to police, a crowd of Kaiba Corp. employees, and even the Big Five themselves?

"As it turned out," Konami continued, "they embezzled money from employee health care funds. Mr. and Mrs. Gardner worked for a long while to obtain information from their respective companies -- the Johnson Firm and Crump Financial-- to prove the Big Five's guilt, but we believe that the Big Five had them killed just before they could bring their evidence to the police. Luckily, with Miss Gardner's help, we managed to obtain copies of that evidence from her father's safe deposit box at another bank. I have to admit, Mr. Kaiba, I'm astonished she didn't tell you any of this."

"We haven't... spoken, lately," Kaiba finally admitted. He caught himself just before revealing that Téa also wasn't **living** with him anymore, and therefore breached the contract she'd made with Konami all those months ago. After all, she was still supposed to be employed by and receiving room and board from Kaiba, lest she get tossed into a foster home for the few remaining weeks that she was seventeen.

"I... see. Well, excuse me if you'll think I'm a bit bold for saying, but that Gardner girl is certainly quite smart-- I doubt we would have solved all those riddles without her assistance."

"Riddles?"

"Ah, yes," Konami responded with a wry chuckle. "Mr. Gardner was aware of the risks he and his wife took when they decided to go after the Big Five, and so left a trail for Téa to follow. They didn't know that the Laroque kid would be the one to carry out the Directors' plan, but he was still an accessory to murder. The Big Five are the ones we're after now."

"I see."

What else could he say?

"Well, if you hear anything, Mr. Kaiba, I don't think I have to tell you--"

"I'll inform you immediately," Kaiba said crisply. For each minute he'd spent in jail, the Big Five would spend in years-- rotting away in a maximum security prison. Kaiba couldn't stand being made a fool of, and the Big Five had done so-- twice. They would **_pay_**.

"Have a good evening, Mr. Kaiba."

"Good night."

* * *

"So Mai didn't want to come, did she?"

Téa glanced up from her duffle bag, into which she packed her dancing shoes and talc powder.

The entire rehearsal long, no one made mention of Mai or how she --like Serenity and Chieko-- danced with Téa back at the Domino High Autumn Festival. And now, Fran approached her directly, with no warning whatsoever... mentioning Mai like it was the most casual thing for her to say.

"She doesn't dance anymore," Téa responded carefully. She wasn't about to betray her friend's trust, especially if Fran and Vincent didn't really know the truth about why Mai didn't speak to them anymore.

"That's a complete lie," Fran muttered, though her voice was still audible to Téa. "The day Mai Valentine stops dancing, is the day she goes brunette-- no offense."

Téa felt a smirk curl the corner of her lips-- Mai was proud of being labeled a blonde bombshell, and wasn't apt to changing her ways or her face anytime soon-- hair included.

"None taken. But I wasn't lying. Mai said she'd never have anything to do with dance or..." Téa stopped herself mid-sentence, resuming packing away her things.

"Or vile betrayers?" Fran supplied, sighing. She flopped down heavily on the bench where Téa had her things; she appeared more like a regular young woman than she did the sophisticated manager of a popular performing arts company.

"I figured out just a bit too late why Mai stopped talking to us --me and Vincent, that is. I don't regret my relationship with Vincent for a second, but... I do miss Mai. I was really hoping she'd show up today."

"She's got work," Téa said flatly.

"But does she love it? Look... You were fantastic today Téa, and I'm not going to put undue pressure on you. Just... pass the message on to her for me, would you please? If she just came for once-- if she gave us another shot..." Fran trailed off uncertainly, her bright eyes clashing with Téa's clouded ones. The redhead sighed heavily once more, picking herself up from the bench and walking off.

Moments later, Serenity and Chieko approached Téa.

"What was that all about?"

"Nothing. Just... nothing."

Serenity frowned, but didn't say anything. Chieko, sensing the awkward silence about to build between them, spoke first. "So, we all had fun today, right? I know Ms. Lohrs asked us all to come back, but there is a rather large amount of commitment involved--"

"Oh, I'm coming back. This isn't just fun and games for me, guys. I'm all about commitment."

"Juilliard, huh?" Serenity murmured. Everyone knew it was Téa's big dream to study dance in New York, but... Serenity couldn't stand the thought of Téa leaving. She was the only true friend Serenity could really say she had.

"Yeah."

"Hey, Téa?" Serenity spoke up, her voice raising a notch in volume, "Do me a favor, will you?"

"Sure. What's up?"

Serenity stared at Téa, unblinking, with eyes so clear and serious one would never have thought that the short redhead before her had once been blind. "You're probably going to go back to DV8 tonight, right?"

"...Yeah..." Téa didn't want to get into an argument right now-- especially if it was regarding her behavior the past few days, or her new sanctuary.

_'Let her say what she wants,'_ Téa thought angrily to herself. _'It's not like she can stop me.'_

"Just promise me something, okay? If something happens --if a fight breaks out-- get out of there. Don't get hurt."

"I told you, Serenity, I--"

"I know, I know," Serenity waved her hand dismissively, "you don't think there are any gang members there or whatever. But promise me, okay?"

"Okay. I promise."

* * *

"I didn't think you'd come."

Seto Kaiba had just set foot on the edge of the Turtle Game Store property, Yugi instantly hailing him from the shadows.

"You thought wrong," Kaiba replied darkly. Yugi probably wanted to know why Kaiba was here-- but why did he need to justify himself to Yugi Moto? Kaiba was there because... because...

_'Because I want to apologize.'_

And maybe she would accept, and maybe she wouldn't. Truth be told, Kaiba couldn't envision a satisfying future where Téa wasn't back at the mansion. Ever since Yugi told him that Téa cared for him... since Serenity slapped and threatened him... since he saw those videos, he couldn't erase the guilt from his mind. He didn't want to apologize just to appease his inner demons, but...

To get her to come home.

Somehow... it felt right. It was where she belonged. The question was, was it just at the mansion-- had she become some sort of fixture, like a lamp or a table? Or did he really need her, in that bizarre, emotional way? Did he need her to come home... not to his house, but to him?

He wanted to apologize so he could find those answers.

"Come on, Yug'," Joey called, dashing out of the Game Shop without sparing Kaiba a glance, "Tristan spotted Bakura leavin' his place a few blocks down. He's headed downtown!"

Another thing that muddled Kaiba --though he would never admit it so long as he breathed-- was Wheeler. Did Joey know that Téa lived with Kaiba since August? Did he even **_suspect_**? For that matter, did he even wonder as to why Kaiba wanted to find Téa just as badly as Yugi did, or what he had to say to her?

Kaiba half thought that Wheeler would want to pummel him just for coming within a few meters of Téa and wanting to talk. Not duel, not insult her... but talk.

It was odd, considering that Wheeler had the upper hand-- at least, he had the **information** to obtain the upper hand. The question was, would he **do** anything with that information?

_'Hmph. Wheeler's a mutt, through and through. I doubt he would know if he had the upper hand until someone smacked him with it.'_

Still, he was the one who knew where Tristan was-- and where Bakura was headed. And at the moment, that was all that mattered.

* * *

Tristan was a bit hard to miss, what with his gelled, pointy hair, shaved close to his head on either side. That and, he was waving his arms around like he were signaling a plane to land.

Joey, Kaiba, and Yugi hurried over to meet him-- and from their new spot in a dirty alleyway, they could easily see the tremendous line spiraling from a building not far away.

"DV8," Joey muttered under his breath. "I shoulda guessed."

"Someone care to tell me why the heck Téa's dancing **here** of all places?" Tristan grumbled under his breath. He flipped the kickstand of the motorcycle he still sat astride --which Kaiba glanced at with a brief, though appraising eye-- and shook his head.

"Well, Bakura just waltzed in. I'm thinking he played some mind games with the bouncer, if you know what I mean."

Joey and Yugi both nodded grimly, before the shorter of the two boys glanced at Tristan curiously. "Where are you going, Tristan?"

"I wish I could stick around and help you find Téa over there, but I gotta go babysit my nephew," Tristan grimaced. "'Course, I'm sure as hell not going to mention **Kaiba**," Tristan continued without looking at the taller brunette, "since all the kid does is wax eloquent about him."

"Still?" Joey frowned, "Why does stick-boy get a fan club, huh?"

"Would you **please** stop talking about me like I'm not even here!" Kaiba snapped. "Besides, I thought we were here to tail Bakura and find Téa, not argue about--" he frowned as if he'd eaten something rotten, "my 'fans,' as you call them."

"I can't believe I'm saying this, but the man's right," Tristan stated. "I gotta jam." A few moments later, Tristan revved up his motorcycle, tossed on his helmet, and sped out of sight.

"So... what do we do now?" Yugi asked, staring at the line. "Not only is it an 18-and-up club, but that line looks pretty long..."

Joey stared at the line for a moment, his gaze barely straying from the large bouncer at the door to the last person in the line, leaning against the wall just before a break between the buildings.

"This ain't one of those in-with-supervision deals, so even if Kaiba here's 18, it doesn't do us any good, Yug'. But I know a way to get in." Kaiba would have protested, but then again, he didn't exactly want to wait in line. Impatience slowly got the better of him, and he wanted to know what the heck it was Bakura wanted from Téa.

Yugi and Kaiba followed Joey in silence, as the lanky blond maneuvered his way through the line and down the dark alley between DV8 and the next building. Past slimy fire escape ladders, the nauseating odor of garbage, and the stench of cigarette smoke, a back entrance to the club waited-- manned by no less than three boys that jerked their heads upward the moment Joey came into view.

"Well, well, Wheeler."

"Odagiri."

Joey thrust a hand out behind him, signaling Yugi and Kaiba to stop before they got too close. Kaiba didn't particular understand --nor care to-- what was going on, but Wheeler was obviously negotiating with the back door guards. They hardly looked like bouncers, but Kaiba couldn't possibly fathom what else they would be, or why else they'd be lounging around **outside** the club rather than in it, like everyone else waiting in the monstrous line.

"You holdin' up?" The one called Odagiri asked.

"Yeah, not bad."

"Your sister's doin' well at school. Top scores in her phys. ed. tests. Must be genetic, hm?"

"Yeah, guess so. Ya sister's pretty popular these days over at Domino."

Kaiba didn't know a single female with the name Odagiri at Domino, but...

"You want in?" Another one, this one with slick, oily hair asked Joey, apparently trying to intimidate him. He was more thick and muscled than Wheeler, but his appearance obviously didn't deter Joey one bit.

"Yeah. I got a friend in there I need to find."

"Which friend would this be?" A third guy asked, leaning against the door. His eyes were masked by a pair of sunglasses, and he talked with his lips pursed over a cigarette, which he didn't bother to tap, as his arms were crossed over his chest.

Joey hesitated a moment, glancing off to the side --and almost at Kaiba, as if asking his permission-- before speaking. "Gardner."

The one with the sunglasses stared at Joey, revealing astonishingly pale blue eyes behind his glasses. "You serious?"

Joey became suspicious, same as Yugi and Kaiba. What was so surprising about them knowing Téa?

"Yeah, I'm serious. Why would I joke about somethin' like that?"

"Hah," the guy chuckled, taking a long drag off his cigarette and leaning back contentedly on the door.

"What Cigs means is that every guy who's got a pair and isn't otherwise attached has been tryin' to get their paws all over her since she showed up. Half the Kings are head over heels for that chick--" Odagiri chuckled under his breath, "and can you blame 'em? She's got curves that--"

"Hey! I don't talk about **your **sister that way, Odagiri."

"Gardner ain't your sister," Oil Head hissed.

Joey frowned, "Might be true, but she's close enough. I care about her, and I've heard what she's been up to lately."

"More like who," Cigs laughed, expelling smoke from his nostrils. "She lets anyone and everyone buy her drinks until Ghostie shows up."

"Ghostie?" Joey queried-- though Kaiba had a strong feeling he knew who the person in question was.

"Dunno," Odagiri admitted. "Some white-haired guy. She dances with him every night, and they always leave together."

Staying with Mai, and dancing with Bakura? It all seemed a bit ridiculous. So uncharacteristic of Téa. He wanted to ask her why she would act so carelessly, but they needed to _**find**_ her first.

"Look, Wheeler, I don't have a bone to pick with you. I know you care about your friends so... go." Odagiri stepped away from the door, letting Joey in. Odagiri glanced at Kaiba for a moment, then at Yugi-- and his eyes widened. Cigs and Oil Head backed away from the door, letting Yugi in before Kaiba. They said nothing as the trio entered the club, not even casting Kaiba a glance as he passed them by.

* * *

It was impossible to see. The back door led to a dimly-lit hallway just off the dance floor, and the entire place was packed with people-- mostly older adults, but a scant few teens appeared here and there.

"Come on," Joey yelled over the crowds. "We ain't gonna see nothin' from here. Let's head up to the Crow's Nest!"

"The what?" Yugi shouted back, straining to get closer to Joey in order to hear him, but not get crushed by the crowds. Kaiba, easily the tallest of most of the people there, had no problem pushing when necessary, and when one particularly rowdy boy threatened to force Yugi from his line of sight, he ended up on the receiving end of an icy glare and a forceful hand from the CEO-- and he quickly backed away.

"Thanks," Yugi muttered under his breath, refusing to meet Kaiba's gaze. This wasn't the stubborn opponent Kaiba had faced in countless duels. What happened to that boy?

"Crow's Nest," Joey repeated after Yugi and Kaiba caught up to him. "There." He pointed, while Kaiba and Yugi stared in the direction Joey gestured in. A pair of twisting staircases wound up into the darkness, both of them connecting to a wide, semi-circular balcony that hung over the dance floor. Most people filtered down the far left staircase, down to the bar and the dancing area... but the stairs nearest them, shrouded in darkness, led straight up to the balcony, providing a prime spot to scope out the dance floor.

"Let's go."

Five minutes passed, and they hadn't spotted Bakura **or**Téa. A new song flared to life across the club, people skittering to the dance floor and join in the thronging masses. Kaiba couldn't understand why Téa would willingly put herself in the midst of such a crowd --drunks, smokers, and perverted, underage teens looking for a free grope. Everyone was pressed skin-to-skin against everyone else, most people --men and women alike-- scantily clad in revealing tops or tight pants.

"Damn! Maybe Tristan saw wrong, and Bakura didn't go in here. I don't see Téa, either..." Joey frowned. Much as Kaiba hated to admit it, he agreed with Wheeler. It was starting to look hopeless...

"Guys?" Yugi spoke up, his voice soft and hoarse. "I think I found her."

"Where, Yug'?" Joey asked, excitement tinging his voice. Yugi brought a shaky arm out and pointed straight ahead toward the nine television monitors lining up the wall directly opposite the balcony, and just above the raised stage beside the dance floor.

Dancing amid flashing lights and blaring music was none other than Téa Gardner-- center-stage, and onscreen.

* * *

"How many tears... or how many broken hearts? Just how many sorrows, how much you'll take--" Téa mouthed the lyrics to the DJ's latest spin to herself, remembering the song from her own dance CDs. Téa loved being in the spotlight-- the bright, almost burning lights, glittering as they danced off her sweat-sparkled skin and her sequined blue tanktop. She swung an arm out behind, curving her hips up and down in a slide. With a quick movement, she brought her other arm out as she pointed to the bars, where Mai caught her eyes-- grinning as she shook a drink for another customer.

Téa remained blissfully unaware of everyone else around her --she was the one on the stage, the one onscreen.

_'This is my life. This is...'_

A hand sliding down her shoulder to hug her arms interrupted Téa's thoughts, and she spun around, still dancing, to face Ryou Bakura.

"You made it!" She smiled, turning back around and dancing against Ryou. He didn't seem to have a single problem with this, though there was an odd sensation in the back of his mind. Still, he ignored it.

Every night up until now, he'd meet meeting Téa at DV8-- always precisely at the same time, and almost always in the same place. If she wasn't capturing the attentions of everyone in the club while dancing onstage, then she was relaxing at the bar. She still got a bit drunk every night, but Ryou learned to deal with it-- in the most gentlemanly way possible. Basically, that meant letting Téa --whatever state she was in-- drape herself all over him. He still turned a brilliant red when it happened but... it meant she was all his. The other boys --even the menacing-looking ones-- never approached them when he danced with her.

Ryou supposed this could be because he looked a great deal more intimidating than he previously thought. It could have something to do with his other half frequently taking control, Ryou mused. For the past several days --ever since Halloween, actually-- Ryou blacked out more frequently, almost always at his living room table. He would wake up as if from a long nap, finding his tarot cards stacked neatly beside them, but nothing else out of place.

But his other half remained interestingly silent whenever Ryou met Téa at DV8. And that was just what Ryou wanted.

For once, he wasn't the cause of accidents, death, or destruction. For once, he wasn't treated unfairly, just because his other half had a taste for blood, or an eye for pretty baubles. Téa just danced with **him**...

The song came to a close, and Téa stopped dancing, grasping Ryou's hand and leading him down the short set of stairs. "I'm parched," she explained with a smile. "Let's go get drinks." Ryou complied wordlessly, smiling at Téa in his own private way. She never walked off without him, and her eyes always met his straight-on. It was amazing how he'd never noticed how blue her eyes were before...

"Hello, lovely!" The bartender grinned at Téa as she approached. Téa leaned over the counter to hug the wiry man, several other of the counter patrons leaning over to catch a glimpse of Téa's shining skin and supple breasts, pressed against the glass counter. Ryou shot them all as fierce a glare as he could manage, and to his surprise, they all blinked and returned to whatever they'd been doing before, their gazes averted from Téa.

"Oh hi! Back again? I'm guessin' you liked that Evil Blue Thing from the other night, right?" Brucie smiled, pulling bottles from behind the counter. Ryou cringed slightly; Téa had coaxed him into drinking a bizarre blue concoction the other night, and while he hadn't blacked out or awoken in an unfamiliar bed, the drink **had** given him a bizarre sensation all throughout his body.

Then again, that was probably why it was an **Evil **Blue Thing, and not a Happy Blue Thing, or a Tame Blue Thing.

Cocktail drinks had rather bizarre names-- Téa was especially fond of a strong brew called a Pink Pussy, but she'd asked for something different that night.

Ryou sipped at his EBT-- a blend of creme de cacao, blue curaçao, and light rum-- something that tasted vaguely like an orange-flavored chocolate, but with a powerful twist of alcohol. Téa, meanwhile, downed an entire shot of something-- and promptly ordered another.

She turned toward Ryou, her eyes a bit misty, but smiling nonetheless. "Want a goodnight kiss?" she asked in a soft whisper. Ryou practically fell out of his chair, his eyes wide and his cheeks flushed.

"Wh- I ju-- Téa?"

Téa laughed a moment later, her cheeks turning pink and her eyes crinkling at the edges. "I meant the drink, silly!"

She tilted her newest glass --this one a champagne flute, instead of her usual tall cocktail glass or short shot-- toward Ryou.

"Barely any alcohol in it. There's even a sugar cube. Try it."

"Téa--" The embarrassment faded, but not his concern. "Do you really think drinking will make all of your problems go away?"

The smile slipped off her face, and for an instant, Ryou regretted his words. Téa took the Kiss away from him, staring sadly at the glass counter.

"No, I don't. Sometimes... I like to pretend, though. That for once, things might go my way. I can imagine anything I want, and that stupid little voice in the back of my head doesn't bother me, telling me that it's impossible. I don't want to become dependent or anything, Ryou. I know... I know it's not good for me. I just-- I don't have anything else to throw myself into. There's just this."

"No," Ryou smiled, putting his EBT back on the counter, "there's dancing. Come on."

Ryou tugged Téa back to the dance floor, amidst the crowds rather than alone on the stage, where she could be surrounded by people, but still in the spotlight.

* * *

Téa wasn't exactly easy to find. She'd disappeared off the stage when the boys tried getting downstairs, and now they were lost, looking for her once again. Rather, Joey and Yugi were lost looking for her downstairs, while Kaiba opted to remain upstairs in the Crow's Nest, searching for her from above.

Surely she couldn't have left already? No. She was probably surrounded by crowds of other dancers. With her rather ordinary hair color and her simplistic style, how was he to spot her amongst the throngs of people?

But wait.

There was an odd head of hair out of place amongst the crowd. Prune out the browns and the blacks, weed out the occasional blue or orange haired people... maybe the scant blonde or redhead.

There was a head of long, snowy white hair in the thick of the people.

_'Bakura.'_

The guys outside said that Téa danced with him every night, but...

Bakura had a pair of long, slender arms wrapped around his shoulders, decidedly feminine hands tangling in his hair and playing with it.

Seto's heart lodged in his throat. Dancing was one thing, but...

Those fingers, those hands, those arms-- they were attached to a girl that Seto knew all too well. He'd been looking for her, but now... now he wasn't so sure he wanted to find her. Not like this.

Not **in** Bakura's arms.

Worse, Téa was smiling and... laughing? She giggled coyly at something, continuing to fiddle with Bakura's hair, cocking her head to the side and blinking at him slowly.

_'S-she's actually **flirting** with him?'_

There was a very large part of him that wanted to storm down there right then, to drag her away from him and just... and just...

Well, what **could** he say to her? What could he possibly do?

Lost in thought, when Seto finally jerked his gaze back down to where Bakura and Téa were dancing --so painfully close to one another-- he was startled to see Bakura's eyes riveted to his.

It was clear that the slightly older boy was well aware of Seto's presence, but he hadn't made any clear indication of it to Téa. She was still swaying in his arms, her back to Seto, blissfully unaware.

And then Bakura opened his mouth, mouthing something to Seto.

_You owe me._

Eyebrows furrowing Seto tried to contemplate just what Bakura was implying-- or why he was feeling so damn incensed that the white-haired freak was dancing so intimately with Téa. It wasn't any of his concern.

It's not like he needed her...

A voice in Seto's head protested mightily to that thought; he'd come all this way, gone to such great extents and for what? To watch someone else go and--

"Hey, what the hell you think you're doin' in here, you trash?"

There was a loud yell, and then the sound of glass breaking-- and then a scream.

And suddenly, the entire club broke out into chaos, and before Seto could turn around to spot Téa again, Joey was jogging toward him, gesturing urgently to leave.

"No go, man. We gotta get outta here-- Some of Hirutani's stupider lackeys decided to pick a fight with some Black Skulls that wandered into the wrong territory. Come on!"

"Some **what**?" Seto hissed, trying to follow Joey back to the back exit on the lower floor, going against the flow of the crowds mobbing their way up the stairs.

"Gangs, you nimrod!" Joey yelled over the sounds of fighting that had broken out. Where people had been dancing only moments before, now there were at least sixteen guys beating on one another, grabbing whatever they could get their hands on and using them as weapons.

Kaiba tried to make Téa out through the masses, to check if she'd gotten out all right, but he couldn't see her. She'd been in the center of the dance floor right when the fight had broken out. What if she was hurt, or one of those guys tried to--

"COME ON!"

"Going somewhere, Wheeler?" Joey froze in his tracks, instantly regretting that he'd doubled back when he noticed Kaiba wasn't behind him.

Hirutani.

* * *

It was almost impossible to believe.

Here she was, in the middle of Domino's most popular club, dancing with --of all people-- Ryou Bakura. It wasn't really hard to believe that she was dancing, but the fact that she was in an eigtheen and over club, her arms secure around a boy that, mere days ago, sent cold shivers down her spine... it certainly seemed strange.

Téa took to calling her dancing partner "Ryou," as per his request. For once, she was grateful for this differentiation between his "darker" half and the boy she remembered meeting in first year.

_"The name is Bakura. Always has been, always will be."_

Was it just a coincidence, then, that Bakura's "host" in the new millennium had a family name exactly the same as his own? Or that the two supposedly bore a startling resemblance? These were things Bakura told her...

And only her.

Once the enemy, Téa now found herself in his arms, her thoughts filled with him.

_'Better him than Se--'_

And just as abruptly as that thought had come, it flitted away. She couldn't be thinking of him.

A heated whisper tickled the hairs near Téa's ear, quickly catching her attention.

"Something on your mind?"

When she glanced up, Ryou's familiar brown eyes seemed to narrow, while his bangs feathered upwards, as if static electricity had charged itself all around his head. No longer the quiet boy she knew from school, this was...

"Bakura." Her voice came as a breathless whisper, but only because she was startled by his sudden presence. In all her encounters with Ryou at DV8 so far, Bakura had remained silent --true to his word, and keeping his bargain with her.

Why had he chosen **now **to appear?

"You seem distracted," he murmured, his breath warm, and dangerously close to her neck. "Thinking of something?"

Téa bowed her head slightly, swaying almost robotically with the music, only half-aware of the weight of Bakura's arms around her. This seemed strange. Dancing with Ryou --her friend and classmate-- was one thing. But the self-proclaimed tomb robber, and sworn enemy of the Pharaoh?

Such intimacy felt like betrayal.

"I don't think I told you," Téa murmured, smiling slightly, swaying in his arms, "but I've made up my mind."

"About what?" Bakura asked, smiling devilishly. Téa glanced up at him, her gaze flitting to the flashing lights on the ceiling.

"About Seto. Kaiba. Whatever."

Bakura's grin slipped off his face, but Téa didn't seem to notice. "What about him?"

"I'm going to fall out of love with him." The determination in her voice was clear-- honest and pure.

"Are you now?" Bakura asked in that same teasing way. Well. **_This_** was fortuitous news...

"Yeah. I really am." Téa smiled brightly at him, looking entirely pleased to be away from the man that had stolen her heart-- the same man that was afraid to protect her. Bakura never told her that it was Kaiba who admitted that he would "do anything" for the Spirit's help-- and that Kaiba owed him.

And, just as that thought brought a smirk to Bakura's face, he felt it. The tingling of a familiar presence...

Bakura's eyes strayed up to the balcony where people looked down to the dance floor. And standing in the center of the outcropping was none other than Seto Kaiba himself, his eyes locked on Bakura's.

The white-haired boy easily guided Téa in her dance so that she never even noticed Kaiba. His smirk widening, he mouthed three words to the once-High Priest.

_You owe me._

This was his revenge. He would take away that which Kaiba held so dear-- even though the daft fool didn't realize it yet. He was close to understanding--he had to be, if he'd come all the way here, to this place, at this time. He probably wanted to speak to Téa, but there was not a chance in the Afterlife that Bakura would let him.

Suddenly, a young man flew backward into them, breaking Bakura's hold on Téa and splitting them apart.

"Say it again, jackass!" An approaching figure threatened, holding up a fist adorned with brass knuckles.

"Fuckin' Black Skulls! Get 'em!" Someone yelled, and then chaos broke out.

Groups of teens no older than Bakura and Téa were charging at one another, fists flying and glasses breaking. People started to scream and mob up the stairs toward the exit, while the DJ and the bartenders tried to figure out what was going on and put a stop to their club being trashed.

Mai darted through the crowd to Bakura and Téa, breathless. "Get out of here, you guys. Now!"

"But Mai--!" Téa began, but Bakura cut her off, a hand on her waist.

"She's right, let's go." He guided her through the throngs of people, most of them desperately clamoring up the stairs and trying to escape the mayhem. But flurries of people kept spilling into the dance area, getting involved in the fight. Furniture flew and glass continued to break, the club in a state of total disarray.

"Where do you think **you're** going, punk?" A heavy-set guy with spiky hair approached Bakura, obviously judging the youth by his black clothes-- and thinking he was one of the gang members.

"I'm leaving," Bakura uttered darkly, ready for the challenged sure to be issued any second now.

"Not if I have anything to say about it!" The guy yelled, aiming to punch Bakura. The white-haired boy easily side-stepped the attack, thrusting his knee into his attacker's stomach and kicking him to the floor, the wind knocked out of him.

Téa blinked in surprise, "Wow."

Bakura grinned, "Come on, let's go." They pushed their way through crowds of people toward the back door that few knew about, let alone used. In fact, Téa **hadn't** known about it-- not until Bakura led her to the door. She only turned around for a brief second-- and a particular nasty gang member fell on her, trying to pull her into the chaos and away from Bakura.

"Get the hell away from me!" Téa yelped, slamming her heel into the offender's toe, and kneeing him in the crotch-- hard. The boy crumpled to the ground in a groan, and for just a moment, Téa had a perfect view of the fights breaking out all over the dance floor, and even high up in the balcony.

_'Seto...?'_

She was sure she had seen him up there-- just for a second, before someone swung a fierce uppercut at him and he'd disappeared from view.

"Let's **_go_**!" Bakura urged Téa, tugging on her arm.

"Wait," she mumbled, struggling back through the hall, "I thought I saw Seto!"

"You were imagining things!" Bakura insisted, pulling harder. "Come on!"

Téa could supply no further argument-- and got dragged out of the club by Bakura, and back into the crisp, dark night.

* * *

"Long time no see, Wheeler," Hirutani grinned ferally. In all the time that passed since Joey had last encountered the gang leader, Hirutani hadn't changed. His bleach-blond hair was still slicked back to perfection, not a single hair out of place. He bore an uncanny resemblance to Kaiba's own sense of fashion-- with a black turtleneck and dark pants, accented by a silver chain around his neck and thick rings on his fingers.

"What the hell do you want, Hirutani? I don't have time for you."

"You better **make** time, Wheeler. I'm not lettin' you through."

"Forget this, Hirutani-- I ain't part a ya stupid little gang no more, and I ain't fightin' for ya. I kicked your ass once and I--"

"Correction, PUNK," Hirutani interrupted, "Your spike-haired friend **nearly** kicked my ass. He didn't quite finish the job, or else I wouldn't be here now. And technically, you don't have a choice when it comes to fightin' tonight, Joey," Hirutani chuckled evilly, "'Cause you're in the thick of it." The taller blond made a signal with one of his hands, and three muscled teens approached the cornered Kaiba and Joey, leering.

Kaiba didn't need to be told how much trouble they'd just landed themselves in-- Joey's two words summed everything up.

"Oh, shit."

* * *

Kaiba had never been in a fistfight before, but it didn't take a high IQ to know when to dodge a flailing left-hook. Unfortunately, in the moment that he chose to duck to the left, another fist from the right connected with the side of his face-- quite painfully. He grunted, feeling as if his jaw had been reduced to little more than glass and shattered. He tasted blood just as the delirium washed over him.

He barely registered the fact that someone hauled him up by the collar of his shirt until he was level with the person's face-- Wheeler.

"Stop screwin' around and hit one!"

Kaiba blinked and wound his fist awkwardly, hitting the thug looming behind Joey's shoulder.

"Not bad! Thanks," Wheeler said with something that might have been a smug smile, but Kaiba decided he was imagining things. Wheeler's surprise attacker blinked stupidly, nose bleeding and eyes crossing and uncrossing, before falling to the floor in a crumpled heap. Kaiba gave a triumphant smirk.

Joey tapped a Skull on the shoulder, surprising the lanky boy and causing him to stumble forward-- just as Joey firmly yanked the elastic band of the boy's boxers, effectively giving him a rather painful wedgie. The boy yelped, fumbling behind him, caught completely off-guard when Joey kicked him hard in the small of the back, sending him tumbling down the stairs and knocking over at least four of his comrades in the process.

The Kings had the upper hand, but the Skulls weren't about to go down easy. Two of the remaining Skulls on the top level stood beside one another, deciding to rush Kaiba and Joey at once. They obviously hoped to knock them off the balcony and down the several meters to the dance floor, littered with broken chairs and shattered glass. Both Kaiba and Joey abruptly ducked, sending one Skull careening over the railing and down onto the dance floor below, while the other's leg tangled in the rail and he landed head-first into a glass-top table, which promptly shattered around him. Moments later, the Skull slipped into unconsciousness.

Another Skull --this one armed with the leg of a chair-- thundered toward Kaiba, but just as he made to strike, the brunette deftly pulled the leg from the Skull's hands, grabbing the lackey's arm with his free hand and twisting it painfully in the air behind the thug's head. Kaiba jammed the chair leg into the Skull's stomach, forcing the air from the would-be attacker's lungs.

It was true that Kaiba disliked physical fights, but that, by no means meant he had **absolutely **no experience with them. Why, even back at Duelist Kingdom he'd...

But that was ages ago, and gang members were not the same as pointy-haired special police.

"Enough of this!" Hirutani, who previously watched the proceedings from the shadows, stepped forward, eyes narrowed. "It's you and me now, Wheeler." Sweat was trickling down the side of Joey's face and his breathing was shallow, but there was no doubt that he was ready for this. He had been ready for this for _**years**_ now.

* * *

"Wheeler." A thick hand grabbed onto Joey's shoulder just as he was heading home. His neighborhood was far from wholesome, and he liked to speed up his walk as much as possible-- without interruption. Home wasn't much better than the streets, but at least there was a roof over his head and a room to call his own. Sort of.

Having reason to be less than pleased by the delay, Joey already wore a scowl by the time he faced whoever grabbed him.

"Hirutani!"

He hadn't meant to sound so surprised, but the fact was, Joey **was** surprised. Startled... and dare he think it, a bit scared.

"Been a long time, Wheeler. What you been up to?"

"Eh..." Joey fumbled for the right words to say, given that it had been nearly a year since he'd last seen Hirutani. The last time was just before he'd started school at Domino High and met Yugi...

"Got yourself some new friends, I see," Hirutani smirked, his bared teeth sending shivers down Joey's spine. Hirutani wasn't a particularly intimidating person by nature, but since Joey left his gang, the very sight of him didn't exactly induce feelings of joy in Joey Wheeler's brain. He was easily taller than Joey, standing at over 190 centimeters, with bleached blonde hair slicked back and pulled into a slight ponytail. His school uniform, already large to fit his muscular tall frame, was two sizes too big, the jacket looking more like a trench coat than anything else. He also broke standard school rules by wearing a black turtleneck under his jacket, thick rings on his fingers, and a silver chain around his neck.

No one could mistake **him **for an obedient student-- he was a gang leader, through and through.

"What's it to you, Hirutani?" Joey retorted. He didn't need to deal with Hirutani right now. He just wanted to get home...

"Don't front with me, Wheeler!" Hirutani snarled, shoving the blond against a wall roughly. Then he let Joey go, his eyes widening ever-so-slightly as a smirk graced his features.

"We're expanding our territory, Wheeler. Not about to let those idiot Black Skulls think they own all of Domino. We want your help."

Before Joey could even ask who 'we' was, a group of six more boys appeared from the shadows-- all of them guys he didn't recognize from the old gang. Leading the small group was a short, pimple-faced guy in glasses with streaked aquamarine hair, thick, shrimp-colored lips, and a glaringly bright red beanie on his head, clashing with his hair. He was grinning disgustingly, revealing teeth yellowed by the cigarette dangling out of his mouth.

"What do you say, Wheeler?"

It wasn't as if Joey could refuse, with the threat looming so apparently in front of him, but...

"No deal, Hirutani. I'm not doin' the gang scene anymore."

"You're '**not** doing the gang scene **anymore**'? What the hell happened to 'ain't' and 'no more,' Wheeler? Your precious Domino High converting you into some hoity-toity prince?"

"Yeah, like that star-head brat you we saw you with," Shrimp Lips added, smirking.

_'Yugi!'_ Joey wasn't about to drag Yugi into his problems-- the gang life was behind him --part of his past. Yugi didn't even need to know about it.

"Or that cute brunette with those C-cups, huh?" One of the lankier boys leered, rubbing his hands together suggestively. "What's her name, Wheeler? She looks like a catch."

"Don't even think about going near Téa," Joey snarled possessively. He hadn't told a single soul --not even Tristan-- yet, but he had a bit of a crush on Téa. It was one of the reasons why Joey always went out of his way to tease Yugi (at first). Téa was always around to defend Yugi when the boy wouldn't speak up for himself-- and Joey had to admit, he loved seeing how flushed her face got when she argued with him.

"Ohoho, got a bit of a thing for her, huh?" Shrimp Lips laughed, taking a long drag on his cigarette. "Have you done her yet, Wheeler? Or are have you been **neutered**?"

Joey launched himself toward the pimple-faced boy without a second thought, but before he could lay a fist on the startled thug, Hirutani grabbed Joey roughly by the shoulder, fixing him with a cold stare.

"Here, tomorrow night at seven. You better be there Wheeler, or else we'll pick off your friends --star-head and your precious Téa included-- one by one. You made a mistake not coming to Rintama with the rest of us, so unless you want your class turned all shades of black and blue, you'll listen to me."

Joey paled a ghostly shade of white, the image of a bloodied and bruised Yugi --or worse, Téa!-- lying in the halls of Domino High. Though it was against every sane fiber in his body, he couldn't say no... not if it put Yugi and Téa in danger...

_"This is a symbol of our friendship! So no matter how tough it gets, we'll always know that we're not alone!"_ Téa scrawled a ridiculously happy-looking face on the tops of all their hands, smiling as she did so. Téa was like that-- weird, but... cute. And friendly. She believed in them all so much, even though Joey and Tristan both teased Yugi relentlessly before finally becoming 'friends' with him.

Before Joey could even come up with a reply, Hirutani and his lackeys had left.

* * *

With a great deal of reluctance, Joey had rejoined Hirutani's gang in their efforts to expand their territory. The newest gang acquisitions were two clubs-- the abandoned J'z, and the already-popular DV8. The latter was the better of the two, since it was legitimately open for business, and allowed for a great deal more space than the cramped J'z. The catch was that the large club sat on the fringe of the Black Skulls' and Red Kings' --Hirutani's Gang-- territories, making it a prime spot for fierce fights between the warring factions. Only a few blocks from DV8 lay the downtown border that separated the prefecture of Domino from that of Rintama, making the entire surrounding area subject to 'negotiation.'

Between brawls, Hirutani's gang hung out at J'z, abandoned by its original owners and left for the Kings to do with what they willed. Being in the harbor district, it offered the bonus of a great number of warehouses, including one that Hirutani fondly referred to as the 'Torture Chamber.' Hirutani had Joey brought to that chamber when Joey dared to punch Shrimp Lip's out cold for hurting Yugi.

Joey just stood by and watched when it happened... but the guilt increased inside him with each passing moment, until he couldn't contain himself anymore. He hadn't liked Shrimp Lips --he hadn't ever bothered to find out his real name-- but the moment the punk dared to punch Yugi --who'd just asked why Joey hadn't shown up at school, and why he was hanging with dangerous-looking strangers-- he'd rocketed to the top of Joey's Hit List.

No one hurt his friends. No one.

Hirutani made Joey pay for his indiscretions by having him knocked out and hung from his wrists in the Torture Chamber. Gang members took turns taking hits at Joey-- who valiantly fought back, using his lanky legs as weapons, kicking away anyone with enough nerve to approach him. It didn't take the Kings long to work against Joey, surrounding him from all sides and knocking him senseless with brutal kicks and punches.

Once trussed up, Joey didn't bother with formalities any more.

_'Let Hirutani do what he wants to me. As long as he doesn't hurt Yug' and Téa...'_

He wasn't worried about Tristan. Tristan knew what it was like to be in a gang. Tristan could takecare of himself, just like Joey could take care of **himself**.

"Heh heh. I like the view from here, Joey."

"Hmph. The view from here isn't so bad either. 'Look! It's a _**red-assed boss monkey**_ and his pack!'" Joey sneered, heedless of his already swollen cheeks and bruised face.

Hirutani didn't even need to give the order; two lackeys rushed Joey, kicking him hard in the stomach and punching him hard in the chest. The wind knocked out of him, it took some moments before Joey could breathe properly again. But he wasn't fazed. Hirutani wasn't going to gain his respect this way.

"You've been like that since junior high, Wheeler," Hirutani frowned. "Always acting like you was my equal. Still, nothing could stop us when we was together-- even some high school gangs was afraid of us. We had plenty of people working for us. But the one thing I never managed to do was teach you this: I'm the boss," Hirutani stated emotionlessly. His eyes narrowed to cat-like slits, the sheen of his metal chains, rings, and small hoop earrings winking at Joey. The dim, warehouse lights cast eerie shadows upon Hirutani's face, crawling on half of his visage as though they were part of a menacing mask that only Death himself would wear.

"You'll always be second in command."

_"You'll always be scum!"_

Joey forced the memory of his father's words away. It didn't matter whether he was second in command or not-- he was in control of his own destiny, his own life. He'd made the decision to leave the Red Kings, and he wasn't about to go back on it. Let the Kings hurt him as much as they wanted-- Joey was protecting his friends.

Yugi didn't treat him like scum. Neither did Téa or Tristan. They all understood. They weren't faking friendship, like the "brothers" did in the gangs. Every word was sincere, ever gesture filled with meaning...

Unbidden, a memory of Téa smiling brightly at him --blue eyes wide and looking at him directly-- came to Joey. Damn it if the Red Kings ever went near her...

"Hahaha! Of course! That's just what a boss monkey would think!" Joey laughed, even though the action brought a stinging pain to his ribs. He supposed one or more of them had broken, but it hardly mattered. As long as Yugi and Téa were safe... Joey repeated it like a mantra in his head. Nothing else mattered if they were safe.

They were all he had.

"You done? Well lemme tell you: I've got a good memory. I know you jerks' faces... I remember how many times each of you hit me. You know I hold a grudge. I'm gonna pay you back double!"

Hirutani didn't seem the least bit phased by Joey's threat, and instead chuckled under his breath. "Don't worry. This isn't even the main course. The next item on the menu will **blow your mind**!"

The moment he heard the electrical zapping of the stun guns, Joey froze.

One of the the thugs with thick, oily black hair laughed at Joey's sudden display of discomfort. "These are 200,000 volt stun guns."

"Flip the switch and the electricity comes on," another thug, this one with bright orange spikes for hair, added. "When that happens, it's gonna blow the memories right outta your head. And maybe your life too. So let's get started..."

"You damn jerk!" Spike Head only took one step toward Joey before the bound Joey kicked out fiercely, the heel of his shoe connecting with the boy's face. A sharp crack echoed briefly, and a stream of blood gushed from Spike's nose-- it was broken.

Oil Head, among other gang members, took this as incentive to gang up on Joey all at once, each of them armed with a stun gun crackling away. Rain thundered down on the weak metal roof of the warehouse, but the only sound Joey heard was the zapping of electricity as it neared his body. He barely had a second to think before the metal electrodes came into contact with his skin.

Joey let out an pain-filled howl that echoed off the walls of the warehouse, heard for meters around, even outside in the thundering rain.

* * *

Joey didn't remember much after that. The electricity that rocketed through his body gave him only a vague awareness of the world around him-- the sound of the rain, and a shadow that suspiciously looked like Yugi. And then everyone --Tristan, Yugi, and Téa, each of them rain-soaked, hovering over him, concern plain on their faces.

They'd come for him.

Even after... after he'd let Yugi get hurt.

After that, Hirutani and the rest of the Red Kings disappeared from sight-- and therefore, from Joey's mind. Only once had they reappeared- as a violent gang wielding yo-yos as weapons. Hirutani sought revenge, but he'd ended up getting beaten by Yugi --no, Yami-- and Joey a second time. They'd both come too close to death for comfort, and it was then that Joey resolved to put his past behind him --once and for all.

But Hirutani was nothing if not a man of his word. He really was horrifically persistent-- though now, it didn't seem as though he were particularly eager to have Joey as his "number two."

Joey spat expertly at the ground, cracked his neck purposefully and put up his fists, ready to take the offense. "I'm ready for ya, Boss Monkey."

"Say it again, WHEELER. I'll kick your ass that much harder."

"I'll say it hundreds of times and ya still wouldn't be able to kick my ass if ya wanted to!" He shouted, before adding, as a taunting afterthought. "**_Red-Assed Boss Monkey_**!"

Joey gnashed his teeth together, his face ripening into a bright red. His fists clenched tigther together, and there wasn't a single doubt in Kaiba's mind that if they were thrown back into the animal kingdom, the Chihuahua would have launched himself against the bigger dog with a less than favorable outcome. Kaiba wasn't one to compromise his own safety for the sake of Wheeler, of all people, but in this fight, if Wheeler went down, so would he. They were on the same team.

A steely grip latched onto Joey's shoulders, holding him back. "Don't do anything stupid, Wheeler."

"You stay out of this, Kaiba." Joey snapped, shrugging him off. "Hirutani and I go a long way back. He's got this coming to him."

"Idiot," Kaiba muttered under his breath. Joey obviously heard him, but for once, he shrugged the insult off. Within seconds, he rushed Hirutani, exchanging a flurry of punches and ducking Hirutani's swings.

Kaiba didn't have enough time to watch the fight though, as he was surrounded a few moments later by a fresh set of thugs eager to see his face become intimately acquainted with the floor. This time, he knew what to expect. Luckily, Kaiba ducked just in time to avoid two of Hirutani's lackeys move in for the attack. Both thugs swung, hitting one another in the face and awkwardly tumbling into the space that Kaiba occupied just moments before. He disposed of the remaining people fool enough to challenge him, looking up just in time to see Hirutani deliver a brutal blow to Joey's neck, brass knuckles cleaving through fabric and flesh.

_'Hirutani's going to kill him!'_

Kaiba didn't know the whole story behind Joey and Hirutani, but at that particular moment in time, it really didn't matter. The last thing he needed on his mind was Wheeler getting killed in a gang-brawl.

Able to mimic the moves the Red King gang members used against him, Kaiba dodged the latest slew of them blocking his way to Joey and Hirutani's one-on-one fight. Hirutani noticed Kaiba's abrupt movement, and between uppercuts and left hooks, he called out to his lackeys still twisting through the shadows.

Kaiba was able to mimic some of the movements that the Red King gang members used against him---mostly moving fast enough to dodge things. It was a hard lesson learned. His lip was swollen and his vision was blurry, but he was a lot more effective than he was before. He had managed to duck a hurling chair targeted for his head and delivered a gruesome punch to the gut of the property-damaging fool. He never imagined himself involved in a fist-fight. Physical exertion was never really his thing--- he often stayed away from rough sports and dreaded any contact sports in gym glass. But there seemed to be a first time for everything. Disposing of the last thug in his immediate area, Kaiba's attention was now drawn toward the one-on-one combat that continued between Hirutani and the mutt.

"Blacks! Get him!"

Kaiba wasn't the only one confused by Hirutani's order-- weren't the _**Red Kings**_ under his command?

_'Hirutani... he's controlling **both** gangs. Letting them practically kill one another while he reaps the rewards!'_

Unfortunately, Kaiba realized this before the Kings and the Skulls did. The moment the Kings saw the Skulls thundering up the stairs, they piled toward them, Skulls versus Kings-- without a single one left to go after Kaiba. Viewing the distraction as an opportunity, Kaiba closed the gap between Hirutani and himself, knowing that even Joey had to see the advantage an extra pair of fists could give him.

The tall gang leader was momentarily distracted by Kaiba's sudden presence next to him, allowing Joey the chance to punch him fiercely in the jaw, teeth cutting open his lip and forcing Hirutani to spew blood. The moment his head turned, Kaiba used the advantage of his long legs to knee Hirutani sharply in the tailbone, forcing him to double over in pain.

But rather than thank him for the help, Joey snarled at Kaiba, shooting him a glare hot enough to burn through solid steel.

"Stay the hell out of this, Kaiba! I'm handlin' this!" Of course, Joey chose an inopportune moment to speak; Hirutani pulled his arm back and punched Joey hard in the jaw.

"Not from this angle, you aren't!" Kaiba shot back, dodging a sudden swerving punch from Hirutani, who'd regained his composure. "Mutts like you just can't be grateful, can you?" Of course, it was a purely rhetorical question, but it only served to get Joey even more angered, though at the moment he was too preoccupied fighting Hirutani to punch Kaiba for his remark.

"Mutt, huh? It suits you, Wheeler!" Hirutani sneered, curling a fist and rocketing it into Joey's stomach. Joey doubled over, coughing up blood, partially sprawled over Hirutani's arm.

"Shut. The. Hell. Up. ASS-MONKEY!" Joey huffed, clawing his way up to Hirutani's neck. Once Joey got a firm grasp on the chains dangling there, he pulled them tightly-- forcing Hirutani to drop his arm and struggle to prevent himself from being choked.

"This is for tryin' to blind me with that glass in our last fight, ya prick!" Joey slammed an iron fist into Hirutani's quickly-paling face. "This is for messin' with my friends--" Hirutani managed to grab hold of Joey's wrist, thus freeing himself from being choked. The older boy didn't waste any time with words, he just sent a fist flying toward Joey. Knuckles connected roughly with the tender skin above Joey's eye, pain lancing through his face as his vision blurred.

"Dammit Wheeler," Kaiba cursed. He reached out and grabbed Hirutani by the stub of his ponytail, forcing the boy --who only had a few centimeters of advantage over Kaiba-- backwards, his limbs flying from the sudden disruption in balance. Without wasting time spouting reasons for why he was stuck in the fight, Kaiba sent a clamped fist toward Hirutani's face, the force knocking gold-plated teeth from the gangster's mouth.

Joey regained his footing, a hand briefly nursing his latest bruise before he looked at Kaiba, his expression odd and somewhat winking. He didn't say anything, but Kaiba knew he was grateful for the split-second distraction he'd caused that probably saved his skin. No words were needed in the following moment, as both Kaiba and Joey grabbed hold of Hirutani's collar and punched him square in the face-- this time knocking Hirutani to the floor.

"And _**that**_ was for bein' a back-stabbin' ass-wipe," Joey announced, his voice carrying over the commotion. Some gangers stop fighting to watch in awe as their leader stumbled back several steps, before collapsing on the floor, a bloody and bruised mess. Kaiba caught his breath, aware that the fights surrounding them were coming to a stop-- and all gazes were drifting in their directon.

"Well, it seems as though the tables have turned. They actually want to listen to you howl, mutt."

"HE--" Joey began angrily, but stopped-- Kaiba was right. All eyes were on Joey... and they weren't looking at him as a deserter or an enemy.

"That's right, you heard me! Hirutani was playin' you Skulls and Kings like a deck a cards! He always has been! What kinda boss has his own friggin' Torture Chamber, huh? I know I ain't the only one who was trussed up from a ceilin' and shocked with tasers!"

Kaiba raised a brow, surprised. _'So he isn't just your run-of-the mill **fighting** mutt.'_

"Don't tell me all them bruises you guys had just from this fight alone. I've been in loads a fights tougher than this, and walked away with less scars. So I ask ya-- what kinda boss tortures his own damn gang, huh? You call that loyalty? You call that _**respect**_?" At this point, Hirutani, seeing that he was beaten, began slowly crawling away. But Joey blocked his way, arms crossed. "Y'going somewhere, Hirutani? Don't you got anything to say in yer defense?" He kicked the gang leader in the gut, knocking him down. Hirutani stifled a groan. "Didn't think so. " Joey turned back to his audience. "See? You don't need to take no shit from a _**red-ass boss monkey**_ like him!"

"Okay, okay!" A wiry man ambled through the crowds of bruised and unconscious gang members, clapping his own hands, but for an entirely different reason. Once Joey's applause died out, the blond looked a bit disappointed but he, like everyone else left in DV8, wanted to know who this stranger was clapping for their attention.

"Most of you guys have been coming to DV8 for a long time now, and I've never cared about whether you're a Skull or a King or what. But this is the first --and the **last**\-- time I will let you get away with messing up my club, so you all better help clean up, or I swear I will call the cops on each and every one of your bottoms!"

There was a brief silence, broken only by muffled laugther. The wiry man shot the laugher an evil glare, and said boy immediately scrambled to his feet and started righting the chairs that had fallen around him. Not long after, Skulls and Kings alike followed suit.

* * *

It wasn't easy cleaning up after a gang brawl, as Mai quickly learned that night. Brucie and Donny took over organizing the teams of gang members that weren't injured enough to require any medical attention, and those that had already been fixed up, setting them to sweeping up the glass and righting the fallen tables and chairs. DV8 was a mess, but the boys were actually helping out-- and the once-rivals were actually **talking** to one another.

Donny went to the trouble of hefting the apparent leader of **both** gangs over his shoulder and letting the paramedics pick him up outside. Brucie, meanwhile, called the cops and informed them of where the leader could be found-- but had, true to his word, kept silent about the gang members still at DV8. They were, after all, helping out...

Which saved Mai a lot of extra time and effort. She was acting nurse, but her thoughts weren't on her 'patients'-- they were on whether or not it had been an entirely smart idea to let Téa leave with Bakura.

"Hey darling," Brucie called, "You almost done over there? You're going to help us close up after these guys head home, right?"

"Yeah, then-- Joey?" Mai blinked, looking at the dirty blond huddled up against the counter, covering his face with one hand.

"Mai?" Joey looked up, startled, the hand that had been nursing his black eye sliding off his face and landing limply in his lap.

"What the hell are you doing here?" Mai demanded, concern outweighing the irritation that masked her pretty face only moments before. "You weren't one of those gang brats messing up this club, were you?" The tone of her voice implied that Mai wouldn't have believed Joey if he had told her that he was-- but there was worry in her eyes.

"Hirutani started it," Kaiba mumbled, not liking the idea that he was coming to Joey's defense. But it was the truth. If Joey really **had** been responsible for the brawl that had caused so much chaos, Kaiba wouldn't have wasted his time. But they'd **both** been cornered and forced into the fight, and now they were forced to retreat, with stinging wounds acting as reminders.

"Hiru-- what in the name of-- KAIBA!"

"The one and only," he snapped sarcastically. It felt like someone had dropped a ton of bricks on the side of his face. Why couldn't she just get him some ice, like she had for the others?

To Kaiba's surprise, her expression softened, and Mai didn't look so astonished any more. "You were here for Téa, weren't you?"

Kaiba didn't say anything, he only looked away. Mai frowned, bending down and inspecting Joey and Kaiba's shared injuries. "I can't think of any other reason why a stuck-up prick like you would be in a club like mine."

"Yours?" Joey spluttered, eyes widening with surprise.

"Well, not really **mine**," Mai amended, her cheeks coloring, "but close enough. The owners and I go way back, and I do work here three nights a week."

"Since when?" the blond demanded.

"Since five years ago. What's it to you?" Mai queried, suspicious. "You weren't really--"

"I used to be," Joey interrupted, knowing that she was toying with the idea that he was still involved with the gangs. "But I don't remember seeing you around here."

"Hmph. I doubt you would have recognized me." And that was the end of that-- Joey shut right up as Mai pressed an cold bag of ice cubes against his purpling bruise.

"I'm not a stuck-up prick," Kaiba murmured once Mai began tending to his own bruises a few minutes later. In truth, he would have preferred it if he could have gotten the ice by himself, but the intimidating-looking bouncer was glowering down at them between snippets of conversation with the wiry man that had to be the owner of the club. No one dared move, or risk the wrath of at least three people in a single instant.

Ignoring his comment, Mai pressed the ice pack harder against his face. Kaiba would have protested, but there was a dangerous glint in her eyes as she regarded him. "Were you really going to apologize?" She sounded disbelieving. Mai was just another person that believed he wasn't capable of apology.

So why did Kaiba feel like Mai was right? He didn't recall that last time he had made a mistake in his life; he didn't recall that last time he needed to apologize for anything--- so why was he feeling so guilty?

But then there had been that time when Téa had saved Mokuba... and risked her own life. She could have died, but she'd cared more about her friends and Mokuba than she did about getting crushed under a two-ton crate. He wanted to apologize for that. But the words had never come, and so much time had passed and...

Why was he even **thinking** of such a long time ago?

Because of her. Téa.

"I don't know why else you would have been here," Mai continued, "but the idea of you apologizing might be giving you too much credit. Still, it'd be a welcome thing. Téa's... not been herself, lately."

"If by 'not herself' you mean gettin' smash drunk and screaming that guys suck from the top of a certain apartment complex's balcony, then yeah, she ain't been herself," Joey muttered darkly, hissing with pain when he ran callused fingers over the cut near his shoulder. Stupid Hirutani with his brass knuckles.

Mai blinked in surprise, while Seto disguised his; he knew Téa hadn't been showing up to school, but getting drunk and acting flamboyant? That wasn't her. Even tonight, she'd seemed mild-mannered (if a little crazy, Kaiba mused. After all, she was wrapped around Bakura!).

"You heard that, huh?" Mai gave a wry chuckle, shaking her head. She edged over to Joey, slapped his hand away from his cut, and began to disinfect it with a cotton ball doused in hydrogen peroxide. The blond hissed between his teeth the moment the puff came into contact with his open wound, glaring angrily at Mai.

"Yeah, I heard it. 'Guys suck.' Plain as day-- between the two of you, I'm surprised all of Tokyo wasn't woken up."

Mai retracted her hand with narrowed eyes, "Don't patronize **me**, Joey Wheeler. I'm not the kind of girl to get drunk without reason, and that night, Téa wasn't either."

"Just that night?" Kaiba asked hollowly. Mai glanced at him, and her gaze flitted to the ground.

She sighed deeply and sat down on the floor between Kaiba and Joey, finally allowing herself a moment to relax. DV8 was officially closed for the night, but the place was still a disaster, and they had a long way to go before everything was cleaned up. There were plenty of injured kids, too...

"I gotta admit, she's been scaring me the past few days. She won't even wait a few hours before she'll down some of the strongest stuff we have. When I'm on duty, I water it down as best I can, but she's a real charmer. If I don't give her what she wants, she'll just get it from someone else. Téa's got half the guys who come here every night buying her drinks. And she doesn't care that she's leading them on one stinkin' bit. She just... she just wants to forget." Mai looked meaningfully at Kaiba, hoping he'd get the message. His face showed no outward sign that he understood her words, but he looked away abruptly.

"So what's your excuse?" Joey asked bluntly, referring to Mai's reason for being drunk the other night.

Mai looked decidedly uncomfortable for an instant; an expression she'd never worn in front of anybody before. At least not Joey-- and certainly not Kaiba. She hated appearing weak and easy in front of anyone, least of all people she regarded as... well, rivals. Joey was more than that, of course, but...

"Guys **do **suck," she uttered darkly as she rose to her feet and walked away.

* * *

"This sucks," Téa groaned. "I can't believe she was right about those gangs..."

"Who was what?" Bakura glanced backwards at her, his gaze briefly drifting to their still-joined hands. Téa fell abruptly silent, staring at Bakura and their hands, before she quickly wrenched her own away, just as Bakura made to tigthen his grip.

Her free hand flew to her oddly fluttering heart --what was this **weird** sensation she got whenever she was around Bakura? It wasn't just the uneasiness, of knowing that he was an enemy of her best friend, and a dangerous individual at that, but... something else.

Fingers groped the skin at the top of Téa's glittering blue halter top, and she realized something with dismay.

"My necklace!" Téa spun around in quick circle, hoping that her mother's precious sapphire necklace simply fell off while she and Bakura ran from the brawl at DV8.

_'Please don't let it still be back at the club...'_

But it was nowhere in sight.

"It doesn't matter," Bakura insisted between tightly clenched teeth, his hand once again snaking out to ensnare Téa's wrist. She stumbled forward, practically falling into his arms, and that was when the bizarre sensation flooded her senses again. It wasn't like anything Téa ever experienced before-- nor anything she cared to explore at the moment.

She wanted to snap at Bakura, and tell them that he didn't know anything about her, or what mattered to her, but...

_'He saved me. Again.'_

Téa could only pray that her necklace would be found by Mai and given to her later that night.

* * *

The club was just about cleaned up, and Kaiba --the great Seto Kaiba, CEO of his own corporation-- was reduced to sweeping up broken glass. But in return for avoiding another potential scandal and for getting free medical care, he wasn't going to complain.

The last pile of shards were about to go into the trash when something caught his eye-- a gold chain with a tiny, teardrop shaped sapphire dangling off the end. Kaiba bent to pick the necklace off the floor, removing the tangles of dust and glass specks that surrounded it.

_'This necklace...'_

It had to be hers. He remembered that necklace only too well --from when they'd danced.

But tonight, she'd been at this club, and dancing in the arms of someone else...

_"You owe me."_

"Ready to go?"

The deep, familiar voice startled Kaiba out of the reverie he'd slipped into. DV8 was now as cleaned up as it could be, and Donny and Brucie --the co-owners of the club, as Kaiba had come to learn-- told the remaining boys there was nothing more they could do. Grateful for the medical attention and the fact that the owners weren't pressing charges of any sort (something Kaiba was privately grateful for, and sure that Wheeler couldn't possibly understand), they headed toward the door... only to be greeted by a less-than-scathed Yami Yugi.

"Yug', ya--" Joey stopped, his eyes widening as he caught sight of the pile of guys just outside the back door to DV8. It was pouring rain outside, but the gang members were piled one on top of another, not moving a muscle. A discarded taser, broken and still crackling, lay just outside the pile of boys' reach.

Kaiba couldn't hide his surprise; he would have thought Yugi the type to duck out from a physical fight --but that was obviously not the case here. The same Yugi that he'd dueled... the Yugi that hadn't shown his face for so long. There was a nagging desire in the back of Kaiba's mind --he wanted to duel again. Defeat Yugi, once and for all, but...

It was not the time, nor the place.

"Repeat of the last trick ya pulled on these losers?" Joey grinned, stepping beneath the back door awning. He smirked as Yami Yugi chose to remain silent, and he wiped off his Millennium Puzzle with a towel from the washrooms. Kaiba noted with some disdain that Yugi barely sported more than a single bruise-- a small one on his cheek, surrounded by a few scratches that would probably be gone in a few days.

It was horrifically unfair.

Yugi --diminutive, nobody Yugi. He always came up out of nowhere and triumphed, and it was obviously true for situations outside of dueling. While Kaiba --and even Wheeler, who had once been **part** of the very gangs they'd fought-- had both walked away with large bruises and painful gashes, Yugi, who always waxed eloquent about not fighting and friendship, barely sported a spot.

This was probably his just reward for wondering where his dueling opponent went earlier. Timid little Yugi vanished, and the person Seto Kaiba recognized as his one true rival now stood in his place.

"We should get going. There is nothing left for us here," Yami Yugi said simply, not giving Joey a definitive answer. But Joey obviously didn't need one; he grinned like a banshee at the sight of the pile of guys outside the door --Odagiri, Cigs, and Oil Head conspicuously absent-- passed out in the pouring rain.

"Better luck tomorrow?" Joey shrugged. He glanced from Yugi to Kaiba, then sighed. "I ain't stickin' around in this weather. Gotta go." And without another word, Joey Wheeler sprinted off into the gray rain.

"Tomorrow," Yami Yuugi said, and then walked off, heedless of the rain ruining his hairstyle or potentially damaging his leather-wear.

_'Tomorrow.'_ Kaiba thought. He couldn't give up. He had to find her. He had to.

* * *

"I would have thought she'd change her mind," Yugi mumbled, flopping his head into his arms.

"Téa's been through it all, Yug'," Joey frowned, "I don't think something like a gang brawl would stop her from going to a club and dancin' her heart out."

"Except she's not just dancing her heart out, she's been getting smash drunk, and there's only so long before the teachers will find out, and refuse to let her back in school," Chieko stated, shaking her head. Ever since she'd pointed the boys in Téa's direction by mentioning Téa's secret rendevous with Bakura, she had been privy to the meetings the boys had discussing how they would get Téa back to her senses, and back in school.

Besides Chieko, Tristan, and Duke also joined Yugi and Joey in their plots, as they gathered in the classroom at lunch. Oddly enough, Kaiba, who sat only a few desks from Tristan, near whose desk the group sat, remained in class during lunch-- though he typically went out and ate lunch elsewhere-- alone. Chieko knew she wasn't the only one who noticed this-- Yugi also had, and the small boy shot furtive glances in Kaiba's directions when he thought no one was listening.

He was listening in.

"Tell me again why we don't just go up to Bakura and--"

"Because!" Yugi hissed, "If he does, he'll just tell Téa and we'll never be able to get hold of her ever again."

"Are you thinkin' what I think you're thinkin', Yug'?" Joey asked, staring at his best friend with a raised brow. Yugi glanced up at Joey, confusion plain on his youthful face.

"Uhm--"

"That it ain't Ryou Bakura we're dealin' with but--"

"The Spirit of the Millennium Ring," Tristan finished, grimacing.

* * *

"Gah... natural light! It burns..." Téa flopped her arm over her eyes, but it didn't serve as a total shield against the sunlight now streaming into Mai's living room.

"Oh, stop complaining and get up. You've been asleep for nearly twelve hours now. Do you really want to waste the day away on the couch?" Mai replied, shuffling into the kitchen and grabbing herself an iced tea from her fridge.

"Do you really wanna know the answer to that?" Téa groaned. "Man, I have a hangover..."

"I know," Mai snapped. "That's why I want you to get up off your ass and do something. Work it off."

"Mai, much as I appreciate everything you've done for me, you're not my mother, and I didn't come here to be lectured."

Mai didn't respond. When Téa dared to peer out from under her arms, Mai was glaring at her icily, her arms crossed over her chest.

"Mai, I didn't mean--"

"Whatever, Téa. I'm going out. To **_do_** something. Have fun with your stupid hangover." And with that, Mai slammed the door and left the apartment.

Téa groaned, smothering her face with a pillow. She hadn't meant to anger Mai! If it weren't for the blonde, she'd be out on the streets, or dead from pneumonia!

Mai leaned against her apartment door, heaving a great sigh. She hadn't meant to patronize Téa, or sound like she was trying to mother her --especially since Téa's mother was dead. But she was worried about the girl. Days passed since the gang brawl at DV8, but Téa, unperturbed, still went every single night. Bakura showed up as well-- usually a bit late, and never there when the club opened at six, like Téa was.

In the meantime, Téa ordered strong drinks from the bar --from bartenders other than Mai-- and danced with strange boys. She let them talk to her, flirt with her, dance with her-- and buy her drinks. She continually threw herself into a world of disillusionment, until reality hit her hard and fast the next day, in the form of a fierce hangover. Mai warned her --in the gentlest ways she could manage-- but Téa never listened.

It didn't matter what Mai told her-- about her past experiences, or about police catching her --a minor!-- drunk and in an eigtheen-and-up club. Téa slurred her excuses, and resumed the same activity, night after night. Mai was tempted --however briefly-- to bring Yugi and the others into it, and maybe get them to get some semblance back into their friend, but... Mai remembered what Téa told her about the last day she'd been in school.

They'd ignored her. Abandoned her. And that was a feeling Mai only knew too well, and not one that Mai wished Téa would remember.

Maybe this was just one of those things she had to learn the hard way...

* * *

"Hey!"

Kaiba paused, but he didn't turn around to face the caller-- he already knew it was Joey. The fact that he was stopping for the mutt spoke volumes already-- words that Seto Kaiba would never utter aloud. He actually had a modicum of respect for the dog now, and, well... Kaiba **_owed_**him.

"You goin' back to the club, tonight, ain't ya?"

He certainly had a way with words.

"What of it?"

"I got my own issues to sort out," Joey mumbled. "But if someone tries to pull a stunt like the other night..." he trailed off, unwilling to admit that Kaiba had saved his skin the other night-- on multiple occasions. But then, the reverse was also true, and had he not saved Kaiba, it was likely that the CEO would be sporting more than one large bruise on the side of his face.

"...I can't believe I'm saying this, but we actually make quite a team, Wheeler."

"He--" Joey stopped abruptly. Not 'mutt,' but... 'Wheeler.' "Thanks, man."

Kaiba merely nodded in acknowledgment, beginning to walk away again.

"Hey! What about--"

"Meet me at Lake Entrance to Domino Park, six o'clock sharp. Don't be late..." Joey was unaware of the smirk curling the corner of Kaiba's lips, "mutt."

* * *

The Queen of Wands.

Téa.

Bakura's fingers slid over the highly decorated Tarot Cards, his eyes narrowed. He had several cards laid out in a six-pointed star formation, with three cards those on the top three points, two in the center, and two at the upper joints. Téa's card was the one on the uppermost point, while the two to the left and right were his and Seto's cards, respectively. Bakura had chosen the Knight of Wands for himself --a card representing someone of a charming nature but volatile personality-- and the King of Swords for Kaiba. The King of Swords represented one who was intelligent, logical and collected. Not someone who would make emotionally-charged decisions and get in the way.

He couldn't afford that.

Bakura turned the card below the King of Swords face-up.

_'What...?'_

It wasn't right. It couldn't be. Seto Kaiba... feeling guilty about the past? Regretting his actions? It seemed highly uncharacteristic of him, but there the card was-- the Nine of Swords, indicating just that. Well-- Bakura had to be wary. He moved on to another card-- this one two cards below Téa's Queen. Justice.

Strange. Another card that he wouldn't have been able to predict.

The card indicated that Téa would be making a decision soon. Choosing between two opposing forces and... Bakura swallowed the lump that had grown in his throat. He was **not** anxious. The fool Kaiba had missed his chance, and now the ancient Spirit had to make use of this opportunity to find out just what connection he had with Téa. Who was she? Why... why did he feel the way he did around her?

What did he have anything to do with her decision, though? Admittedly, he wanted to explore this odd sensation he got around her --that niggling in the back of his mind that started (by the Gods, could he even remember?) long ago. The next card in the sequence was that of his own thoughts and feelings. Flipping the card over with a small measure of trepidation, Bakura examined the card.

The Eight of Cups. An abandonment of one's current path in life, and... disappointment in love? How foolish. It wasn't as if he was _falling_ for the damn girl. Nor was he getting distracted from his purpose --collect the seven Millennium Items and destroy the Pharaoh utterly with them.

Yet... it had been a while since Bakura had truly made the effort to obtain the items. Other things had gotten in the way. Other... _people._

It was simply too disturbing. Perhaps the cards could reveal his connection to Téa here and now, and he wouldn't have to bother with--

"Damn!"

The Blank Card. Sitting at the left joint of the star formation, between Bakura's Knight and Téa's Queen, was the Blank Card. It represented that which could not be foretold. The unknown, the impossible. The unpredictable.

The infuriating spread tempted Bakura to just sweep all the cards off the table, and mark their fortunes as meaningless. But he was a master of the occult! His predictions were never off...

And that only made matters worse.

Flipping over the remaining cards with little patience left to him, Bakura revealed the Eight of Wands below the Queen, indicating that her goal was about to be reached. Involuntarily, brown eyes darted toward The Lovers card. In the last reading he had done for the fool Kaiba and Téa, **that** card had been in the position of their shared goals and hopes. They **wanted** to be together.

_'He doesn't deserve her!'_ Bakura thought angrily, unaware that his jealousy was increasing with each card he overturned. Him, jealous? Of the fool Kaiba, of the idiot priest? He was nothing --no one!-- to him. He didn't even have his memories of the past, and for that self-same reason, he'd be doomed to repeat his mistakes over and over... And for whatever reason, that meant Téa --the oddball out, with seemingly no real connection to the Bakura **or** the Ancient Past-- had to be protected, lest Seto screw things up again.

Below that, the Wheel of Fortune. A cycle of good and bad, repeating again. Everything had been horrible for Téa up until this point --Bakura knew that much. And if the cycle was turning in her favor, then...

The Lovers. The Eight of Wands. Justice.

All the cards were beginning to add up, to make sense-- and Bakura didn't like it, not one bit.

Only three more cards to go-- those crowning his, Téa's, and Kaiba's cards. The cards representative of their most powerful influences, and their past. For him, the Chariot. Being pulled willfully in two directions, by two opposing forces. There was his own inner desperation to see the Pharaoh pay for his injustices of so many years ago, to get the revenge that he'd always longed for.

And then there was **her**.

She was something... different. Not new, Bakura knew that. She had to be from the Ancient Past, somehow, even if who she had been remained unfathomable to Bakura. She possessed a great spirit and strength like nothing he'd ever known, like nothing he'd ever tasted before. She pulled at him, urging him away from his mission. Forget the Millennium Items. Follow me. Stay with me.

But she didn't **want** him. After all those nights of hovering on the outskirts of his other's mind, Bakura still knew... no matter what Téa said, she still loved him. She loved that damn fool, and he didn't even know.

_'Let him feel guilty for his actions and words-- he still doesn't deserve to have her back!'_

But this was a situation beyond his control.

The Tower --catastrophe, and utter, complete change. The death of her parents, and her decision --no, her being **kicked out**\-- of the Kaiba Mansion. Life-changing events that made her wiser, more mature... and yet, not the girl he'd been drawn to initially. She was different from when he'd first encountered her...

They all were.

And Kaiba? The Three of Swords. Reversed, oddly enough. Disorder, sorrow, and confusion. He wanted to act on his guilt, he wanted to apologize... but he was still unsure about his feelings for Téa.

_'Wait a moment...'_

Seto Kaiba, guilty, upset, and confused? Ready to... apologize?

"Stay the hell away from her, fool!"

Bakura didn't waste a second in grabbing his jacket and heading out the door. He had to get to DV8 before Kaiba did. He just **had** to.

* * *

"What are **you** doing here?" Kaiba asked bluntly, the moment he caught sight of Yugi walking alongside Joey. But aside from his rival, no one else accompanied Wheeler, and for that, Kaiba was privately a bit grateful. The last thing he needed was an entire entourage when he...

"Hey, don't be startin' nothin'--" Joey began, but Yugi actually cut him off.

"It's okay, Joey." Yugi glanced toward Kaiba with a strange sort of sadness in his eyes, and it was then that Kaiba recalled Yugi's words from earlier: _She cares more about you than she does about me._

"You know you're not the only one that cares about Téa," Yugi murmured. "I just want to make sure she's okay."

In the back of Kaiba's mind, he briefly wondered if Yugi was just there to screw things up for him-- whether he intended to or not. Yugi was more than his rival --he was a physical manifestation of all the doubts Kaiba harbored over the past several days-- ever since he'd made up his mind to talk to Téa, and figure things out once and for all.

"'Sides, we passed DV8 on the way here, shmuck. It ain't open yet. They're doin' some kinda screenin' of everyone that enters, so the line's goin' around the block. Even **if** Téa got smuggled in early," Joey continued, his refusal to mention Mai's name obvious, "she ain't dancin' yet. We gotta wait."

He didn't mean 'wait in line.' But the mutt **was** right, much as Kaiba hated to admit it-- again.

"I've got to talk to Kaiba," Yugi stated suddenly, catching both Kaiba and Joey's attention. Joey looked at his friend unsurely, then up at Kaiba.

"You sure, Yug'?"

Yugi only nodded. Joey heaved a sigh, shoving his hands into his pockets as he walked away. "Good luck, Yug'!" He called, disappearing behind the curve in the path.

Kaiba had no intention of speaking to Yugi, but the unfortunate thing about his rival was that he was nothing if not horrifically stubborn. On more than one occasion, he'd been accused of being the very same thing-- so he wasn't about to walk away and make it that much more apparent to Yugi.

"I really **am** just going to check up on her," Yugi admitted. "I'm not going to stop you from talking to her. You both need to..." Yugi shook his head, leaving his sentence incomplete. "Don't you want to know why, Kaiba? Why I'm not going to get in your way anymore?"

"I don't particularly care about the '**why's**' Yugi, only that you stay out of my way from here on out," Kaiba snapped, coming off as a bit more caustic than even he thought was necessary. But then... Yugi was his rival. And now, it was in more ways than one. They both wanted Téa--

"I kissed her."

It wasn't easy masking a reaction to that. Kaiba visibly flinched, wrenching his gaze away from Yugi.

_"I didn't want to do anything before we were ready!" _

He'd wanted to kiss her, so badly. And he'd pretty much told her as much in that moment, but everything was so complicated... and problems piled on top of one another, and things ended up... well, not the way he wanted! Why was it that Kaiba found himself constantly competing against Yugi --for everything? For the first time in his life, he'd wanted something besides victory, besides power, security, and protection. He'd wanted her. Selfishly, he'd wanted Téa, for no other reason than to have her.

But again, Yugi had beat him to it...

The smaller boy had crushed on Téa for longer than Kaiba could even remember. And now, after all this time, he'd gone and expressed his feelings for her. So now what?

"She doesn't feel the same way," Yugi continued, either blind to Kaiba's reaction or choosing to ignore it. "I still love her, more than anything," Yugi admitted, "but I'm not going to compete with you for her. She's not some prize to be won. She's... she's my friend," Yugi said forcefully, almost as if reassuring himself of that fact, "and I don't ever want to lose that."

The very same things that, a year ago, Kaiba would have reprimanded Yugi for: love, friendship, blind loyalty, and ridiculous devotion... well now, they were the things that made Yugi the better man. He didn't see Téa --or any of the others-- as a weakness. They were his strength, his constant companions and...

"Even if she doesn't feel the same way, you'd still stay friends with her?"

Somehow Kaiba found that hard to believe. How could Yugi possibly stand being around Téa every day, seeing her bright eyes and brushing against her soft skin, without wanting her completely?

And now Kaiba had a whole new set of things to reprimand himself for. Not for bothering to listen to Yugi Moto, but for waxing poetic about Téa Gardner. For letting himself become hopelessly entangled in his own emotions, without any hope of returning...

Yugi looked pained. "I-- I have to try."

"Don't bother trying," Kaiba said gruffly, standing up. Yugi glanced up at him, ready to protest, but Kaiba cut him off. "Trying is useless. You have to DO it. Plenty of things in this life are difficult, but making the honest, solid effort makes you all the stronger for it. Saying you're only going to 'try' means you aren't giving it your all, and that's just not good enough. Not for you, and not for her."

Good god. Had he just given Yugi Moto a pep talk? Why wasn't the sky falling?

"Comin' from ya, Moneybags, that's kinda scary."

Wheeler.

"What do you want?" Kaiba asked. Still, his voice lacked his usual disdain for Joey's presence-- the usual contempt. After that brawl they'd both been in back at DV8, there had been an unspoken sort of peace between the two boys. It unsettled them both, to be sure, but given the circumstances, it just didn't feel right to say anything. Still, the mutt had chosen at apt time to reappear.

"To do what you want, and what Yug' wants, too. Go get Téa."

* * *

He had to find her.

Even if she **was** with that damned Bakura --that snake!-- he had to see her.

His fist clenched around the necklace he'd found the other night. He knew it was hers. He knew that she would miss it.

Though he still couldn't remember much of the night of the Ball, Kaiba's dance with Téa was clearly imprinted in his mind. He remembered leaning her back, feeling the softness of her skin sending warmth coursing through his hands, through his veins...

A tiny sapphire pendant had winked at him from between the curve of her breasts -a simple, golden chain with a tear-drop shaped sapphire on the end. When he'd brought her back into his chest during that dance, she'd told him that the necklace was her mother's... and the last thing she had of her.

Even if he'd been right in telling her that she possessed more than that --she had her memories-- he had to give it back to her.

Maybe it was just an excuse to see her again... to talk to her.

To apologize?

It was easy to get into DV8, now that he knew those guarding the back entrance. Those once part of the Red Kings and still on good terms with Joey possessed a measure of respect for Kaiba-- after he'd helped them in that last brawl.

His cheekbone still sported the remnants of a purple bruise, but it wasn't as if Kaiba cared that much. After all, getting arrested, involved in a gang brawl, and spending sleepless nights thinking of her wasn't the way Kaiba had envisioned spending his days with Téa in his life. But now that she was gone --or at least, appearing intermittently-- all he wanted was to ignore the voice of Gozaburo... and to get her back.

The boys at the back entrance gave Kaiba a curt nod before stepping aside, letting him into the DV8 entrance that led through a dimly lit hallway, past the bathrooms and straight onto the dance floor, completely side-stepping the upstairs balcony where most people entered.

As far as anyone knew, he'd paid the cover and been let in long ago-- and just went to the bathroom. No one seemed any the wiser as Kaiba entered the main area, edging his way past throngs of people dancing to a remixed version of a foreign song.

He had to find her.

Before he lost his nerve, before Gozaburo's voice came back and haunted him, yelling at him, reminding him that Téa made him weak, made him **feel**. But, as contradictory as that was to everything he'd been taught, Kaiba **wanted** to feel. Almost more than anything else...

The lights moved quickly, blue shining right into Kaiba's eyes, very nearly blinding him and halting him in his steps. When he lowered his arm and glanced about again, orange spots dotted his vision, people mere formations of color and shadow.

But amongst all the strangers and beyond all the unimportant shapes... she was there. Somewhere.

* * *

  
_'How stupid could I be? A simpleton could see... that you're no good for me... But you're the only one I see...'_

It was easy to become addicted to the kind of life DV8 offered to its patrons. Téa became drunk off it, allowing herself to meld with the music. Nothing else mattered. Not school, not life, not death, not love...

She forced herself into believing that she was perfectly fine without Seto Kaiba in her life, and that if Yugi and the others were going to ignore her for who she was and what she felt, then... then maybe she was better off without them.

Yet each time such thoughts burbled forth, her heart ached in protest. And each night, Téa drowned out those traitorous thoughts with drink after drink. She was well aware of the pounding headaches and lethargy that would sweep over her the following morning, those same thoughts coming back in surround sound to tell her that she couldn't just forget about her problems with alcohol...

But each night, she repeated the process over and over again. Mai, once her staunchest advocate of doing whatever it took to forget about guys, now cast worried glances Téa's way. But it didn't matter. None of it mattered. Nothing mattered... not anymore.

She **was** stupid. Stupid for ever thinking that anything would be easy, that love could **ever ** be simple for her. What it came down to, plain and simple, was that she was cursed. First Yami, and now...

What made no sense was how, no matter how hard she tried, Seto Kaiba kept invading her thoughts.

_'I told myself I would fall out of love with him! Why can't I just... **do** it?'_

Every time she tried to conjure up thoughts of how cruel he'd been to her, with his harsh words, his frigid stares, and his unrelenting posture, thoughts of happier times --of slight smiles, twinkling eyes, and warm, spicy lips crushing against her own-- came to mind. Her body grew warm, and tears found their way to her eyes...

And she just knocked back another drink, refusing to admit that maybe love wasn't as easy as she'd made it out to be.

**__**

* * *

_'This isn't as easy as I thought it'd be.'_

It didn't matter if Mai was a blonde bombshell; DV8 had always been a popular club, and even though Mai was a bartender, she wasn't easy to spot. But Joey Wheeler didn't give up. Joey Wheeler **never** gave up.

After the other night, she was all he could think about.

_"Guys **do** suck." _

Mai wasn't being sarcastic. She meant it. And... it hurt.

He had to ask her, then-- why did guys suck? What happened in her past that made her so headstrong and determined? Why had she gotten tangled up with slimy guys like Jean Claude Magnum? What happened to Mai Valentine, renowned champion, casino duelist-- the rare female duelist who could not only pack a punch, but...

But a hell of a kiss, too.

Memories of that time --that now seemed so far away-- haunted Joey, and drove him forward.

The kiss... their petty arguments...

_"Man, this is nuts. It's like walkin' in a ghost town! I'm gettin' freaked out!"_

_"That pretty cowardly of you to say, Joey." _

Joey cast a surprised look at Mai, and quickly shrugged off the hurt he'd felt at her words. _"Sorry."_

She was the only one he ever apologized, to, either. Well, besides his friends, but... but they were different. **She** was diifferent. Mai Valentine appeared in Joey's every thought, his every dream. And he'd never felt the way he had for anyone before-- at least, not for this long a period of time. Residual feelings from Duelist Kingdom dragged on into the RPG World, and afterwards... through Battle City.

_'I almost lost her.' _

Marik almost killed her. She could have lost her mind, and lost her memories of them --of him!-- but...

Yugi, as always, saved the day. The jealousy that always simmered below the surface of Joey's skin boiled in remembrance-- he'd wanted to be the one to defeat Marik, to save Mai, to have her wake up in his arms and--

Well, she'd woken up. She was fine. Everything went on. Life was back to "normal," whatever that was. But questions remained unanswered, and thoughts were left unsaid.

He had to find her. He couldn't wait any longer.

* * *

"Everything changes, everything falls apart. I can't stand to feel myself losing control... in the deep of my senses, I know..."

_'Ever since she came into my life...'_

Or his home, rather.

Seto Kaiba hadn't really thought much about Téa before-- during their first year of high school, or during his encounters with Yugi and Joey.

He'd noticed her, of course-- she was the lone female in a pack of males, and an enigma compared to the soft spoken girls that surrounded her at Domino High. Loud, outspoken, boisterous-- almost a boy in her own right, but...

With brilliant eyes, soft skin, and supple curves...

Oh, he remembered.

He remembered the dance, and how it felt to hold her in his arms, closer than he'd ever held anyone before. He remembered the touch of her skin under his, when she'd permitted him to slather her with sun screen at the beach. He remembered her gaze, directed solely on him, as she whispered for him to smile...

_'I don't understand it. Around her, I-- I can't think straight. Everything is always so... so damn confusing!'_

Once upon a time, he'd thought... maybe he was falling in love with her. When he'd visited his parents' graves just after his birthday, she'd stood beside him... and he'd admitted in silent prayer that her presence did something to him that no one else's did. But maybe he'd been too presumptuous. So much happened between then and now, and yet... he still wanted to find her, and figure his feelings out. Figure out why she caused such reactions in him. No, not just 'her,' -- her gaze, her touch-- hell, even her scent!

She'd slept in his bed that first night she'd moved into the house. Despite the fact that Kaiba --flushed brilliant red-- carried her to her proper bedroom when he'd discovered her, her scent imprinted itself into his sheets, his blankets, his pillows...

He hadn't slept that night.

The only reason why his lack of rest didn't show the next day was because Seto Kaiba was an expert at going without sleep. He could have gone down to his office, or even to the couch in the living room, but the same gentle smell that kept him awake also kept him riveted to his own bed. A soft, sweet smell...

And violet eyes, practically boring into his head.

_'Yugi.'_ The smaller boy was staring at him from some distance away, his expression unreadable. After a moment, the spiky-haired boy disappeared into the shadows, obviously rescinding his search to Kaiba.

And there she was-- just a flash of a glittering navy blue tube top, and shiny brown hair-- but it couldn't be anyone else.

_'Somehow... I don't mind.' _

It wasn't that he didn't mind Yugi giving up the search... it was that he didn't mind Téa causing the strange feeling in him. The dark curling in the pit of his stomach, or the frustration at not remembering the Ball... a myriad of feelings, of thoughts, sensations, and memories. And at the center of them all... **her**.

* * *

"How stupid could I be? A simpleton could see that you're no good for me... But you're the only one I see..."

Téa once again found herself so lost in her thoughts --in her dance-- that she wasn't aware of her surroundings until they closed in on her. Particularly, a lanky boy wearing a black school uniform that she didn't recognize-- one easily three sizes too big for him. His hair was a disgusting shade of aquamarine, streaked with what appeared to be failed bits of blond, though the majority of his head was covered with a ratty red knit beanie.

"Hey, beautiful."

Téa hadn't heard him --at first. But the moment he'd laid his hand on her, she knew there was someone there, and he didn't just want to buy her a drink.

"Excuse me," Téa moved away, not wanting to bother with formalities. Where was Bakura?

"You're excused," the pimple-faced boy smirked, revealing yellowing teeth. Téa cringed, trying to take a step backwards, but she found herself pressed against a pole.

"But you'll have to excuse me... I just can't help but want to do you--" The smile on his thin, pink lips curled, horrifying Téa as she glanced past the boy, hoping that Bakura or Mai would appear and help her out.

The world was fast becoming a delirious blur of lights and colors, and Téa knew, with an astonishing level of clarity, that if she tried to fight the shrimp-lipped boy, she wouldn't get away with it. She could scream, but no one would hear her-- not over the loud music.

Shrimp Lips took Téa's silence as acquiescence, and pressed himself against her, his greasy hands pinning her wrists to the pole. His breath, hot and tinged with the stench of cigarettes neared ever closer...

_'Oh god. Somebody-- anybody--!'_

**__**

* * *

  
"Please, stop..."

"I think the lady wants you to leave her alone."

_'It can't be...'_ Téa thought, still struggling to get away from her amorous captor.

But it was.

"Mind your own business--" Shrimp Lips started, but in the second that he turned and faced the source of the voice, he paled.

"You're that creep from the other night," he stuttered, his grip on Téa's wrists slipping away.

Kaiba gazed at the brute with a critical eye. "Didn't I kick your ass that night?" He didn't wait for an answer. "Back for an encore?"

The guy released Téa in a hurry, shaking his head fervently. "Stay the hell away from this place if you know what's good for you, punk," Kaiba snarled at the Black Skull's retreating back.

When he turned back around to face Téa, her gaze was averted from his, as she smoothed out her skirt and adjusted her dangerously-low cut halter top. The silence between the two was deafening, even more so than the loud music pulsating throughout the club.

_'Say something...'_

"If you're expecting a thank you, you're not going to get it," Téa finally said, refusing to meet Kaiba's gaze.

The truth was, she'd been terrified out of her mind in that moment. DV8 was a place she'd gone to escape her problems, to ignore the outside world... but the fact was, DV8 was just a haven for people like that. People desperate for attention, for solace, for peace. That guy had wanted **her**attention, and he'd almost forced her to--

"I'm not."

So what, then? Why was he here?

Instead of returning to the dance floor, Téa leaned against the railing separating the balcony from the stage and the dancers below. The entering crowd thinned out some over the course of the evening, and now the entire right staircase remained shrouded in darkness, unused.

"We need to talk."

"About what?" Téa asked, hardly missing a beat. She still wasn't looking at him. It began to grate on Kaiba's nerves --he just wanted to... to **talk**!-- but he remained silent. This was his fault, and he needed to ignore the snappish voice in his head, demanding that she look at him, or else none of this was worth his time. The bruise still on his cheek smarted, a very physical reminder of why she **was** worth it, even if it took her another week before she'd look him in the eye again.

But then, maybe he didn't want her to look at him. He'd see the look in her eyes and suddenly realize...

_'That she hates me.'_

She had every right to, really. Well, maybe not after saving her like that, but...

He would have done it again in a heartbeat, even if she did hate him.

The Téa that he remembered wasn't afraid to look in his eyes. Even when she was angry at him, or saddened by his words... she always looked him in the eye. She always told him exactly what he needed to hear, even if he didn't **want** to hear it...

A fleeting memory came to mind-- of a distant night, of fingers brushing against shoulders and her suddenly turning to look at him and...

_'We were so close.'_

So close to kissing. So close to... something more. And he'd gone and ruined it all. But he wanted that back, more than anything else in that moment...

He and Téa walked down the stairs to where Mai was busy finishing up her bartending shift --she was only working a few hours that night, having worked overtime when the gang fight occurred-- in silence. Téa didn't bother to pester Kaiba for what they needed to talk about, and he didn't care to elaborate. If she would just agree to speak to him, then maybe...

"Téa, what are you--" Mai halted in front of her friend, her eyes widening as she caught sight of Kaiba standing right behind Téa. She hadn't seen him come in-- nor had she recognized him until the last moment. He looked odd, dressed in the same sort of clothes any usual club-goer would wear-- which Mai supposed made him seem all the stranger. Gone were the usual trench coats and high collars typical of Seto Kaiba, and in their place were a navy turtleneck and black jeans, with a black pea coat hanging open and down to his knees.

"I'm going to head out a bit early tonight and... talk."

"Oh." Though she only said one word, Mai's voice expressed all the relief she felt inside. It was about damn time Téa resolved her issues with Kaiba-- and got herself off the dance floor, away from the bar, and back at the place that she still called 'home' --even when she thought Mai wasn't listening.

"I'm not the only one that needs to talk," Kaiba said abruptly. Mai blinked, confused, until Kaiba gestured behind Mai.

Joey stood there, his eyes awash with seriousness. He didn't even need to say those four little words "We need to talk." Mai knew.

_'Maybe Téa's not the only one_ _with issues to resolve,'_ Mai thought bitterly. She nodded solemnly, regarding Joey with a strange look in her eyes.

"Yeah. I guess you're right."

* * *

Joey Wheeler was not exactly one for talking. He was a firm believer in the proverb 'Actions speak louder than words,' but at the particular moment he was walking Mai home --for the second time in his life, and filled with the same anxiety as before-- Joey couldn't think of a single thing to do **or** say.

Mai, of course, was the exact opposite-- she always knew what she wanted, and she always spoke her mind.

"Joey, do you have something to say to me, or not?"

He hesitated. His sarcasm the other night pushed her away from him, and it hurt him more than he wanted to let on.

"I--"

But how could he possibly say it to her? That he was sorry, that he was concerned, that... that he **cared**? He was just run-of-the mill Joey Wheeler.

A "mutt."

She was... rich. Beautiful. Popular. Famous, even.

And he... well, even in a city populated by Duelists, people could have cared less about whoever was 2nd place in Duelist Kingdom, or 3rd place in Battle City. Despite these crowning achievements (as Joey considered them), fewer people recognized him than Mai. That was just the defining difference between them, he guessed. And... she'd been around longer.

He wasn't even eigtheen yet, and she was twenty-four, going on twenty-five later on that month.

"I-I've been... uh, thinking..."

Temptation presented itself to Mai-- she could just give up on Joey, and stick to her guns of never having anything to do with men ever again. She could make a sarcastic, cruel comment-- that Joey _**thinking**_ was dangerous, and she needn't waste her time on the fruitless results of such an endeavor. But for some reason, she couldn't bring herself to be so cold to him-- not without reason.

He didn't deserve to be treated like dirt, just because... because she'd been treated the same way, by every other guy in her past.

"...Ah heck, never mind," Joey muttered, scratching behind his ear. He couldn't do it. They were just **too** different.

"Joey Wheeler!" Mai snapped. The annoyance was plain on her pretty face now; she didn't want to believe that Joey really was a waste of her time. She remained unaware of Joey's own hesitation and doubts --the reasons why he forced himself to stay silent in face of what he desperately wanted to say.

"Spit it out already! There's got to be a reason for why you dragged me out here, when I could be back in the club having **_fun_**!"

Fun. _**Fun**_. Mai's idea of fun was probably dancing with other guys, getting drunk, and...

"Dammit, Mai! You know I ain't good with words, an'--"

_'And I don't want to lose you. I don't want to lose you to that kind of life, the way I lost my dad. You can see someone every single day, but know for a fact that they don't look at you the way you want them to..._'

Such thoughts tumbled from his mind easier than they could from his mouth.

"And what, Joey?" Sure, she was trying his patience, but... maybe she owed him that much. Her voice dropped lower, and she dared to step forward, staring at Joey through half-lidded eyes.

"And here I'm tryin' to tell you how you feel, and I just..."

Well. That was unexpected.

Mai half expected him to lecture her about Téa or something.

_'How **do** you feel, Joey?'_ But she couldn't say those words out loud. Instead, she said, "Why did you want to talk to me, Joey?"

Unfortunately, she came off as more exasperated than she really was. This resulted in Joey thinking she really **_was _**annoyed with him, and just wanted him --lowly Joey Wheeler-- to leave her alone, once and for all.

"Why do I gotta give a reason for bein' in love with--" Joey stopped, realizing what he'd just said. Mai's eyes widened, her gaze changing from angry and annoyed to soft and surprised.

Joey ducked his head, as Mai's intense gaze only caused his cheeks to burn even hotter. Great. He'd gone and embarrassed himself, again, and now she knew...

"Do you really mean that?"

Well, so much for the hope that she hadn't heard him. Or that she'd **_misheard _**him. But Joey Wheeler wasn't a coward. He couldn't run away... not now.

"...Yeah."

A heavy silence lapsed between the two, until Mai finally broke, her cheeks a faint shade of pink. "Well, don't just stand there sulking. Be a gentleman and walk me home!"

It wasn't exactly the response Joey had been hoping for... but she hadn't slapped him, or laughed at him, or... Well, maybe there was some hope for him yet.

Joey stepped forward silently, his gaze still fixed to his scruffed-up shoes-- and how much they contrasted with Mai's high-heeled suede boots. He only raised his eyes when Mai impulsively grabbed his elbow, clutching it as they walked down the sidewalk that sparkled with the fading light of the sun.

And before he knew it, they were standing in that same place as before... right in front of her apartment door, everything around them a plain division between their world's. Mai lived the high-life, surrounded by beautiful art and decorative pillars; Joey worked rough shifts and late nights in order to eat and finish his high school education. He'd promised himself long ago that he would make something of himself --be something to somebody-- and not end up like his father.

Mai turned to him, violet eyes regarding him coolly. He couldn't stand the way she was looking at him like that --analyzing him as if she could see right through him, past all of his carefully built walls and into his core, where he kept all his secrets, all his faults locked away...

He had two choices-- walk away without ever knowing how she felt, or...

Joey closed the distance between him and Mai without any further hesitation. Hands rough with calluses reached up to tilt Mai's smooth, perfect face up to meet his-- and he claimed her lips in a passionate kiss. It was all he'd been thinking about... ever since that first kiss, ever since that night he'd seen Mai yelling from the roofs, ever since the gang brawl. He only wanted to be with her, and it was the most insane thought he'd ever had... and the most impulsive thing he'd ever done.

But the moment Mai Valentine --twenty-four year old, blonde bombshell, insanely curvaceous, top ranked duelist Mai Valentine-- wrapped her arms around him, kissing him back with as much force and sensuality as Joey tried to put into his end, everything fell into place.

Somewhere between when Joey dared to brush her hair aside and press hot kisses into her neck, and the moment she managed to get one of his arms out of his denim jacket, Mai had maneuvered her other arm to pull out her room keycard, quickly sliding it until the door beeped and opened. She didn't even give Joey the chance to regain his balance when he fell forward-- she just pulled him in by the collar of his jacket, the door slamming shut behind them.

That night, for the first time in nearly a year, Joey Wheeler did not return home, and he didn't really care **what** his father had to say about it the next day. It was all worth it.

* * *

"Damn!" Bakura cursed, scanning DV8. She wasn't there. She wasn't anywhere!

He couldn't find her... couldn't feel her presence! The connection Bakura felt --the one he'd been exploiting ever since that night at the Kaiba mansion, when she'd willingly let him into her soul-- vanished without a trace.

That fool Seto had beat him to her!

But Bakura was not known as the King of Thieves for no reason at all.

"Have your fun, foolish priest," he muttered darkly, fading into the shadows of the club. "I will steal her from you when you least expect it!"

* * *

"I thought you said **we** needed to talk," Téa pointed out, more surprised than anything else. Truth be told, she wasn't sure how to react in Yugi's presence. This was the boy that was her friend for as long as she'd known him, yet in the course of a week, he'd confessed his love, grew ashamed in her presence, and outright ignored her. He'd torn her out of his life, but here he was...

"What I have to say can wait," Kaiba responded easily. "Go."

It wasn't a request.

Téa heaved a sigh. Why was she doing this? Two conversations she dreaded having, and yet... maybe it would mean a return to her semi-normal life. Maybe she could go find that 'home' where her heart was, and maybe she could still be friends with Yugi. Maybe... She glanced at Yugi, and at the moon reflecting off the waters of Domino Lake.

Here again. Where everything started, and everything ended... all over again.

"Shall we?" Yugi gestured down the lake pathway, his face frighteningly expressionless. Téa nodded slowly, casting a hesitant glance back at Kaiba. Her gaze wasn't returned, so she walked away with Yugi, wondering how much her life would change in the next few minutes.

* * *

  
_"Save her. Save yourself."_

His mother's words... from that night, when everything changed.

Ghosts appeared, phantoms from the past-- memories that Seto Kaiba thought long buried.

Sachiko Hiroma: his biological mother; his **_only_** mother. Her face, her voice... her words.

Was Téa really his salvation? His answer to the life that he'd never been able to live, under the tutelage of the "great" Gozaburo Kaiba?

She brought forth thoughts and feelings that, less than a year ago, he never would have dreamed of having. Instead of looking at her as he had other duelists-- other opponents, she was one of those nameless factors that served as both a complication and a welcome disturbance in his otherwise ritualistic life.

Wake up, shower, get dressed, drink coffee, go to school, go to work, finish paperwork at home, go to sleep. Do it all over again the next day.

But she was something different. She brought beach trips, racing pulses, complex desire, and stunning birthday presents. She brought soft skin, and tempting curves, gentle scents and delicious home cooking. She brought... something to him, his home, and his heart that he'd never felt before.

_'Is this love?'_

Seto Kaiba didn't know. But he sure as hell wanted to find out.

* * *

"Yugi, ah... are we not friends anymore?" Téa asked in a quiet whisper.

It had been one of the two things gnawing at the back of her mind ever since that day... the day Seto spent in jail for something he didn't do, and the day that Yugi confessed his feelings for Téa. But she'd been so confused and lonely --thinking that maybe Yugi really hated her, abandoned her just because she didn't **love** him the way he wanted her to...

His silence was deafening.

_'Please look at me... please talk to me... please, please, please...'_

She couldn't lose him. Yugi had been there for her since the beginning. He couldn't leave her-- they'd been through so much together, and... god, she'd find a way to make it work, no matter how much it hurt the both of them!

"Téa..."

Suddenly, Téa changed her mind, and she didn't want Yugi to speak anymore. Moments that had previously been creeping by at a painfully slow rate were now breezing by, and she feared the worst. 'No Téa, we can't be. We can never be friends, ever again. I hate you.' But that wasn't him, that wasn't the boy she'd grown up with, that wasn't Yugi--

"Why would you think something silly like that?" And Yugi was grinning up at her, lopsidedly and somewhat half-heartedly, but grinning nonetheless.

The breath left Téa's lungs in a great whoosh, and she found herself flopping down to the ground with relief, tears spilling from her eyes.

"Oh... oh, thank you, god, thank you..."

"Téa?" Yugi knelt down before his friend, concerned that she'd suddenly collapsed in a fit of gasping breaths that sounded like a cross between sobs and laughs. He was forcefully launched forward into her arms when she grabbed him, hugging him for all he was worth.

"Yugi, you mean **so** much to me. Let's never fight again."

"C-Can't... breathe... Téa!" Yugi mumbled, struggling. Téa squeaked in surprise and released Yugi, who sighed heavily and sat down across from Téa on the worn, stone path.

"Friends?" Téa queried after a moment, hesitantly holding her pinky out to Yugi. He'd never seen her look so uncertain in her life before. She really was afraid of losing... him?

_ "'Think what you want about her, Yugi, but she still needs you.'"_

Kaiba was right, wasn't he?

_'I need her too.'_

Yugi held out his pinky, grasping Téa's with his own, hooking them together and drawing her to him in a loose hug. "Friends. Forever."

* * *

"You should go talk to him, Téa." Yugi told her sincerely as they walked down the path, back toward DV8, and the entrance where Kaiba was waiting.

"...Did you tell him, Yugi? Did you tell him about..." She couldn't say it. _'Did you tell him that I'm in love with him?'_ The thought tumbled into her mind easier than it could from her lips; the very idea of Yugi telling Kaiba that Téa was in love with him induced more fear in her than she thought possible. Why was she afraid?

_'Because I didn't... I didn't **fall** out of love with him, like I thought I would. It's just not that easy.'_

It was a realization from long ago-- that love was never simple, and life was always complex. And... she had to stop **trying**. Not because being in love with Seto Kaiba was futile, but because the idea of trying didn't assure any effort on her part. She had to actually **fall** out of love with him, if that was what she really wanted. But did she?

Staying in love with him would inevitably bring more complications into her life, but...

_"I want you." _

But maybe they'd be _welcome_ complications.

"No, I didn't," Yugi responded. "Why?" Did she really think that he would have? Regardless of how he felt about her, or how upset he was that Kaiba had her affections while he didn't, Yugi would never sink low enough to reveal her secrets to someone else. Despite the fact that she hadn't explicitly asked him to keep her romantic feelings toward Kaiba a secret, Yugi knew that if she wanted to tell Kaiba, she would on her own time.

Or Kaiba had to figure it out for himself. Even he didn't seem to understand what he felt for Téa-- only that he wanted in her in his life.

_'And that's hardly a crime.'_

"I guess... I guess I'm not as mature as I hoped, Yugi. I'm still not ready to tell him that I... heck, I'm not even sure what I feel anymore."

But Yugi knew. It was easier to see in her eyes than before. He'd been blinded by his own affections, unable to see what Téa was seeking. First in Yami, and now... in Kaiba. But knowing what it was like --to be in love, to be filled with yearning for one person and one person alone-- now he could see. Téa had that same look in her eyes. The very same things Yugi had wanted from Téa, she wanted from Kaiba...

_'She loves him.'_ And that was that. There wasn't anything more to it.

Yugi's lips twitched in a semi-smile; **he** wanted Téa in his life, too. It didn't matter what AS-- friends, companions... it'd be a dream come true if she shared his feelings for her, and if they could be... lovers? Was that the right word? But that wasn't meant to be. And he... he had to do what Kaiba said.

_'Fall out of love with her.'_

Kaiba stood just a ways ahead, leaning on the railing separating the park walkway from the drop-off into the lake below. The setting sun reddened behind his imposing frame, highlighting the dark bruise on the uppermost parts of his cheekbone.

Yugi stopped a distance away, the scuffling of his shoes catching Kaiba's attention. He turned and saw Téa, his gaze never leaving hers, even as Yugi spoke to her in hushed tones.

"You should talk to him, Téa. Work things out."

"I-- I'm going to, Yugi."

"Good." Yugi shoved his hands into his pockets, nodding affirmatively. He'd only walked a few steps away before he turned again and spoke. "I meant what I said that day, Téa. No matter what, be happy."

And then he was gone, jogging out of sight before Téa could reply.

So, this was it. Now was the time to work things out with Kaiba, or else... or else she had no home to go back to. She couldn't keep on imposing on Mai, she knew that much. Mai had things to work out with Joey.

_'And I... I have a life to get back in order.'_

Catch up with school. Work with Chieko to make Domino High's Dance Club one of the best in the prefecture, if not the city. Stay with the Domino Performing Arts Company with Serenity and Chieko, and work her way toward a scholarship. Follow her dream. Go to Juilliard.

It all seemed rather far off, but she had to start somewhere. And that somewhere was... home.

"Here." Kaiba abruptly thrust out a closed hand to her, opening it when Téa glanced at him, her eyes filled with confusion.

"What..." Her breath left her in a quick gasp when Kaiba revealed what he held in his palm --her necklace. Still intact, still sparkling gold and blue... "But how did you...?"

Kaiba merely shook his head, gesturing for Téa to turn around. More out of shock than anything else, Téa nodded and complied without a word, feeling the cool chain press against her neck once more. She relished it --it and the sensation of Kaiba's fingers brushing against her skin, for that one split second. But the moment Téa dared to wonder about the lingering feeling, it disappeared, and Kaiba was again looking at her, this time, his eyes searching hers in that penetrating way of his.

"Are you coming back?"

Something Kaiba had in common with Joey-- he was direct, and completely tactless. But he couldn't disguise the hope in his voice, and the thought made Téa smile, ever-so-slightly.

"I just have one condition."

He had to admit, he hadn't been expecting that. Thanks to him, a little voice in the back of Kaiba's mind whispered, Téa called the Kaiba Mansion home. She had a bedroom the size of most people's houses, a kitchen that talked to her, and a place she could call her own (sort of) for dancing. And she had the nerve to set_ conditions_?

But then, Kaiba realized, she had every right. He hadn't believed her when he should have, and...

"What?" His voice was monotone. He couldn't betray emotion, not now. It wasn't as if he was exasperated by the idea of her laying down a condition-- in fact, if it was just one condition, he should be thankful. He just wanted her home.

Téa turned away from him, her gaze drifting back out to the moonlit waters. "I can't stay in the main house anymore."

Kaiba turned toward her, unable to hide the surprise in his eyes. "Then where--?"

"In the adjacent building. Where Charles and all your other household employees stay, Kaiba." He flinched. Not 'Seto,' but Kaiba.

What was he expecting, anyway? It had been his mistake...

"It's just not appropriate for me to..." Téa trailed off, and suddenly Kaiba wondered if she really **wanted** to move out of the main house-- for good. Not like earlier this week, when all her things remained just a few feet across from his own room, the bathroom still scattered with her things, and the scent of her still lingering.

"Fine," Kaiba managed after a moment, swallowing the bile in his throat. Somehow, the house would seem even lonelier without her... colder than it had been this past week, not knowing if she'd ever return. But knowing that she was across the way, a whole house separating them? Somehow, that distance seemed much further.

Why was he thinking this way?

It didn't matter. She was coming back.

At last, Téa was coming **home**.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> End of What Doesn't Kill You - Chapter 10
> 
> FINALLY!


	12. All That I Need

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> December has finally rolled around, and with it, new revelations and possibilities. But will Seto or Téa be able to confess their feelings before it's too late?

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> **What Doesn't Kill You  
> Chapter 11: All That I Need  
> A Yu-Gi-Oh Fanfiction**  
> **By:** Azurite  
> **Site: **seventh-star DOT net  
> **Conceptualized/First Written:** 8/22/04  
> **Completed/Final Edit: **9/5/04 and 10/12/04and 10/17/04**  
> Posted:** 10/15/04 - Happy (6 days late) One Year Anniversary, WDKY!
> 
> **Edits:** 8/20/06 - Found some old notes on edits for this chapter. I don't make any huge PLOT changes to my chapters if they've already been posted, but I do make fixes for spelling, grammar, or incorrect details. So if you're reading this, that's why there's been an edit. :)
> 
> **Notes: **The rating for WDKY has gone up to R. This will hold true for this chapter and almost every chapter thereafter. Keep in mind that it is rated R for a reason, so don't send any complaints or flames my way because of that.
> 
> **Mamono:** My life-saving beta in a week of crisis and insanity. Thanks soooooooo (x1 bazillion) much!
> 
> **Shadowed Mediocrity:** Thanks for helping me with some of the edits... the majority of them were small, so in regards to the rest of your review and comments, please check out my Review Replies page to see what I had to say!

He didn't want to leave her.

Dawn was just breaking over Domino, but Joey Wheeler was already awake. It hardly mattered that he'd been thoroughly exhausted last night (not like he'd admit it, though), or that there wasn't any school that day. And it wasn't as though he were worried about his father, and what would happen when he returned home.

But he had work.

He needed money.

He couldn't stay.

Much as Joey Wheeler wanted to spend the rest of the day --and every day thereafter-- with Mai, just being with her, lying beside her in bed, kissing her, feeling her soft skin under his, and running his hands through her soft, golden hair...

He couldn't.

"Where are you going?" Mai murmured, her voice thick with sleep. Violet eyes opened halfway, her cheeks flushed and her skin glistening slightly in the morning light. She turned ever-so-slightly, but enough to send the blood rushing to Joey's head; even if he'd become intimately acquainted with Mai's every curve, the draping of her blanket over her chest still tempted his thoughts, daring them to enter naughty territory.

"I-- I gotta go to work, Mai."

"You 'gotta?'" Mai echoed blearily. "Call in sick."

"Mai, I can't just--"

"I'll give you a reason to stay."

She didn't mean she was going to sneeze on him and cause him to be violently ill. Normally, that was what it took to get Joey Wheeler to miss a day of work. He was a dedicated kind of guy-- and he needed the cash that badly.

But Mai presented a very tempting reason to call in sick, even if it meant no pay...

"Mai--"

Mai decided the most effective way to win Joey Wheeler over (when it was a choice between love and money, at any rate) was to not say anything at all. So instead, she shifted, letting the blanket fall off her body as she grabbed Joey by the collar of his shirt and kissed him on the mouth-- hard. When Joey finally caught his breath, his pupils were dilated and his voice a mere whisper.

"You know what? I think I feel this fever comin' on..."

Mai only smirked.

* * *

"You owe me a duel," Seto Kaiba announced as he walked into the kitchen the afternoon of November 14th, not bothering to offer any other sort of greeting. He nodded at Téa --trying his hardest not to think of all the strange things she did to his insides whenever he looked at her. If asked to describe the sensations, he probably would have said they were a mix between his insides boiling alive and an army of tiny creatures running up and down his limbs.

But of course, he'd never tell anyone what he felt...

Especially not Téa. Not if she didn't feel the same way.

He just couldn't let himself be set up for another loss-- and one much more painful than any duel. If what he felt for her really **was** that bizarre feeling known as love, then... then he could stand and bear it, as he did with every other silly human emotion. He just couldn't let her get to him.

But the fact remained, she owed him. He remembered it earlier, and thought it odd, but the idea of dueling someone other than Yugi and the random oddball (including Wheeler, though Kaiba still mentally referred to him as a mutt, simply for amusement's sake) appealed to him.

"Excuse me?" Téa glanced up at him from where she was leaning over Mokuba, the two of them engrossed in the child's mathematics homework. Had Téa not been blocking his view of Mokuba, Seto Kaiba would have seen his brother's cheeks burn a bright red from how close Téa was to him, his hands purposefully placed near --but not particularly **touching**\-- hers.

"Remember the Iron Chef Duel that we never had? You promised me a duel of some sort. Well, I'm going to collect. A real duel. This week."

Téa stared at him, wide-eyed. "Yo--You're not serious. Come on, Kaiba--"

The slight smirk that graced his features slipped away. Kaiba. Just plain old Kaiba. Not Seto. It was useless to expect anything different from her, anyway. He was just her employer.

They could never be anything more.

"I'm completely serious. Come on." He intended to lead her to the dueling arena hidden down in the hallways of the basement; Téa probably hadn't the slightest clue the place even existed. There were several places like that in the Kaiba mansion-- including the recently discovered secret room in his own office. But he didn't want to think about that place...

"I--I can't. I've got a DPAC meeting tonight, and after that I'm going to dinner with the girls... I'm _really_ sorry, but I promise I'll make it up to you."

"A duel?" Kaiba stared at her, masking the disappointment he felt inside.

Each second that passed, she slipped farther and farther away...

"A duel. Though I really don't know why you'd want to waste your time with--"

Mokuba tugged on the hem of Téa's shirt, urging her downward as he whispered something in her ear. She looked a bit thoughtful at first, and then grinned lopsidedly at Mokuba.

"You're on, but I don't know why you have so much faith in me."

Kaiba idly wondered what it was that his brother could have whispered in such secrecy to Téa. He couldn't be that carefree and open with Téa... or anyone else, for that matter. That Mokuba now placed more trust in someone else hurt. Just as much as it hurt not being able to whisper in Téa's ear what he felt for her... whatever it was.

"I've got to get going... Mokuba, I'm sure you'll do great on your exam; you've got all the formulas down pat. Kaiba, if he needs any help, you'll give him a hand, right? Darn, I'm going to be late-- you probably won't see me later tonight, so I'll see you guys tomorrow! Bye!"

She didn't even give either of the Kaiba brothers the chance to say goodbye before she dashed out of the swinging kitchen door and out of the house altogether.

Kaiba glanced at his brother, who quickly reverted his gaze to his homework, spread out all over the kitchen table.

"You need any help?" Kaiba asked in a fruitless attempt to distract himself from thoughts of Téa.

"No! I don't need your help!" Mokuba snapped, too quickly for his own good. Kaiba stared at him, surprised at the tone his brother had taken on, but before Kaiba could say anything, Mokuba apologized in a low voice and scooped his papers up, rushing upstairs to his own bedroom.

And Kaiba remained alone.

* * *

  
_'Well, she didn't lie.'_

Not that he really expected her to, but he was hoping that, by some minuscule chance, he'd see her before she went to sleep that night. But, true to her word, Téa stayed out all night at the Domino Performing Arts Center, going to dinner with the girls afterward and not returning home until late.

The only reason why Kaiba knew was because he'd waited for her.

At first, it had been a restless sort of waiting, where he just stood at his office window, staring out at the complex across the way, and into the black window that was now Téa's cramped apartment.

_'It just isn't right.'_

His own thoughts, akin to what she'd told him before agreeing to move back in to the Kaiba Mansion. How it simply wasn't **appropriate** for them to be sharing the same hallway, the same breathing space.

Kaiba wasn't sure if her being so close --and yet so far-- stung more than her not being there at all.

He detested feeling so dependent on her presence, on her smile, on her eyes. He wasn't the weak sort of individual who _needed_ someone else that badly, but...

All the same, he found himself rushing through work he'd previously ignored, knowing that if he simply got it out of his way, he could see her that much sooner. The hours passed by, with the only sound to comfort him the clicking of his own fingers on the keyboard.

Finally, only minutes after Kaiba completed his work, the light in the apartment across the way flicked on, bathing the tiny, cramped space in a soft golden hue. Téa's silhouette was plain through the thin curtains she'd chosen, and for a moment, just the sight of her shadow froze Kaiba where he stood. He wanted to go there and...

_"It's just not appropriate for me to..."_

To be with you. To care about you. To have anything to do with you, really.

Kaiba turned away from the window, unaware until after the fact that Téa turned the light in her apartment off. She was beyond his reach, even now.

So close, and yet so far...

He'd never felt so lonely.

* * *

Another tiring day at the performing arts center, but it was worth it. Every single day was worth it, no matter how much her legs ached and her arms protested...

She was one day closer to her dream.

One day closer to leaving Domino, to leaving Japan...

To going to Juilliard.

That was her dream, and Téa Gardner was nothing if not determined. She couldn't let anything hold her back-- not any longer. She couldn't afford to have regrets.

But every day, it got that much harder.

Every night, the same nightmare...

The scent of flowers, thick in the air. Sunflowers, stargazer lilies, roses... the smell of moist earth, and preserved flesh. An odor that one could only describe as "death," and it permeated Téa's every thought, haunting her dreams. A massive monster --a demon of her own imagination-- created from decaying flowers rose from the coffins of her parents, looming and leering its way toward her.

Every night, it reached out for her, massive hands ending in razor-sharp claws aiming to clench around her neck. Every night, she stood frozen in place, quaking with fear and...

That was when she woke up. Every night, the same.

The temptation was there to just return to the main house, where she felt inexplicably more comfortable. It made no sense though-- the main house was just another building. There was nothing special about it, really...

_'Except him.'_

It was hard, schooling herself to call him 'Kaiba' now, as she had for so long before her world had become a disastrous mess. But it was her way of taking things one step at a time. One step at a time, each step further away from Kaiba... away from those feelings of 'love'...

Soon, she'd stop loving him.

She had to.

She simply couldn't go on pursuing something so fruitless and painful.

Even if there was the slightest chance...

_'I can't!'_ Even if it meant sleepless nights, and a void within her-- a constant source of loneliness...

Even if it meant crying herself to sleep, clutching her pillow, curled up in her bed.

_'I can't...'_

* * *

"Sergeant Konami?" A short, young rookie knocked hesitantly on the door of his superior officer's office, clutching a manila folder in his hand.

Konami glanced up at the sound of the voice, raking a hand through his hair. Every single day, the same-- frustrating amounts of paperwork, crazy people on the streets, callers from all over Tokyo... it was just too much to hope for: something mundane and normal. But then, he'd gotten into this line of work for a reason.

He wanted excitement. He wanted to help people. The perfect blend of risk and responsibility, all in one uniform, one office, one job.

But every now and then...

"What is it?"

"Decryption asked me to bring this to you. They said they finally figured out that string of numbers you gave them a while back, and here are the results."

_'String of numbers...?'_ Konami glanced at the manila folder as the junior handed it to him, about to ask what the kid was talking about, but he'd scrambled out of the office before Konami had the chance to speak.

Konami reached for the folder curiously, wondering what string of numbers he'd brought to decryption in the past. He opened up the folder, his eyes widening as he read the paper.

_'This is...!'_

Without a second more of hesitation, Konami picked up his phone and dialed a phone number he'd unfortunately memorized long ago.

"Miss Gardner? This is Sergeant Konami from the Domino City Police... and I have some information I think you need to know about."

* * *

"Tell me again, why are we here?" Téa mumbled in a tired voice.

Ever since Konami called her earlier that morning --at 2 o'clock!-- she'd been wondering what new piece of information he'd obtained. He said he couldn't tell her the exact details over the phone, and that they'd have to get all the specifics later in the afternoon, after she was finished with her half-day of classes. So now the two of them were standing outside the imposing stone structure that was Domino First National Bank, Téa gazing at the police officer with tired blue eyes.

"We're about to find out."

Konami stepped forward, courteous enough to hold the door open for Téa, though her steps remained hesitant; she had no idea what was going on or why she was here. So far, Konami had only brought bad news into her life; what would become of her now?

The moment Sergeant Konami and Téa entered the bank, they caught the attentions of several people, including a wiry, balding man whose spindle-shaped fingers shook with every step he took.

"C-Can I help you, Off-Officer?"

"Yes, you can," Konami responded promptly, gesturing for Téa to step forward. "This young lady has an account here in her name, and she'd like to know what the contents of it are."

Clearly surprised by this everyday request, the wiry man blinked in surprise before replying. "F-Follow me."

He walked them over to his desk, taking a paper from Konami that apparently had some specific information on it. He typed rapidly on his computer's keyboard, practically yanking a sheet of paper as it spooled from the printer. Téa barely sat down before the man sprung up again, this time leading her and Konami down a long, dimly lit side hallway. Téa's outdoor school pumps clicked on the marble surface, sounding frighteningly loud in the long, empty space.

Black marble seemed to stretch on for eternity, until finally, they reached a steel door without a single window on it at all. The bank manager keyed in a string of numbers on the small, glowing panel beside the door, and after a soft whoosh sounded, the door sprung open.

The bank manager waited for Téa to step inside, and once she did, she gasped in awe. The walls were lined with hundreds --no, thousands-- of darkened silver boxes.

_'Safe deposit boxes...? But...'_

As far up as the eye could see, stretching meters and meters into the air. How did anyone get to the ones at the top?

"I'm af-afraid that the bank does not keep personal PIN numbers on record, Miss Gardner," the bank manager began in a whisper. "We have the key cards and the standard lock used for the boxes, as a backup, but the PIN is known only by the customer..."

Off the terrified look on Téa's face, it became clear to both men that Téa had no idea what the PIN was.

"How many tries does she have?" Konami asked in a gruff voice. The girl had waited long enough for answers. There was no reason to let some silly little obstruction get in their way now...

"O-Only t-three, S-Sir. After that, the mechanisms in the box cause the contents to self-destruct."

No wonder why Domino First National was the most reputable, high security bank in the entire prefecture.

Téa steeled herself, taking in a deep breath. "Show me the box."

The wiry man moved along the walls, tracing his finger along the ridged boxes as he searched for the number indicated on the paper. 813, 814...

There.

With spade-shaped, trembling fingers, the man slipped the paper into his side pocket, reaching up to box number 818. He slid a brilliant white key card along a slot, prompting the clamps in the rear of the wall to unlock the individual box. It popped out slightly, allowing the man to slide it from its casing and out. He walked with frighteningly slow steps toward Téa, finally placing the heavy box into her hands.

Once assured that she could handle the strange weight, the man pressed a key into the top, pulling back a sliding lid. A nine-digit key panel gleamed at Téa from the box-- the only layer left separating Téa from the last relic --the last piece of her parents.

Konami moved forward to help Téa hold the box while she tried to think of numbers her parents might have used in the creation of a bank account in her name. None of it made any sense...

It might have been a bit too obvious, but...

Her father's birthday. The day and the last two digits of the year...

A bright red light to the side of the panel blinked on, the lock beeping angrily. It was not the right answer.

Téa swallowed, a decidedly acidic taste filling her mouth. No... well, maybe then her mother's birthday. Inputting the numbers in the same format, her fingers shaking wildly, Téa could only guess at the contents of the security box, and why her parents had chosen to go to the extra effort to conceal it.

The red light blinked on again, the shrill noise echoing loudly.

Only one more try.

Her mouth went dry, her lips feeling horribly chapped. She couldn't mess this up...

It was just like a riddle, only harder than any of the previous ones. Only one clue-- it was a four digit number. Not her father's birthday or her mother's birthday. So maybe...

"1-2-0-8..." Téa whispered. It was a long shot. But maybe her **own** birthday would be the number she needed.

Her fingers felt like weights, pressing down into the keys. The mechanism registered her entry and... beeped. A bright green light flickered on, and a soft clicking sound indicated that the box was now unlocked. All that remained was for Téa to open it.

"Ahem," the bank manager coughed none-too-discretely, indicating that he and Konami should give Téa some privacy while she examined the contents of the box.

Konami cast a hesitant glance back at Téa before following the bank manager out of the safe deposit room, leaving Téa alone in the marble space that echoed the tiniest sounds endlessly.

"Oh my god."

The box spilled from Téa's hands, the metal crashing against the floor, and echoing loudly. Konami and the bank manager rushed in to find out what happened-- they were shocked to find Téa, wide-eyed and red-cheeked, surrounded by thousands of dollars in American money.

They'd left her a fortune.

Everything she'd ever wanted-- everything she'd ever needed...

She could get it.

Now.

"What's this?" Konami murmured, his eyes catching on a slip of white amongst the green dollar bills.

"What?" Téa mumbled, snapping from her reverie. Still, everything seemed clouded by an impossible haze...

"'Chase your dreams,'" Konami read off a small slip of white paper that he'd found. "Does the handwriting look familiar?" He showed the paper to Téa, noting her already wide eyes increasing to the size of saucers. She recognized it all right...

"I-It's my mother's."

But it didn't make any sense! How could they have gotten all of this money? Why would they have been so sure that they would **need** to pass it on to her, through a series of riddles and codes? Why...?

The whys didn't matter anymore. None of that did.

Nothing was stopping her from taking all the money and leaving Japan, right then and there.

Nothing except herself.

* * *

With the help of Sergeant Konami and the bank manager, Téa managed to sort out the entire affair, and she left the bank with a metal suitcase with the money inside.

$200,000 in American dollars. $50,000 in bonds, each of them made out in her name. $50,000 in property holdings-- not just the deeds to the property that her house was on, but also several other estate holdings-- complete with furnishings, according to the paperwork. The bank manager also revealed that the bank rented out Téa's former home, the largest percent of the rent going straight into another account in Téa's name. Come her 18th birthday on December 8th, that additional money and property could be hers. She could do what she wished with the property-- evict the current residents, move back in... or even sell the property to someone else.

"I want to meet them," Téa stated, refusing to evict the residents of her old home without even knowing who they were. The bank manager agreed, saying that it was entirely possible, as she was the holder of the property. He couldn't reveal everything about the residents, only that it was a newlywed couple by the name of Chiba.

And now, Téa stood out of the house that was once her home-- and oddly enough, it appeared almost entirely unfamiliar to her. The lawn was manicured and blossoming with vibrant asters, and other autumn and winter flowers, the hedges that once pushed their way through the front fence now neatly trimmed and box-shaped. A bright brass plate nailed to the front wall just above the mailbox indicated the family name in both Japanese characters and English letters.

"The Chibas... huh?" Téa sighed, walking up the pathway. It didn't feel like home anymore.

Had staying at the Kaiba home for so long really changed her mind about what was home? For the longest time, Téa thought she would regain the property rights to her home when she turned eighteen, and she'd move in... finish school, and find a way to get to New York.

Now it was all within her reach.

She could drop out of school tomorrow, finish her education in the United States, or even by correspondence. She could get a General Education certificate in America if she so desired... pack up and leave Domino behind, by the end of next week!

But...

There was still something holding her back. Unanswered questions, unresolved feelings.

True, Téa had no family left to keep her in Japan, but... she had friends. They were her entire world now, despite everything that'd happened... and if she up and left, she wouldn't do it without letting them know.

_'One step at a time, Téa. One step...'_

And so, Téa took a deep breath and steadied her hand as she rang the doorbell to the house that was no longer her home.

* * *

"Good, I was looking for you," Téa said the moment Seto Kaiba walked in the door. Kaiba paused, surprised, that surprise growing into full-blown shock, seeing the seriousness on Téa's face. That and... her eyes. Red-rimmed.

She'd been crying.

"What is it?"

He meant to say 'What is it?' in the sense of 'What is it that's bothering you?' Or 'Why are you crying?' He wanted to know-- really. But he couldn't force himself to suddenly care like that, and put his heart on the line. Not when he didn't even understand what it was he was feeling.

Besides... she didn't feel the way he did. He knew that much for a fact.

And even if she did --by some bizarre miracle-- he still couldn't pursue anything with her. Not after he'd been the cause of her tears, so many times before...

"I need a VCR."

Well, that was an odd request.

"Over here." Kaiba led her to the living area, with the large, wide screen television, complete with digital surround sound, a stereo, and of course, both a DVD and VCR player. Téa was clutching a video cassette, Kaiba noted, holding it close to her chest as if it were something precious.

"What is it?" he asked bluntly, referring to the video.

Téa looked at him with an almost frightened glance, keeping silent.

He could just walk away. Let her watch whatever it was, and not have anything to do with it. Or her.

Try to push his irrational feelings for her away, and just... be her employer. Until she didn't need him anymore, and then...

_'And then she'll leave.'_

But not just leave his home, or even Domino. Kaiba remembered with a startling clarity how badly Téa wanted to go to New York. She wanted to get away from Domino, out of Japan... for good.

But she was here for a little while longer, at least.

And he'd have to settle for that.

Trembling fingers pushed towards the Play button on the VCR after Téa inserted the cassette, and she mutely switched the television on. A bright blue screen flickered on, flickering and morphing into a blurred, shaking screen.

A hand pulled away, revealing a handsome, middle-aged man backing away from the camera. It was a home video, and if Téa's reaction --a sharp gasp and wide, unblinking eyes-- was a sign, then the man in the video had to be her father. Mr. Gardner backed farther away, revealing his wife sitting beside in a chair beside his own. They were sitting in what looked like a kitchen, glancing between each other and the camera nervously.

The date at the bottom left corner of the screen read 'August 8th.' The same day that they'd died.

"Téa... honey, if you're watching this, then... well..." Mrs. Gardner started, biting her lip and looking up at the camera, as if she were staring at Téa in reality.

"Then that means we've died, Téa." Mr. Gardner chuckled wryly, shaking his head as he did so. "And if we haven't kicked the bucket yet, then please, just take this silly tape out of the VCR and burn it. I mean it, Téa."

"But... if the worst has happened, then we want to tell you everything. Why we... did what we did."

Téa sucked in a breath and walked backward toward the couch, very slowly. She almost bumped into Kaiba, but she hardly cared; her eyes were riveted on the television screen, and the last she'd ever see of her parents.

"T-This was from the day they died," Téa whispered. "I got into a fight with them that day, and I left the house in a total rage..."

Truth be told, Seto Kaiba couldn't imagine Téa in 'a total rage.' But he knew what got her irritated, and he knew full well the pain of having 'family' criticize the things you loved.

_'Her parents... didn't approve of her wanting to become a dancer.'_

And instead of letting that defeat her, Téa made every effort to become stronger, to keep fighting her parents, and to prove them wrong: she could become a successful dancer, and make money, and have a stable life.

But without them...

"You know that we've always taught you, no matter what, Téa, to be honest with yourself, and to do the right thing. For so many years, we told you to think about a more stable career, to leave behind your love of dancing."

"The truth is, Téa," Mr. Gardner continued, "we were afraid. For many years, we were afraid that'd we'd lose our jobs, lose our security, and lose everything we'd ever known. We wanted you to have a good life, Téa."

"We didn't realize that, in the process, we were hurting you. We both know that it's your dream to dance, and that no matter how financially infeasible it might be, it's still your dream. It's what you want to do-- and that's being honest with yourself," Mrs. Gardner smiled slightly, bowing her head

"Your father and I want you to know that you can do it. You can become a dancer-- the best in the world. We've always believed in you, Téa, the same way you believe in all of your friends. We may never have been good at saying it, given the sort of things we had on our minds... to be concerned about, but that doesn't change the fact that we love you, and we'll support you, no matter what."

Téa crumpled onto the couch now, holding her hands up to her face to try and halt the tears slowly falling down her cheeks. It wasn't enough that she'd cried upon realizing the fortune they'd left for her, but now...

To find out that all along, they'd supported her dreams, and that she was the one who'd left the house, left them, without giving them a chance to explain? She'd let her emotions rule her that day, and now...

There was no going back.

Hesitantly, Kaiba sat down beside her, keeping one eye turned to the television. He'd never met the Gardners, but after hearing what they'd done for him --his company-- he couldn't help but admire the couple-- and their daughter. Headstrong, stubborn Téa-- she could be no one else but her parents' daughter, if their behavior was any indication. In the face of intimidating bosses and financial destitution, the Gardners put themselves in danger-- for the sake of others. For the sake of Kaiba and his company reputation, for the sake of the employees, whose health care was at risk, and of the public in general-- civilians who didn't deserve to have their lives turned upside down by a company selling war weapons and battle vehicles again.

"Téa, we don't work for any ordinary offices or firms. You know that I'm an attorney, but I work for a very powerful, nasty man-- who just happens to be on the Board of Directors for Kaiba Corp."

"And I'm not an office lady, sorry to say, Téa," Mrs. Gardner said ruefully. "I work at Crump Financial, a subsidiary of Kaiba Corporation, just like your father's business. Mr. Crump is a greedy, obsessive man, who'd like to see nothing more than Seto Kaiba removed from CEO position of his own company. Téa, I know you're friends with Mr. Kaiba, but this goes beyond the dueling you and your friends do together."

"We've found out that Crump and Johnson, my boss, along with the other three directors from Kaiba Corp., are trying to siphon money from employee health care in order to fund a secret project of theirs-- the revival of Nesbitt Heavy Industries."

Kaiba's eyes narrowed; he hadn't heard this information from Konami, when the officer revealed that the police had warrants out for the Big Five's arrest. Now, the very people they'd had murdered were speaking to him --well, Téa, really-- through a videotape that was months old. They'd **known**, all along...

"They've blackmailed the employees into keeping quiet, Téa, but we're not going to stand for it. We're putting ourselves at risk, and we know it, but it... it would be so worth it, to have those five in jail, where they belong. Then everyone would get their health care back, and we could have the extra money we've always pinched go to your dreams."

"Téa, there's an account, in your name, at the Domino First National Bank," Mrs. Gardner stated solemnly, clutching a small piece of paper in her hand. Téa squinted at it between her tears, realizing that it was the same note she'd found in the security box at the bank. The one from her mother that read only: 'Chase your dreams.' They must have gone to the bank and put it in, at the last moment...

"We saved up for your college fund ever since you were born. In the past several years since the Big Five have started this little 'project' of theirs, we've had to take money from our savings... and from **your** savings."

"We hated ourselves for it, Téa. Even more so after this morning. We know you're angry at us, and you probably don't want to forgive us anytime soon. But you should know that we did and said everything because we cared about you-- because we didn't want you to ever be in a position like this, unsure of what might happen the next day, and whether you'd have a home, a job, and food to eat."

"We converted most of the money to American dollars, so you can easily use it in New York, Téa. The rest of the money comes in property holdings your father obtained through his cases, or land that was passed down to us from family or friends. Make use of it, Téa. You can do more than just chase your dreams with that money-- you can **live** them. It's more than we ever would have told you about in life, Téa, but if you're watching this now, and we're..."Mrs. Gardner trailed off, wiping her face with her fingertips.

"If we've passed on Téa, then this is our last request to you. Please, honey-- be happy." Mr. Gardner glanced at his wife before moving forward and shutting off the camera, leaving the television in a state of static. Téa finally allowed her eyes to close as she dropped her face into her palms, her body racked with silent sobs. Kaiba had no idea what to say or do to comfort her-- so out of instinct, he placed a hand on her back. The moment his hand touched her, the television abruptly flared to life again-- only this time, Mr. Gardner stood alone.

"A question for you, Téa," he murmured in a broken, quiet voice. The clock now read a time several minutes after the initial recording, and this time, it was in a bedroom rather than a kitchen. Téa glanced up at the screen through her tears, either unaware or uncaring as to Kaiba trying --in his own strange way-- to comfort her in this moment of sadness.

"What can't you see that's always before you?" Mr. Gardner paused, as if truly waiting for Téa to respond. In reality, Téa was having a hard enough time trying to breathe, catching her breath between sobs. Everything around her seemed so hot... so stuffy and suppressing.

"It's the **future**, Téa. And I know you have a bright one ahead of you, even if we're gone. Never let anything drag you down or keep you anywhere Téa, especially not us. We've taught you, above all else, to be true to yourself. Be a free spirit. Go wherever your heart takes you." Mr. Gardner looked toward the ground, nodding to himself in affirmation that Téa received his message. Then, he reached over and flicked the camera off.

The screen was momentarily gray, flickering before revealing a handwritten note.

"'What always ends everything?'" Kaiba read aloud, his eyebrows knit together. Another riddle? Konami had mentioned riddles before, when he'd told Kaiba that the AWOL Big Five were wanted criminals. Téa had helped get the arrest warrant for them, due to her intuitive nature and ability to decrypt her father's riddles-- clues that led to the evidence proving the Big Five guilty.

The paper moved up slightly, Téa's wavering frown curling up into a slight, terrified smile.

"'G. And G is for Gardner,'" Téa whispered, reading off the words. "'We love you.'"

After that, the video cut off-- for the last time. Téa burst into tears, instinctively leaning over toward Kaiba, pressing her forehead to his shoulder as he turned off the television and VCR. Moments later, Seto Kaiba swallowed his pride and wrapped his arms around her, letting her cry.

* * *

"What's this?"

Serenity's fingers brushed upon the bright neon pink pamphlet before Téa could bend over to pick it up. Serenity's clear, hazel eyes scanned it, Téa mute before her.

"'Get your high school diploma through the mail'...?" Her eyes shifted to the other paper she'd picked up: a glossy brochure with the New York City skyline on the masthead and beautiful, script written letters saying 'Juilliard.'

"Téa, are you going to be leaving us?" Chieko piped up in a concerned tone, worry lilting her voice.

"It's not like that..." Téa began, uncomfortable. She couldn't explain it to them.

"Then what **is** it like?" Serenity demanded, putting a hand on her hip, keeping her other hand's grip firm and on the papers.

"I don't really feel like explaining it now..."

"So **when** would you tell us about it? After you got to New York City?"

Téa sighed. Serenity was a Wheeler, through and through. She had the infamous stubborn streak that Téa knew all too well from Joey...

"Going somewhere, Téa?"

Serenity, Téa, and Chieko all turned to the source of the voice.

"Mai!"

Téa would have exhaled deeply, glad for Mai's intrusion. Except now, it was obvious that Mai had overheard Serenity and Chieko's words, and now wanted the same explanation her two other friends were expecting. But how could she possibly tell them everything that had happened?

"Guys, I..."

"Look Téa, save it for five minutes from now. I agreed to pick you girls up for our usual dinner, but I'm not too keen on being spotted by The Lovely Two. So you'll tell us all what's goin' on at the diner, okay?"

Téa sighed resignedly. She had no way out of this one; it wasn't as if she could convince Mai, spur of the moment, to finally face Fran and Vincent.

"Fine. Let's go."

* * *

"It's complicated."

"Yeah, and?"

Okay, so they'd been expecting that answer. That _excuse_, as it were. Everything in their lives was complicated. At least, as far as Mai and Serenity knew. They'd experienced all sorts of 'complications' outside of the usual teenage angst or adult worries. The problems in **their** circle extended beyond the death of family members, shortages of money, and confusing confessions.

No, there were also magical items, ancient dueling monsters, reincarnated spirits, and vengeful, power-hungry maniacs.

What fun.

"I can't-- look, I can't stop thinking about Kaiba."

"I knew it," Serenity leaned back in her chair, her expression satisfied. The look on her face prompted a raised eyebrow from the other three girls present, so Serenity continued. "I know what it's like to care about someone so much, Téa. Maybe it's not the same kind of care as **you** have for Kaiba, " the redhead emphasized meaningfully, "but I'm pretty sure it's along the same lines. No matter what someone does to hurt you, your mind remembers the best of times you had with them, and that's what keeps you hanging on, and hoping."

At first, Téa was sure Serenity was talking about Joey, but now she wasn't so sure. Before she could query her younger friend on who exactly she meant, Mai interrupted.

"Pretty wise words from you, Serenity. Where'd all your experience in the area come from, huh?"

"I watch and observe," Serenity began carefully. "I know you've been in the same spot, Mai. Fran talks about you."

"She what?" Mai blurted before she could stop herself, violet eyes widening to the size of saucers. Her eyes strayed to the only girl who hadn't yet spoken: Chieko. The blonde nodded in mute affirmation; Fran did indeed talk about Mai, though not by name. But to those that knew Mai personally, it was more than obvious whom Fran referred to in her nostalgic speeches.

"Miss Fran misses you a great deal. I believe her husband feels the same way."

These words, unfortunately, were not the right ones to say; the fact that Fran married the one man Mai truly believed she'd fallen in love with still brought a sour taste to her mouth. Mai turned away, abruptly grabbing her cup of latte and taking a long swig, careless of the boiling temperature of the liquid.

And then there was Joey.

None of the others knew about what happened between them the other night, and if Mai had her say in it, none of them ever would. She still wasn't sure...

_"I love you, Mai." _

It still baffled her.

She hadn't been able to respond --not the way Joey wanted-- that night, or even the day after. They'd just spent mindless hours with one another, working off months and months of pent-up passion and frustration...

"Back to the subject at hand: Téa. Even though Kaiba was a total ass to you, you still care about him?"

"Y-Yeah," Téa mumbled. "I tried to forget about him-- I even moved out of the main mansion and into the employee quarters, but--"

"Waitasec," Serenity interrupted, "where were you staying before?"

Téa swallowed, tempted to chuckle wryly. Of course, Serenity didn't know...

"Across the hall from Kaiba..." Téa murmured under her breath. She tried to hide the dark blush threatening to seep up to her cheeks with her hair, but Chieko pressed two fingers to the base of Téa's chin, forcing her head back up once more.

"And the plot thickens," Serenity mumbled. "Geez, no wonder why you can't forget about him."

"But I told you!" Téa hissed. "I moved out! I don't know why he still keeps popping up in my head!"

"Maybe because you spent all those months before just across the hall from him," Chieko suggested. "You cannot have him return to the state he was before, now that you have truly gotten to know and care for him."

"Of course, the fact that he didn't believe me when I nearly got killed by the ghost of his adopted father, or the fact that he thought I framed him for murder doesn't help things any," Téa groused. The memories brought a fierce frown to her lips and tears to her eyes, but they were always quickly blocked out by other times-- Seto's awkward smile at the beach; his lips pressing against her wounded knuckles; his lips crushing against hers, his mouth filled with the spicy aftertaste of alcohol...

_'The good times...?'_

But he didn't even remember. He didn't even **care**!

Even if last night, he'd just let her cry in his arms...

It didn't mean anything. It couldn't. She still **had** to leave. Before this situation got any worse, and before she fell so hard and fast, she couldn't escape. There still had to be a way...

"What does any of that have to do with moving to New York and finishing your high school by correspondence?" Chieko asked abruptly, snapping Téa from her reverie. She hadn't heard about any ghosts or Kaiba being framed for murder, but... somehow, it made sense. With those two...?

Mai and Serenity turned to face Téa, both of them fixing her with unrelenting stares.

She sighed, realizing that she couldn't breathe any more lies. She just... couldn't. Maybe giving up in this respect wasn't such a bad thing. Maybe... she'd be free from the burdens of her lies and worries, for once.

"My parents... they left me a fortune. Yesterday I went to the bank and picked up nearly $300,000 in American money."

Serenity wore a blank expression on her face, while Chieko and Mai, well-familiar with American money, gasped.

"That's nearly 33,216,000 Yen, Téa," Chieko breathed in astonishment. Téa rolled her eyes slightly; Chieko sure had a way with numbers.

"WHAT?" Serenity exclaimed. Her friend was a millionaire?

"Not just that," Téa continued resolutely, "but I went to my old house. The couple living there now is really nice-- very sweet. Come my 18th birthday, I could just evict them and move back into my house if I wanted. Or I could move to New York and finish high school by correspondence. I-- I'm leaning toward that, because I just can't evict that nice couple. They... they found this video tape that my parents left me. I watched it the other night... My parents explained everything. From why they did what they did, to how they knew what they were doing would get them killed. And I never knew! All this time, I thought... I thought it was an accident, and..."

The tears started dripping down her face before Téa even realized it. It wasn't until there was a plopping sound --that of her tears falling into her soda-- that she realized she was crying.

"Oh, Téa..." Chieko, closest to Téa in the booth the four girls occupied, reached over and hugged her friend as tightly as her lithe arms could manage. Moments later, Serenity and Mai joined in, stepping from their side of the booth to Téa's, all their arms embracing her.

"T-The couple at my old house --t-the Chibas? They're newlyweds. And when her husband was in the kitchen making me tea, Mrs. Chiba told me she's pregnant. She's so excited, and she thinks the house will be this wonderful place to raise her kids. She's one-hundred percent certain that their first child's going to be a girl, and after I'd told her about growing up in the house, she was even more sure... after that, I j-just can-- can't evict them!" Téa hiccoughed.

"But why move away, Téa? Running away never solves anything!"

Mai frowned, looking away. Despite the years that she had on the other girls, sometimes it seemed as though they were all wiser than her.

First Téa, then Serenity, and now Chieko.

Was the world trying to tell her something?

"I-- I know. But I c-can't just..."

"Why not?" Serenity interrupted. "Why **can't** you tell Kaiba everything? Tell him you love him, tell him about the money. Tell him that he was a total jerk to you, and if he wants what you've got to offer, he's got to earn it like a real man should?"

Téa laughed slightly through her slowing tears. "You sound like your brother, Serenity."

Mai stifled a chuckle at that, while Chieko only smirked.

_'Why can't I?'_

If he didn't return her feelings after all this time, then... fine. She would have no regrets. She could leave Domino... leave Japan once and for all.

She could chase her dreams.

* * *

So now it wasn't a matter of taking things one step at a time, it was a matter of waiting for the right moment.

There'd been plenty of opportunities in the past, now that Téa thought about it. Of course, now that she was renewed in her resolve to admit her feelings for Seto Kaiba --if just to "get them out of the way"-- it seemed as though time was **not** on her side. Everything seemed to pass by so slowly, with opportunities hidden deep in the shadows, and far from Téa's reach...

She raised a slightly-trembling hand to knock on the solid door that separated her from Seto Kaiba.

Well, it was now or never...

"Come in."

Téa subconsciously pressed her hands to her skirt, inhaling deeply before she opened her eyes and walked into the room.

"Kaiba, I have a question."

She knew she had to speak before he did, because his words --the very sound of his voice-- could send her thoughts sprawling into dangerous territory, filling her with questions, and in her present state of mind, she would blurt them unnecessarily, and embarrass them both.

"What is it?"

He swallowed hard, desperately trying to mask the stab of pain that shot through his chest.

'Kaiba,' again. Why did he want her to whisper his name so badly? Not his company name, not his adopted name, but **his** name-- Seto. Why did he want such irrational things so desperately?

"I--I was wondering if I could have off on Friday."

There. She'd said it.

"Fine."

Téa blinked. It wasn't supposed to be **that** easy!

Kaiba, for his part, wondered why Téa still stood there. Didn't she know her very presence distracted him? She'd gotten what she wanted, so why was she still there? He could feel her gaze boring into him, searing through his computer and straight into his eyes... His gaze flickered up to glance at her, when she didn't think he was paying attention.

"Y-You aren't going to ask me why?" Téa asked, twisting her left leg behind her right. She knew she looked foolish now, twiddling with her fingers and staring at Kaiba with the slightest traces of a pout on her lips, but she didn't care. Didn't **he** want to know? Regardless of her feelings or his, wasn't he supposed to be an efficient, informed employer?

Who was this imposter, and where was the **real** Seto Kaiba?

Kaiba steeled himself, hoping that his face wouldn't burn scarlet on the very sight of her. It was bad enough that she haunted his dreams and his every waking moment, 'maybes' and 'might-have-beens' threatening to swallow him whole, but now she stood before him --alone, and so beautiful...

"Why?" Navy blue eyes met with brilliant, clear blue ones, and Kaiba swallowed the acidic lump in his throat.

"It's my birthday," Téa responded in an almost-shy whisper. "Actually, I was kind of hoping I could do something with my fr--" Téa realized what she'd been saying, and stopped herself. How foolish to be thinking so selfishly. She'd gotten what she'd wanted, so why was she pushing her luck?

"Never mind. Thanks, Kaiba!" And she rushed out of the office before Kaiba could think of a single thing to say.

_'Her... birthday?'_

* * *

"I dare you," Duke stated firmly, looking as smug as ever.

"Done," Joey snickered, though inwardly he wondered why Kaiba looked so incredibly out of it. Duke, Joey, and Tristan all noticed the moment Kaiba came into the classroom--uncharacteristically late, and looking surprisingly haggard. Everyone at Domino High knew that Seto Kaiba went well out of his way to arrive at school insanely early each morning, and no matter what was going on, his appearance was always immaculate.

Perfect grades, perfectly composed...

On every day BUT today.

What was the deal? Joey finished folding up a paper football and carefully took aim at Kaiba's head, across a few aisles.

Lunch was about to start any moment, and the teacher stepped out of the classroom. Most of the students were already packed up and eagerly talking, but Seto Kaiba remained staring at his paperwork, lost in thought.

"Ready, aim..."

With a quick flick of his fingers, the paper football went flying, and smacked Seto Kaiba right in the back of the head.

"Touchdown!" Tristan laughed, high-fiving Duke. The bell rang just as Kaiba glanced at the paper football tangled in his hair; he shot Joey an un-amused look as he shook himself from his stupor and prepared his things. Surprised by Kaiba's lack of a reaction, Joey pushed his way through the exiting students and toward Kaiba's desk, much to both Duke and Tristan's surprise.

"What's up with you?" Joey asked bluntly, blocking Kaiba's exit from the class by planting an arm on the desk in front of him. Kaiba fixed Joey with a flat stare, clearly unwilling to speak to him, let alone get into a fight over getting out of the class.

"Move it, Wheeler," he ground out, his voice strangely hoarse.

"You sick or somethin' Kaiba? Come on."

"Come on, what?"

"Hey Joey, I finished Téa's birthday--" Yugi, who'd just dashed into the classroom from outside-- since he'd spent study hall in his vocational education class, stared at Joey and Kaiba, both of them unmoving and speechless.

"Ah, I got it." Joey nodded wisely, noting how Kaiba's eyes widened slightly at the mention of Téa's birthday, "Someone didn't get Téa her present yet..." His voice was singsong and decidedly annoying, so when Kaiba's face contorted into a disdainful frown, Joey grinned. At least the old Kaiba was back --for a moment, anyway.

Even if the guy was a jerk, he was no fun to mess with if he wasn't acting like himself.

"You didn't know?" Yugi piped up. In all honesty, he would have thought such information was basic knowledge for Kaiba. He and Téa had lived with each other for so long, after all...

The thought still stung, but Yugi was trying his hardest to put his feelings for Téa behind him. Only, it wasn't easy-- not when he could so plainly see that Kaiba was feeling **something** for Téa in return. Though Yugi was at least partially content to act as mediator when fights broke out with Kaiba and Joey, it was another matter altogether to play matchmaker with the CEO and Yugi's own former crush.

Things just had to take their own course.

"I just found out yesterday, okay? One week's notice, how the hell was I supposed to know?"

That wasn't the entire reason, but it was good enough for the Yugi and the mutt. Kaiba hardly cared to explain everything to them-- from his confusing feelings to Téa's tears the other day. If she didn't feel the need to tell them, why should he? It was his business, and his business alone.

Joey, Tristan and Duke snickered briefly, despite the angry stare Kaiba shot in their direction. Realizing Kaiba was on the verge of snapping, Yugi quickly intervened.

"Hey guys, why don't you come into the computer lab and check out what I've got finished so far? I think Téa will like it..."

"Sounds cool," Tristan and Duke nodded, following Yugi out of the classroom. "Joey, you comin'?" Tristan called back.

"Nah, gimme a sec." Joey stared at Kaiba up and down, his hazel eyes narrowed.

"She's probably gonna wanna have a party, you know."

"Yeah." She'd mentioned something about wanting to do something with her friends. The least Kaiba could do was offer her the day off, and maybe some space in the mansion...

But maybe not. Maybe she didn't want him to have any part in her birthday.

Yet, Kaiba couldn't help but envision the tiny Blue-Eyes White Dragon statuette on his desk. He couldn't help but remember when Téa gave it to him, her face pink and her knees knocked together. And then, when he'd spun her into his arms, she'd collapsed into him so easily, her body warm and soft against his. They'd come so close again...

_'But she pushed me away. She doesn't feel the same.'_

Fortunately or unfortunately, it didn't change things. Téa's birthday was still coming up, and regardless of his feelings --whatever they were-- for her, Kaiba still had no idea what to get or do for Téa. He didn't know what her favorite food was, or even what she wanted. It occurred to him at that very moment that despite months of living with her, and quite possibly having feelings for her, Seto Kaiba knew very little about Téa Gardner.

"Truce," Joey stated, thrusting a hand out to Kaiba. "She'll want ya there, and I'm not gonna ruin it by fightin' with ya."

Kaiba stared at Joey suspiciously for a moment, wondering if the younger man was going to retract his hand at the last moment and walk away, laughing. Wheeler never bothered to treat him with respect until now, so why...?

_'Respect is earned,'_ Kaiba remembered. Had he really earned Wheeler's respect, after that gang brawl? Months ago, Kaiba wouldn't have cared **what** Wheeler thought of him, but now...

_'He's friends with her. He knows what she wants, what she likes. He... he can help me figure this out.'_

It was just as ludicrous as the idea of Yugi the pacifist beating up a hoard of gang members, but then again... he'd done that, too.

"Truce."

* * *

"Ya kiddin' me, right? Moneybags, you have everything on the friggin' planet at your disposal, and you can't think of a single thing to get Téa for her eighteenth birthday?"

Kaiba only glared at Joey, while Tristan and Duke smothered their laughs under their arms. Yugi, Tristan, and Duke returned from the computer labs, where Yugi showed them the project he'd been working on tirelessly for several months. Now, they all sat in the classroom eating lunch-- while Téa and the other girls in their class were in the newly-reconstructed dance studio, refurbished from the autumn festival's funds.

"You've got it easy, Wheeler," Kaiba seethed, "you have a sister, so you know what it's like to shop for... girls."

The last word came out sort of fumbled on Kaiba's part, as though he weren't entirely sure how to refer to Téa. As always, Kaiba remained unsure of whether or not Wheeler knew the extent of Téa's relationship with him-- whatever that 'extent' even was, at this point. But obviously, Joey didn't have qualms with him caring for Téa-- unless he really was **that** dense.

It didn't matter, though. Téa wasn't any ordinary girl, and her upcoming birthday was no ordinary birthday. Even if her own friends didn't realize it, Kaiba did.

Her eighteenth birthday.

If she wanted, she could get up and leave. Leave the mansion, leave Domino, leave Japan... leave him. Never to return, ever again.

"You gotta be kiddin' me," Tristan piped up, shaking his head, "Serenity is so hard to shop for..."

"Agreed," Duke nodded. "She may be female, but she's a Wheeler though and through, and that makes her not only picky, but hard-headed, too!"

"Hey! The two of you better shut it where my sister's concerned, or I'll--"

"No use threatening us, Joey," Tristan grinned. "We all know Serenity can take care of herself. So Kaiba, how **did** you get rid of that bruise you got when she slapped you?"

Kaiba chuckled sarcastically, his grin wry. "Lots of ice."

Lunch continued in this fashion, with the conversations sporadic and awkward... but for the most part, it was an interesting experience for Seto Kaiba. He'd never eaten lunch with any of his own peers before, let alone ones he previously deemed his rivals. Well, Yugi was still --and always **would be**\-- his rival, but Duel Monsters was the furthest thing from Kaiba's mind at that moment...

When the bell rang again indicating time for Japanese Literature class, the boys scrambled back to their seats, not wanting to anger Miss Ninomiya any time soon.

"Yo, Kaiba!" Joey hissed just before Miss Ninomiya walked in. He flicked another paper football in Kaiba's direction, indicating that Kaiba should open it up. When Kaiba did, he was greeted with a haphazard scrawl that could only be Wheeler's handwriting. It read: "Store-bought isn't Téa's style. If you get her something that **only you** can get her, it'll mean a lot."

Kaiba glanced up at Joey just before the blond turned away to face the teacher, in some semblance of attentiveness.

_'Thanks, Wheeler.'_

* * *

Luck was with the boys that day, as their usual gym teacher scrambled to attend a last-minute meeting with the other gym teachers. The boys in the east gym were left to their own devices, most boys choosing to play basketball, while the girls remained hidden by the wall separating the gyms. The wall, though it could be pushed away to merge both gyms, rarely ever got opened. The only way to see into the girl's side of the gym was by sneaking up the balcony-- not an easy task, especially when the entire area was exposed for the gyms below to see.

But the moment a loud cheer of "Téa! Téa!" rang, Kaiba couldn't help but wonder what was going on.

Apparently, the same held true for Joey --ironically enough, the only one who seemed to even notice Kaiba's presence in the gymnasium. Tristan and Duke were bickering again, heatedly arguing over a basketball foul, while Yugi was nowhere to be found.

"Moneybags," Joey hissed, "Come on, let's see what the girls are cheerin' about." He waved at Kaiba, gesturing for him to follow him to the balconies while the rest of their classmates played sports. After a moment's reluctance, Kaiba followed silently-- despite his urge to snap at Wheeler for calling him 'Moneybags,' yet again.

Though no one appeared to be watching, Joey went through the exaggerated motions of ducking forward as he crept up the stairs, glancing back at Kaiba every so often to make sure no one else was following him. After they reached the balcony landing, they moved towards the foremost part of the seats-- the lower ones closest to the gym floor, but those hardest to see by the students playing below.

Kaiba felt ridiculous, stepping slowly and carefully behind Joey. He'd never had a need to hunch over before in his life --Seto Kaiba did not **creep**. So while he fought every urge to protest vocally, his spine found a very good way of protesting otherwise-- sending very real, physical shoots of pain up and down his back.

_'This had better be worth it.'_

And that was when he saw her.

He was sure Wheeler did too, but after a split second, Joey was the farthest thing from Kaiba's mind. The two boys emerged from their own gymnasium into what was dubbed the "Girl's Gym," and saw two teams of girls playing a fast-paced game of basketball. Unlike lunch hour, when most girls refused to play sports due to the short skirts they wore as part of their uniform, the gym uniforms were much different.

Small, white shirts emblazoned with each girl's name, and shorts that were so short, they were closer to bathing-suit bottoms-- or, to the more lecherous mind, panties. Hence, watching a gym full of girls leaping around in such attire, yelling back and forth and sweating with exertion did certain things to both Kaiba and Joey's minds that they probably wouldn't have repeated to anyone.

"Well, at least now she can't complain about guys wantin' to look up her skirt..." Joey chuckled under his breath. Off Kaiba's raised eyebrow and querying stare, Joey continued. "First year, back when uh... when Yug' and I weren't on such good terms, you know? Téa used to go outside with the other guys and play sports. One day they suggested basketball, and uh... well, when she started scorin' real well, she found out the guys were just starin' at her panties every time she made a shot. Went back inside and caught Tristan and me hagglin' Yugi. 'Course, I didn't actually bug Yug' till I knew she was comin' inside..."

"What?"

Joey froze, his eyes widening. "Uh, er..."

"Wheeler, what **aren't** you telling me?" Kaiba ground out, his eyes narrowed to slits.

Joey scratched behind his ear nervously, "Well, first thing I'm gonna say is, I got a girlfriend now, so you don't gotta worry about me complainin' about you and Téa gettin' together or whatever, 'cause if you like her, and she likes you, I guess... well, yeah, whatever. She's her own girl, you know?"

"Get to the POINT, Wheeler," Kaiba seethed, though inwardly he was curious as to when Joey and Mai --she **had** to be the girlfriend Joey referred to; it simply couldn't be anyone else-- got together. That thought, in turn, led to a brief burst of jealousy-- second-rate Wheeler, Joey Wheeler the MUTT, had gotten a girlfriend before him. It was the most idiotic, stereotypically 'macho' thought Seto Kaiba ever had, but one that remained in his brain all the same.

"I kinda crushed on Téa back in first year. Nah, 'kinda' ain't the right word. I had it for her-- **bad**. Yug' bein' all wimpy and quiet bugged me before, but I never did nothin' about it. He didn't get in my way, and I didn't get in his. But then one day, I was havin' a lousy time, and I kinda snapped at him. Téa stormed up to me and gave me an earful and I... well, I never thought about nothin' the same way again."

"...You've got to be kidding me."

Joey frowned, shaking his head though his eyes were still trained on Téa and the other girls playing basketball below; Téa just scored a shot, and her fellow teammates happily cheered her victory.

"It always went like that, Moneybags. I'd bug Yugi, Téa'd come to his defense, we'd fight... it was bliss."

"You are one sick dog, Wheeler."

"Shut up and lemme finish, Kaiba," Joey hissed. "Well, then there was that jerkwad hall monitor. I used to think you had somethin' crammed up your ass, but this guy was much worse-- and bigger than the two of us combined. Not only did he blackmail Yug' for loads of cash, but he kicked mine and Tristan's asses. He woulda finished the job too, if Yug' hadn't showed up. After that..."

"You two became... **friends**," Kaiba finished for Joey.

"Yeah, that's about the long and short of it," Joey paused, a grin spreading across his lips, "no offense to Yugi, of course."

Kaiba stifled a brief chuckle at Joey's clichéd but apt pun, turning his gaze back to Téa and the others. Though silence didn't bother Seto Kaiba in the slightest, there was something nagging at the back of his mind --however irrelevant.

"So you and Valentine finally got together, did you?"

He didn't really expect any details from Wheeler; more a retort about how the subject was none of his business anyway, but instead, Joey said nothing. Kaiba peered at the shorter boy, surprised to see Wheeler's face a bright, flaming red.

"On second thought, I **don't** want to know."

"G-Good. 'Cause I ain't up to describin' all that just yet."

"'All that'?" Kaiba repeated. He shook his head. "Forget it. But... when'd you get over Téa?"

"Two words, Moneybags: Duelist Kingdom."

Two words were all Joey needed. Duelist Kingdom changed everything for everyone. Even Kaiba knew that, though he wasn't too keen on remembering the events from back then.

"That's where you met Valentine, isn't it?"

"Yep. Hated her guts at first, too, but..." Joey grinned lopsidedly, "things change."

* * *

"I was thinking--" Kaiba began, unwilling to let Téa have the first or last word again as he walked into the kitchen, interrupting Téa and Mokuba from their usual work together, "Why not have your birthday here at the mansion on Friday?"

Téa's eyebrows shot up, her expression plainly surprised.

"Y-You mean it, Kaiba? I mean-- wow. Really, thanks, that-- that'd be wonderful."

That was just what Téa had been thinking herself, but she hadn't the courage to ask Kaiba. And yet here he'd gone and suggested it himself. But... why?

Their eyes met for a brief moment, the kitchen filled with silence. It was Mokuba who finally broke the stretch of quiet with an abrupt cough.

"Y-You wouldn't mind--" Kaiba began again, his voice wavering slightly, "if I-- that is, Mokuba and I-- were there?"

_'He... wants to be there? For me? But why?'_

It didn't matter that he'd amended his question at the last possible moment to include Mokuba, who was, for once, an afterthought in Seto Kaiba's mind. He still wanted to be there. For **her**.

"I'd like that." And she smiled, a brighter, wider smile than either Mokuba or Kaiba had seen her wear for a long time. Something akin to hope blossomed in Kaiba's chest-- a warm, tingling feeling that curled the corners of his own lips upward.

Maybe... just maybe, he stood a fraction of a chance.

* * *

"Big mistake, Gardner," Kaiba smirked, though the humor in his voice was startlingly clear. Téa shot him an irritated, sarcastic glare, waiting for him to make the next move. The two of them finally found the time to duel each other --in a real duel. Kaiba amazed Téa once more by revealing that he had a dueling arena in his own home-- so of course he was never without practice for **any** duel. Initially, Téa tried every line in the book to get out of it-- but the problem was, she was good on her word, and she **had** promised Seto a duel...

"I'll now sacrifice my Wicked Worm Beast and Vampire Lord to summon one of the most powerful creatures in all of Duel Monsters! Come forth, Blue-Eyes White--"

The problem was, things seemed a bit... **too** easy.

"Trap Hole."

"What?" Seto Kaiba blinked in astonishment as Téa flipped over a trap card --had that even **been** there before?-- with a smirk just barely curling the corners of her lips. Damn her-- damn those lips!

Before it could even fully materialize on the field, Seto Kaiba's trademark Blue-Eyes White Dragon disappeared into a massive fissure, removing it from the playing field.

Seto fixed Téa with a bland stare. "Your move."

"Thanks. And now, you're seriously going to regret not countering that, because..." Téa smiled after she drew, her face lighting up like a light bulb; "I play Monster Reborn, and bring back the Blue-Eyes White Dragon that you just tried to summon!"

Curse her.

"Attack, Blue-Eyes!" Téa grinned triumphantly, watching as Kaiba's life point counter dropped to zero.

"I believe that's game?" Téa grinned innocently. Kaiba crossed his arms over his chest, cocking his head to the side and eyeing Téa critically. She returned his stare in kind, suddenly wondering if she'd won that game by a fluke.

Had Seto Kaiba purposefully **let** her win? But... why?

It made no sense! If there was one thing he was horribly serious about, it was his dueling! Still...

"All right! You know what this means, right Téa?" Mokuba grinned.

"It means your brother is going to hate me for beating him," Téa frowned slightly. "And you too, for betting against him."

"You bet **against** me?" Kaiba asked incredulously, turning startled eyes on his younger sibling. Mokuba just shrugged nonchalantly.

"Fluke?"

Kaiba shook his head in dismay. "Even my own brother's turned against me..." he sighed. "What exactly were the terms of the bet?"

"I haven't decided yet," Mokuba grinned. "I'm sure I'll think of something sure to drive you both crazy!"

"Oh great," Kaiba and Téa groaned in unison, smirking at each other after the fact.

Well, this was going to be interesting...

* * *

Hours later, Téa finished cleaning up and assisting Mokuba with his schoolwork. Night fell, and the entire mansion was cool and quiet. It would be easy to just slip through the silence back to her lonely, small apartment, but something held Téa back.

She wandered the hallways idly, as if waiting for something to appear; something she could do or fix, or say...

Maybe she just wanted that 'perfect opportunity' to present itself, so she'd no longer be left with sleepless nights, wondering if her feelings would **ever** take her anywhere.

"Kaiba? Hey, Kaiba are you--" Téa hesitantly pushed the flat of her hand against the heavy door separating Seto Kaiba's office from the cool foyer of the rest of the Kaiba household. It was late at night, but Kaiba was a workaholic if Téa ever knew one.

But this night, to her surprise, Seto was not seated, eyes wide and staring at a blinking computer screen. Rather, his lanky form was spread out haphazardly on the nearby couch, a thick book resting face-down on his chest, his hand still fixed to the binding.

"Asleep?" Téa murmured breathlessly. "I guess that's a yes," she finished with a whisper.

She'd never seen him asleep before.

He looked so... calm.

This wasn't the same young man who fought passionately and fiercely in each of his duels (even though Téa suspected that in their duel, he'd **let** her win for some bizarre reason), the same man that argued daily with corporate executives and employees, or even the classmate, the acquaintance, the --dare she think it?-- _friend_ who walked into every situation prepared, determined, and ready to come out victorious.

The way he was sprawled out on the couch, one would never guess that he was so intimidating during his waking hours, or that he was the cause of so many strange emotions for Téa. As he was, he seemed so... ordinary.

A relaxed face, with brown bangs falling into closed eyes... he slept peacefully, his breathing even, and his face calm and neutral. Nightmares wouldn't haunt his sleep. Nothing ever conquered Seto Kaiba...

_'I still envy him, I guess...'_ Téa realized, tilting her head as she examined Seto Kaiba. There'd never be another chance like this-- never again. She was sure of it.

And yet... there didn't seem to be anything pressing on her mind. She just wanted to **be** there, and stay with him.

Maybe asleep, she could admit what she couldn't say at any other time. Maybe without needing to worry about his reaction, his response, or his feelings (or perhaps lack thereof), she could just... tell him.

"I want to thank you, Seto," Téa began in a hushed voice, just above a whisper. It still felt strange, calling him 'Kaiba,' even though she'd only started calling her employer by his given name some months ago. But in that span of time, their relationship changed so permanently that anything else --a reversion to her old ways, of calling him by that hated last name, that family name that meant nothing to him-- seemed wrong.

"For everything you've done. Sometimes it's been tough," Téa winced, remembering that particularly painful night after Seto got released from jail, "but we're both so much stronger because of it. During the hardest time in my life, you were there for me. I never... **ever** would have imagined that. That I would grow to... feel this way about you."

He remained sleeping. His breath was warm, as Téa discovered in mute embarrassment as she leaned over his face to brush a few stray bangs aside. Worry lines vaguely creased his forehead, sure to become deeper as the years passed-- if Seto Kaiba didn't change his daily regimen of stress and overworking himself.

"We're both crazy, you know that?" Téa sighed, flopping down on the floor beside the couch, her hand still running through Kaiba's hair. It was surprisingly soft and fine, but it had a warm, almost spicy scent to it that coiled in the air about Téa, refusing to let her senses go. To her surprise, Kaiba made a slight noise --of agreement, maybe? It was half a moan and a sleepy murmur, but one that snapped Téa from her reverie. Sliding her hand away from his face, she realized Kaiba still slept-- but even so, her heart was thundering in her chest.

_'See what you do to me? No, you can't see, even when your eyes are open. You miss the way I look at you, and how red my cheeks get. You miss how broken my voice gets whenever I talk about you, or talk to you. Maybe you don't **want** to see anymore, because I cause you so much trouble... but maybe, just for one moment, you could see only me, and realize...'_

What a selfish thought.

No, there was a reason that couldn't be together-- a reason why neither of them could breach that barrier between them.

Other priorities... other dreams.

But... if somehow, someway, that changed in the next week... then maybe Téa would have a reason to stay. Beyond her friends and finishing high school, she'd have a reason not to run away, but to face a new challenge head-on, and to...

_'Learn to love... again, maybe?'_

Maybe.

But until then, Kaiba still slept. Téa smiled at him, her body warm and her cheeks a vague pink hue. He'd never see her face like that when he was awake, but... who knew what Seto Kaiba dreamt?

Téa tugged the knit blanket draped over the back of the couch across Seto Kaiba's frame, up to his hand. Téa bent down and gently removed the book from Kaiba's hand, careful to bookmark the page he was on before setting it aside on a nearby end table. It was quiet and warm in the office, and Téa supposed that it was more of a sanctuary for Seto than his own bedroom could ever be. And if he could truly find rest and relaxation in that office, then she wouldn't take that away from him.

"Good night, Seto," Téa whispered, pressing her lips to Seto's forehead. Moments later, she stepped away from him, willing the ache in her chest to subside. She took one last lingering glance at the sleeping Kaiba before flicking the light in the office out, closing the door with a gentle click.

* * *

He awoke from his haze, everything seeming a blur of gray and blue. It was startlingly warm, and the scenery around him seemed distorted.

_'Oh.'_

He was in his office again, and this time, he'd fallen asleep on the couch. But Seto Kaiba didn't remember pulling the blanket up against him, nor did he recall placing his book off to the side, neatly book-marking the page he'd left off on while he read.

But he **did** remember his dream.

_"You were too weak to do what was necessary to win, Yugi! You're pathetic!"_

_He'd won the duel. That adrenaline rush that only accompanied sheer victory flowed through him, and for an instant, Seto Kaiba was the champion once more. But then, **she** turned on him, and reality slammed Seto Kaiba back into the ground-- hard._

_'She' was Téa Gardner-- a girl of little to no consequence, really. She was just another one of Yugi's pathetic sidekicks, and one of the mutt's companions. Another unimportant face and whining voice in a crowd of losers and nobodies._

_"You're wrong, Kaiba! You're the one that planned to give up the most important card-- your life! You've spent so much time around all your machines, you've forgotten what it means to be human! You don't even have enough courage to face yourself, but at least Yugi won the duel that mattered-- the fight to protect you from yourself!"_

_Silence. _

_Curse her..._

_For the first time, Seto Kaiba noticed Téa Gardner. It wasn't just her loud mouth and biting words, but the fierce determination in her eyes. A brilliant blue, he realized, sharply contrasting against the oranges and pinks of the setting sun. Were he another person, in another time and place, he might have found her beautiful._

_But now wasn't the time for fanciful thoughts or idiocy. _

_He had to save Mokuba, and that was all that mattered._

_"At the end of the day, what do you have? **Tell me**!"_

_"I have all that I need." _

_The words spilled from his lips before he even put any real thought behind them; after he'd spoken, he took one last glance at Téa --the lone person in their whole group that dared to talk back to him, that dared to challenge him and his loyalties. For an instant, she may have seen the doubt and fear in his eyes. But he quickly hid it, turning away while a brisk breeze whipped up the tails of his trench coat._

_It was now or never-- he **had** to save Mokuba._

_He was all that Seto needed. He was all that Seto had left._

Kaiba woke up with a start, his breathing suddenly sharp and loud in the otherwise silent office. His dream faded, but the images --and her voice-- remained clear in Seto's mind. He rose from the couch tiredly, but his mind was buzzing away, snapping with ideas.

He still hadn't come up with a birthday present idea for Téa... until now.

Fleeting images from different times-- always focusing back on those eyes. He didn't recall staring at her too intently, and yet each image in his head seemed as clear as day, as though Téa stood right before him. Always her eyes, drawing him ever closer...

What was it about her, anyway?

None of it made any sense.

But then, was it supposed to?

Wasn't confusion part of the so-called 'normal' teenage life? The life that he'd never thought he'd live?

Kaiba stumbled over to his computer, hardly aware of the minutes passing after he booted the system up. Somehow, he felt as though he were locked in a trance, clicking through various windows and typing at various command prompts. And before he knew it, he was back **there**.

A smile --not a smirk-- crept its way onto Seto Kaiba's face, and he allowed himself a single whisper, breaking the stillness of the night.

"Perfect."

* * *

"Why are you pacing, Téa?" Mokuba asked curiously, shifting a pillow around in his lap. He was glad Téa didn't mind him being there, but he'd been counting on Seto holing himself up in his office all day.

Still, Seto **was** acting rather odd lately...

And Mokuba could probably guess why.

"I-- I guess I'm just nervous, Mokuba," Téa explained in a breathless whisper. Her birthday finally arrived, and she'd come no closer to confessing or realizing her feelings for Seto than she had weeks or months before. It was still entirely possible to take all that money and just leave-- the very next day. Or next week, or...

Never.

She had plenty of perfectly good reasons **not** to leave Japan, and they were on their way to the Kaiba Mansion at that very moment.

"But why? Don't Yugi and the others know you've been staying with us?"

Téa cast Mokuba a sheepish grin; it told him everything despite the fact that Téa didn't speak immediately. "Yugi does," Téa admitted. "And so do Mai and Serenity. But I don't think Joey, Duke, and Tristan do, and something tells me they won't be too happy..."

"We'll it's **your** birthday," Mokuba pointed out reasonably, finally bouncing off the couch and setting the pillow aside once more, "so they should be thinking about **your** happiness first."

Téa couldn't help but smile. How was it that Seto and Mokuba were related? Sometimes the two brothers seemed as different as day and night. Mokuba was such a sweet kid...

"Thanks, Mokuba."

There was a part of Téa that hoped that things would somehow go smoothly.

That Tristan, Joey, and Duke would all understand --at least a little-- where her feelings came from, and how hard it was for her to both realize and eventually accept them. She'd fought them for so long, and now... she was determined to see them through. If her friends could accept her feelings for Kaiba, then maybe Kaiba would as well. Maybe there wouldn't have to be any more awkward moments or stretches of silence.

Maybe he could just look in her eyes and **know**. He'd know-- the same way Téa always knew when she looked in his eyes, with the way his intense gaze, whenever it was locked on hers, brought a warm tingle rushing through her veins.

So many maybes... everything was up to chance.

Moments later, the doorbell rang.

Téa sucked in a deep breath, smoothing her glittering top and adjusting the satin ribbon straps.

"Here goes."

* * *

"Are ya **sure** this it it?" Joey asked for the umpteenth time, still gawking at the massive size of the mansion. So this was where Téa lived with her employer, huh? Joey vaguely wondered if they'd finally meet the guy. He also wondered who else was there-- Yugi was usually pretty punctual, but if he'd gotten stuck with helping Duke and Tristan with directions, then he might be late.

And Serenity was coming from farther away, so...

"Positive," Mai responded flatly, rolling her eyes. As if there was any doubt in her mind where Seto Kaiba lived. As if the wrought-iron gate engraved with a large "K" hadn't given it away?

"Joey, is that you?"

Joey turned to the sound of Yugi's voice, abruptly removing his arm from around Mai's waist. Mai frowned just a little; she missed the warmth and strength of Joey's arm against her back.

_'How idiotic. I'm growing dependent on him.'_

But after years of self-sustenance, would that be such a bad thing? Maybe after all this time, she could learn to trust --learn to **love**\-- again.

Maybe she could stop running away.

Regardless of how Mai felt, Duke and Tristan, accompanying Yugi, immediately noticed that Joey had been holding the lone female among them, and they both shot Joey angry scowls. Joey only smirked, his hand sliding down to grasp Mai's.

"So, big place," Duke finally commented. He had an odd feeling about all this, but... there was still that old suspicion, from the back of his mind. From so many months ago. Was it possible?

"You're tellin' me. I'm surprised we didn't have to deal with a security guard or a pack of dogs as we got in here," Tristan mumbled, running a hand through his gelled hair. He looked about abruptly, as if looking for said dogs, but there were none to be found. In fact, the entire expanse of the front lawn seemed abandoned-- filled with all the usuals a rich businessman would have: thick, thorny hedges, bright rosebushes, elegant wooden benches, stone fountains spurting cool, clear water, and ivy creeping up the sides of the mansion.

Téa was certainly lucky to live in a place like that, even after all she'd been through.

"I think her employer was okay with us coming," Yugi stated softly, his eyes briefly straying to meet Mai's. She was the only other one that **knew**.

"Well, are we going to ring the doorbell, or what?" Mai interrupted the uncomfortable silence.

"Let me!" A voice called out. Serenity jogged up the stone pathway, her grin widening as she spotted her brother and Mai's hands linked together. Though she'd been a bit wary of Mai, hearing that she'd been bartending at the very club where Téa got repeatedly drunk, Serenity still remembered how strong, powerful, and dedicated woman Mai was. Memories of Battle City would never leave Serenity-- not as long as she lived.

And besides, she wished her brother all the happiness in the world, and if Mai could bring him that happiness, then all the better.

"Serenity!" Tristan and Duke chorused at the same time. Serenity shot them both a sweet smile, but trotted up to her brother and Mai, grinning widely.

"Cute," she finally murmured, her gaze purposefully straying to Mai and Joey's joined hands. Joey flushed bright red and tried to wrench his hand from Mai's, but this time, she wouldn't let him go.

"Stop being such a chicken, Joey."

Joey flushed, sulking even as his sister stepped forward and rang the doorbell.

The door opened moments later, Téa standing before them with a nervous smile on her face. Her cheeks were already flushed a light red, no doubt from the makeup she'd applied. It was rare to see Téa so dressed up, but after DV8, Joey was no stranger to the more feminine --but still tough-- side of Téa.

"H-Hi guys! Come on in."

* * *

No, too bright.

Where had he gotten that disgustingly lime green tie, anyway?

"You're overdoing it," a voice piped up from the corner of Seto Kaiba's bedroom. Kaiba turned toward the sound of the voice, not at all surprised to see Mokuba there. The younger boy had abandoned his usual favorite yellow vest in favor of a solid red long-sleeved shirt with white collars and cuffs, and a pair of slacks that Kaiba was sure he hadn't bought for Mokuba.

Kaiba tossed yet another tie off to the side and onto his bed; his room, for once in his life, looked like a disaster, with various jackets and dress-shirts scattered haphazardly over the bedspread and the chair in the corner.

"And how do **you** suggest I dress for Téa's birthday, oh wise one?" Kaiba commented dryly. It was all in jest, but the nervousness in his voice was apparent-- at least to Mokuba. He knew his brother better than anyone else. He knew that Kaiba **wanted** to look good for Téa, and his older brother didn't know how.

Mokuba was more than reluctant to help his brother, especially if what he felt in his gut -- that Téa might actually still **like **Seto, after everything that happened-- was right.

But... he still loved his brother more than anything. And he didn't want him to look silly in front of everyone else downstairs. The moment Téa moved to open the door, Mokuba scampered upstairs, wondering when his brother was going to make his grand appearance-- and in what outfit.

The young, ebony-haired boy eyed his suit-clad brother critically. Why was his brother in a suit, anyway? He **hated** suits. Did he really think he had to be that stiff and formal with Téa?

"First off, ditch the jacket **and** the tie. It's a birthday party, not a board meeting."

Kaiba snorted, sliding the jacket off, and tossing the remainder of ties looped around his arm to the bed. He didn't particularly care about hanging them back up at that exact moment. Maybe when he was 100 sure he would go downstairs, he'd put them back --methodically, and in order according to hue-- just to buy him some time.

So now he stood before his full-length mirror, hanging on the door of his walk-in closet, staring at his reflection with a critical eye.

A blue dress-shirt and white dress pants. Nothing too shabby, and nothing too formal. It wasn't a tuxedo, at least-- the last thing Kaiba wanted was to stir up memories of the Ball. That and he thought he looked like a penguin in those things.

"And unbutton the first few buttons," Mokuba said after a moment.

"What?"

"Just do it," Mokuba snapped. "Remember, birthday, not board meeting."

Complying, Kaiba undid the first three buttons, surprised by how casual the change made him seem. It was almost... unnatural.

That and, he hadn't yet combed his hair after his shower, so his hair almost appeared tousled --'roguish,' as Kaiba often called Mokuba's hair. But unlike Mokuba's, his own hair could be easily tamed. And yet...

Maybe he'd just leave things as they were.

Maybe he'd let things take their course for once, and live in the moment. Maybe if he stopped **thinking** and started **doing**...

"Good. Now everyone's here, so put your ties away and then come downstairs." And with that, Mokuba vanished from Seto's bedroom, leaving the older boy alone with his thoughts.

* * *

"Happy birthday, happy birthday, happy birthday!" Mokuba barreled into Téa without a moment's warning, surprising not just the birthday girl in question, but also all of her friends surrounding her.

"Mokuba!" Téa hugged the boy gratefully, wondering where he'd disappeared to when she'd let her friends inside.

"Mokuba? When'd you get here?" Joey asked curiously, surprised to see the diminutive Kaiba there. Joey was still unsure whether Téa actually invited the elder Kaiba for any sort of a birthday party, and even if she **had** invited him, would Kaiba have gotten over his stubbornness and agreed to go? More than that, would he have finally thought of something to **get** Téa?

Joey posed a trick question. Mokuba knew this ahead of time, and he knew the right answer to give.

"Oh, I've been here."

He wasn't lying. He wasn't even omitting the truth.

"Oh."

"So, birthday girl," Tristan grinned jovially, "where do we put your stash?"

"Better question-- where do you not mind getting bruised? I believe we owe you nineteen punches..." Duke stroked his chin thoughtfully, winking at Téa with his emerald green eyes.

"Oh no guys-- not punches!" she wailed, backing away with her arms crossed over her chest.

"Pinches then?" Serenity chimed in, her expression a mix of devilish and playfully innocent. Téa's eyes widened and she shook her head vehemently, even as her friends closed in around her.

Joey actually got the first pinch in, and shortly thereafter, everyone else followed.

* * *

Deep breath.

One... two... three...

One step at a time.

_'Don't fall down the stairs and crack your skull, you clown. That'd be a great birthday present for Téa.'_

Kaiba scowled at his own mental voice, willing it out of his head for the time being. He kept one hand grazing the wood of the staircase banister, the other clutching the present he'd finally wrapped and labeled-- 'Open me last,' echoing faintly of Téa's own gift to him, so many months ago.

Maybe tonight he could bring that moment --that opportunity that he'd lost-- back.

Maybe he could finally figure out just what it was he felt for Téa and, throwing caution to the wind, find out if there was even the slightest chance she felt the same.

He could hear their laughter --hers louder and clearer than the rest-- before he even got downstairs. By the time he hit the landing, they'd see him...

Might as well announce his presence now, so as not to embarrass himself...

"Is that nineteen pinches total, or nineteen per person?"

Okay, it wasn't exactly a formal birthday introduction, but once he'd heard Téa shrieking with laughter, and the others counting out pinches between their own chuckles, Kaiba understood what was going on. It was a childish practice, to be sure, but then, no one ever ranked Joey and the others high on the maturity scale. But such things obviously didn't matter to Téa-- she was having fun, and she was happy.

That was all that mattered-- to them, and to him.

Joey Wheeler froze at the sound of the voice.

It wasn't all that surprising that Kaiba was there-- it was just where his voice had come from.

The tall, brunette duelist stood on the landing of the great marble staircase, his hand poised on the banister as if he were part of it. He stepped down the remaining stairs with an elegance and grace that could only befit someone who'd gone down that selfsame staircase hundreds --no, thousands-- of times before.

Seto Kaiba wasn't just a visitor to the mansion they were in. He was...

_'He's her boss.'_

The pieces came together. Why Kaiba had been able to ask Téa to that Ball, during that week when no one had been able to find her. Why Kaiba --of all people-- suddenly seemed to know and care about Téa and what she did, what she liked, and where she went. Why Téa, of all people... seemed to care in return!

And Mai!

Joey turned accusing eyes on her, remembering with startling clarity her words from the Autumn Festival.

"You lied to me," he whispered coldly.

Mai glanced at him, her eyes widening as she realized the depth of the rage in Joey's eyes. He remembered her words-- how she'd told him that Téa would never like a guy like Kaiba, and that she didn't live with **him** of all people. At the time, Mai thought she'd been lying to save her friend, but now...

Now, when Téa wanted to come clean --not just to herself, but to all her friends, to ask for acceptance and understanding of her confusing feelings-- the past came back to haunt Mai. And now it was biting her in the ass.

"Joey, it's not--"

Joey didn't give Mai the chance to explain. With one firm yank, he dragged Mai by the wrist from the living room area, through the foyer and around the corner to the kitchen-- where a balcony led out to the patio. Joey hadn't even known the place existed; he just acted on a whim. He needed to get this out-- he needed to talk to her, and **now**.

He slammed the door between the balcony and the kitchen shut, his hand still tight around Mai's wrist. Barely a second passed before he started yelling.

"Why didn't you tell me after all this time that you knew? I was so freakin' worried--"

Téa winced, dropping her gaze from Mai and Joey to the floor. Joey's shouts were muffled, but the loudness and tone of his voice could be heard through the glass nonetheless. She raised her eyes only briefly to meet Kaiba's gaze, amazingly calmed by his presence.

"T-Thanks," Téa whispered hollowly as Kaiba handed her his present. Her gaze warmed some as she read the words on the box, written in Kaiba's meticulous handwriting.

"Happy birthday," he whispered, bending down so that his breath grazed her ear, his voice just loud enough for her to hear.

Her eyes turned to meet his in that second, and a flash of something happened --maybe the simultaneous realization that they both felt **something**.

Minutes later, Mai emerged from the patio, alone. Her cheeks were flushed --though from tears or anger, no one could tell. She walked straight to Téa, removing something from her violet denim jacket and handing it to Téa before she gripped the younger girl by the shoulders.

"I've gotta go, Téa."

"But Mai--" Téa protested, grasping the rectangular case in her hands.

"No buts. This isn't running away, this is me doing what I have to do. And you're going to do what **you** have to do, okay?"

Not just 'have' to do... but 'want' to do.

She'd wanted to tell Seto for so long...

"Okay, Mai. T-Thanks. For everything, really."

"Anytime, sugar. Anytime."

Mai swept out of the Kaiba household without a second glance at anyone, least of all the still-flushed and heaving Joey standing in the doorway between the kitchen and the patio. His gaze remained trained on Mai even after she arrived at the front door and shut it behind her.

* * *

After that, it was difficult revitalizing the mood to the party-- but with Mokuba's introduction of a buffet-style table of snacks and Kaiba's sweeping introduction of the living room, complete with wide-screen plasma television and superior sound system, people started to perk up a bit. Joey was still oddly reclusive, unwilling to say anything in regards to why he'd truly been so angry at Mai, or what she'd said back to him.

His foul mood unfortunately rubbed off on Serenity, who'd been so pleased to see her brother and Mai finally together. And with Serenity unhappy, Tristan and Duke weren't far behind. However, Serenity, like Téa and Mai prior to her leaving, put on a brave front, and refused to let her brother's grouchy attitude drag down her fun or Téa's celebration for very long.

Téa had opened Mai's gift minutes after the older girl left, surprised to see that it appeared to be a very thick Duel Monsters card. When she turned it over, she was surprised to see that it wasn't really a Duel Monsters card, but a makeup kit designed to look like one of Téa's favorite creatures-- the Dancing Fairy. And even more surprising was the logo in the corner-- that of Industrial Illusions.

"Since I own 60 of the shares in the company, Pegasus's old manufacturing team asked me to come in and give them some input on new products. I thought this one would attract more female duelists," Yugi explained, grinning slightly. He felt a bit embarrassed that he'd come up with the idea for a Duel Monsters makeup kit, but the idea had taken off so well with test groups that Yugi hoped his best friend --and Téa, the best female duelist, in Yugi's opinion-- would enjoy it as well.

"It's beautiful, Yugi. Thank you."

"Don't thank me," Yugi grinned sheepishly. "Thank Mai when you see her again."

"Right," Téa breathed. "I will."

"Hey, Kaiba, do you have a DVD player?" Yugi queried, breaking the silence that abruptly filled the room. He too, felt guilty that Joey hadn't realized the truth sooner; after all, Téa told him the truth first. But Yugi knew that if he'd told the others, it would have been a breach of trust between him and Téa, and he just couldn't do that to her.

"Of course. Why--?"

Yugi only grinned, grabbing one of his gifts --perfectly wrapped in bright, striped paper-- to Téa. "Open it now. It's more of an interactive birthday present."

Téa glanced at her best friend in confusion, carefully peeling off the tape and the wrapping paper. Her eyes widened with surprise when she saw the face on the cover of the DVD box-- her own! The video was labeled 'Dancing Queen: Highlights from the life of Téa Gardner.' Yugi took the box from Téa and pulled the glittering DVD from its case, inserting it into the player that Kaiba specified. As the video came to life and a recorded Téa danced across the screen, the birthday girl's face flushed crimson.

"Oh Yugi... you didn't," Téa mumbled, pressing her hands to her face. Yugi only grinned broadly, looking decidedly proud of himself for something that appeared to be embarrassing Téa so badly.

"I can't watch this..." Téa skittered out of the room and around the corner, much to her friends' amusement; Yugi turned back to the wide screen television that his DVD played on, pressing a few controls on the remote. Kaiba smirked as still portraits of Téa flashed across the screen, the final one causing his breath to hitch in his throat. Yugi zoomed through several menus, the current one reading 'Téa, Songstress Extraordinaire.' And off to the side of that menu, Téa smiled, wearing a tight blue shirt that opened into a v-shape at her stomach, loose ruffles falling off to the side, along with a short, black lace skirt and high, leather boots.

Meanwhile, Téa peered down at the proceedings from the corner separating the entryway from the kitchen area, near Kaiba's office. She was still in shock that her friends went to such efforts for her birthday-- first a gorgeous and exclusive Dancing Fairy card and makeup set from Mai --due to draw in hundreds of potential female duelists, now that Yugi owned such a large percentage of Pegasus's Industrial Illusions-- but from Yugi, a DVD all about HER, complete with her old recitals and performances.

Including one even **she** hadn't remembered...

"You're so going to regret putting **that** on the DVD, Yugi," Téa murmured under her breath. Still, she smiled. She'd make it worth their while... she quietly rounded the corner out to the complex where she lived, dashing to her apartment as soon as she was outside.

"What is this, anyway?" Kaiba asked curiously, though his eyes remained transfixed on the image of Téa on the menu.

"Do you know that game, Final Fantasy X-2?" Yugi grinned. "When it came out, Square-Enix had this huge celebration thing, and lots of people dressed up as characters from the original game. Since there'd been pre-releases of the new characters, along with the main character's new outfits, Téa dressed up as her-- Yuna." Yugi gestured to the artwork on the opposite side of the screen as Téa-- a computer generated character with short brown hair that flipped out in different directions, with a long ponytail wrapped in pink flowing from the base of her skull. Like Téa, she wore a tight blue shirt parted at the stomach, lighter blue ruffles spilling off to the side and over a black, lacy skirt.

"Otherwise known as Miss Hotpants," Joey snarked, obviously aware of another outfit of Yuna's that Kaiba couldn't see.

"Anyway," Yugi continued, shooting Joey a lopsided grin, "a bunch of the fans put on performances throughout the event. Téa was one of the gutsy ones, and she volunteered to sing and dance to an entire song. She got the attention of the execs **and** the original singer, Koda Kumi, while she was there. Later on, the Square execs actually asked her to do a performance alongside Koda Kumi for everybody."

Kaiba couldn't mask his surprise; he'd always known Téa loved dance, but she was modest in the respect that she never bragged or made it sound as though she'd made it big anywhere. Yet dancing in front of thousands of people alongside a pop superstar, for the release of one of the biggest console games in history... well, she obviously had more experience dancing on stage than she'd let on.

Pressing Play, Yugi smirked, urging everyone to face the screen.

A loud clapping erupted, the audience cheering in intervals. The stage was dimly lit with frosted blue lights, a gigantic screen behind it showing a full motion video from the game's introduction. A spiraling camera view revealed thousands of video game audience members clapping wildly, staring at a large, circular opening in the stage. The same held true for the stage where the game debut convention was being held. On screen, guitarists on flying platforms and lights on whirling paths moved around the stage, creating a wider and brighter circle of light until the stage was lit, glowing from the very center as a shadow moved forward.

Bright stage lights illuminated the actual stage, and Téa stood in the center of them all, a slender shadow draped in blues and black.

"What can I do for you?" sounded, a large, echoing cry. The instrumentals started up shortly thereafter, the guitarists satisfied with their tuning and the audience ready to go. People cheered, some of them shouting out a countdown. Téa marched forward, swinging her hips and throwing her arms out to the sides, while the onscreen Yuna transformed from a summoner into a songstress.

With everyone's eyes riveted on the screen, no one noticed the real Téa re-enter the household, a wide grin crossing her lips. Rather than the cute sparkling top and stretchy stirrups she'd worn earlier, she now wore her Songstress Yuna costume-- something she hadn't donned in a long while. She'd made the outfit herself, and if the people at the debut convention for the game were any indication, she'd done a darn good job on it. She even modified a pair of leather boots to match Yuna's, cutting them to have the same curled pattern as the character's, dyeing the inner layer a lighter shade of brown.

Just as the countdown finished, Téa grinned, twirling her microphone.

"What can I do for you? What can I do for you? What can I do for you? What can I do for you? I can hear you! What can I do for you? What can I do for you? What can I do for you?"

Everyone turned astonished eyes on Téa as she danced into the room, the ruffles of her shirt flaring open and cascading down the side of her hips.

"I remember hazy borders of my heart: I can see the place, or something like this. Every now and then I don't know what to do; still I know that I can never go back! But the things I've seen, in those hazy dreams can't compare to what I'm seeing now... everything's so different, that it brings me to my knees!" Téa danced exactly like Yuna from the video, obviously having watched the sequence enough to turn the clipped sequence into a fully choreographed dance of her own. And of course, for the gaps where Yuna wasn't shown in the video, Téa improvised, shifting her hands around and bending her knees into a drop, mimicking the lyrics of the song.

"And though I know the world of real emotion has surrounded me, I won't give in to it! Now I know that forward is the only way my heart can go; I hear your voice calling out to me: 'You'll never be alone'!"

She knew all their eyes were on her; that was the point. She danced beside the television so they could still watch, but nonetheless, most of them still watched the live version of her performance, rather than the DVD gift Yugi compiled for her.

Serenity grinned widely as the music lead into the chorus again, skipping forward to dance alongside Téa, much to Joey's chagrin. However, Téa appreciated the accompaniment; she could feel Kaiba's eyes on her before everyone else's, and for the first time in a long while, she felt decidedly self-conscious about dancing. But... she was having fun. And that was what counted.

"What can I do for you? What can I do for you? What can I do for you? I can hear you!" Téa and Serenity both leaned over the microphone, grinning widely as they sang the chorus together, both of them still moving to the beat. "What can I do for you? What can I do for you? What can I do for you?"

The two girls split apart, Serenity to the right of the television while Téa in her costume moved towards the left, careful as she moved her microphone not to knock anything over. It wasn't really hooked into anything, but it was part of the costume, and did manage to echo her voice in the large living room.

"And if I find the real world of emotion has surrounded me, and I can't go on, you are there the moment that I close my eyes to comfort me. We are connected for all of time; I'll never be... And though I know the world of real emotion has surrounded me, I won't give in to it! Now, I know that forward is the only way my heart can go. I hear your voice calling out to me: 'You'll never be alone'!"

Yugi couldn't help from grinning; he'd been there at the original performance when Téa first publicly did her Yuna performance, and now he got to see the dance a second time. No matter what anyone said, Yugi was sure she'd succeed in her dream-- she'd become a famous dancer, even more fabulous than she already was (and of course, in Yugi's mind, that was already pretty fabulous).

That and, the expression on Kaiba's face was priceless.

"What can I do for you? What can I do for you? What can I do for you? I can hear you!" The girls finished off with a sweeping pose, Téa bowing while the DVD switched back to its menu mode. Yugi, Tristan, and Duke were all applauding enthusiastically, while Serenity giggled alongside her slightly-smiling brother. It was obvious that Joey remained troubled by what happened between him and Mai, but he wasn't about to run out on one of his best friend's birthday parties, even if her **living** with Kaiba came as a complete shock.

But then, why hadn't he seen it sooner?

No wonder why Kaiba was so slack-jawed. He saw Téa all the time, but... everything was always different when you were in love.

Joey knew **that** feeling only too well. The only problem was, he was afraid of losing it-- this time, for good.

* * *

"Happy Birthday, Téa!" Her friends called out in unison, now that the party came to a close. It was well after ten o'clock already, and everyone had to get going home-- they did, after all, have school the next day.

"Thanks guys. Really, I-- it means a lot. Thank you." Téa smiled genuinely at her friends, her gaze drifting to each one of them. She surprised Duke and Tristan by hugging them both tightly. The two of them flushed when they spotted Serenity's raised eyebrow and slight smirk, the redhead standing just behind Téa in the doorway of the Kaiba mansion.

"Your top kinda itches," Tristan finally mumbled as an excuse, referring to Téa's glittering top, which she'd since changed back into after her 'performance.' She'd enjoyed opening the rest of her gifts --though Kaiba had yet to 'allow her' to open his present, if he ever would (Téa remembered her own anxiety from Kaiba's birthday months before)-- and eating pizza and cake as a treat. Even more surprising, Kaiba paid for all the food without even giving Téa the opportunity to protest, something which apparently raised his status in the other boys' eyes.

But it wasn't the same without Mai there.

Téa couldn't help but feel immensely guilty about the whole situation; Joey was moody, and Mai had gotten so fed up that she left.

_'If __I'd just told everyone the truth from the beginning, maybe it wouldn't have happened at all.'_

But of course, hindsight was 20/20. There was nothing to be done about it at all.

It was even too late to wish... she'd blown out the candles on her cake, selfishly wishing for a better year, and a less bumpy future. She wanted things to start working out for her-- for once. No more soul-snatching, Millennium Item-stealing, monster resurrecting enemies. No more heartache, no more death. Just... normal, high-school life. Was that too much to ask? For only a while longer...

Téa finally let go of Duke and Tristan, and glanced at Joey. He was doing a good job at masking his feelings, but Téa knew him better.

He wanted to find Mai, and fix things with her. Even if he was upset with Mai, Téa could see what she'd refused to find in her own eyes and heart: they were in love. That was all there was to it, where Joey and Mai were concerned. If it hadn't been obvious enough during Battle City, it sure as hell was now.

Funny how things worked out like that.

"Joey," Téa smiled, poking her friend hard in the shoulder before hugging him tightly. Joey gasped, taken by surprise more than anything else, even as Téa squeezed him as tightly as she possibly could.

"Téa, you got one hell of a grip, you know that?" Joey choked out, grinning lopsidedly.

"I know. But I learned from the masters," Téa pulled back, sticking her hand out to Joey. He took it unsurely, wondering why Téa would randomly want to shake his hand. Instead of do that, Téa yanked Joey forward into a proper hug yet again, keeping their hands clasped between them. "Promise me something," she whispered in his ear. "Promise me you'll find her, you'll forgive her, and you'll be happy, Joey. It's one thing for me to angst over not getting the love I want, but you're a go-getter, and a duelist at that. Don't let this be a losing duel."

Shocked into silence, Joey simply stared at Téa, looking quite the part of a landed fish. She backed away from him, removing her warm hand from his grasp as she stepped back into the Kaiba mansion-- her home. It still didn't filter right through Joey's system, though it did explain a lot of things.

And it left more questions in their wake, waiting to be answered... some day.

But in the meanwhile... there was Mai.

"T-Thanks, Téa. I promise."

And then he skittered after Duke and Tristan, leaving Téa and Yugi as the only ones on the doorstep. Truthfully, Téa thought Yugi had already left, and wanted to avoid any more weird encounters, so when he appeared from behind one of the pillars supporting the entryway, her breath caught in her throat. Mainly because it wasn't Yugi, her best friend, but his other half-- Yami.

It had been so long... and now he was here. For real.

"I wanted a chance to... convey my happiness for you, Téa."

His voice still brought a warm shudder down her spine, but it simply wasn't the same as before. Her heart wasn't racing, her skin wasn't flushing... but he was still Yami. He was still the Pharaoh.

Kaiba, entirely unaware of Téa's thoughts regarding his rival, stiffened beside the doorway. He noted the abrupt change in the octave level of Yugi's voice; the sudden alteration in vocabulary. While Yugi might have said something a great deal more simplistic (something mundane-- something like, oh, "Happy Birthday," maybe?), the High and Mighty Pharaoh had to "convey his happiness."

A jealousy much stronger than that like he'd felt seeing Téa dance with Bakura boiled under Seto Kaiba's skin, very little restraining him from going out there and bodily snatching Téa away from Yami. But then, Mokuba was staring at him-- and glancing out at Yami and Téa, on the front porch. It wasn't as though either of the Kaiba brothers were spying on the two; Téa was saying goodbye to her friends and had left the door open. But still, neither Seto nor Mokuba stared directly at Téa and Yami, both of them looking entirely nonchalant about their "accidental eavesdropping."

"T-Thank you, Yugi..." Téa fumbled. She still called him Yugi even though she knew that another mind, another soul resided where her best friend normally stood. It was more familiar that way, more reassuring that he who stood before her really wasn't some ancient, all-powerful pharaoh.

Pharaohs didn't exist anymore.

Téa knew what happened to all the Pharaohs...

It was probably too much to hope for, Yugi realized within himself, that she might hug him. He couldn't force Yami to make the move either, for Yami was fully aware of Yugi's thoughts and feelings, most especially as of late. But what remained a mystery was how Yami felt towards Téa-- if he **felt** anything at all.

Téa stared at her feet, more out of nervousness and embarrassment than anything else. What could she possibly say to the person that, for so long, occupied her every thought, every feeling, every heartbeat? And now, he just... was there. Before her, as if expecting something...

That was when he swept her into his arms without any warning whatsoever, or any words spoken. Yami pushed her away, his hands on her shoulders, before Téa could even think to say or do anything, nodding politely at her, his gaze averted.

And she stood there, her hand raised in a timid, half-wave, her fingers barely moving.

"Bye..."

When she finally stepped inside, the expression on her face remained dazed; it took Mokuba's squeal of "Okay, time for my present" and the sound of him bounding up the stairs to snap her out of her reverie. She glanced up at Kaiba, who stared at her mutely, examining her face for some sort of reaction to Yami's abrupt hug. Above all else, the one thing he recognized in her eyes was confusion.

He'd seen that same look reflected in the mirror, in his own eyes...

"Here," Mokuba thrust a hastily-wrapped box (with the comic book section of one of the local newspapers, no less) into Téa's hands, having returned from his room with his secret gift for her. He waited for Téa to open it, his eyes aglow with eagerness. Téa carefully opened the rectangular, nearly flat box-- she suspected a book or something similar, perhaps a handmade picture frame like Seto received on **his** birthday. Of course, Téa didn't exactly want to remember that night...

"Mokuba!"

Téa's lips curled into a bright, happy smile, and without even showing the contents of the brilliant blue box to the more-than-curious Seto, she reached over and enveloped the younger Kaiba in a tight bear hug. The boy returned it joyfully, his cheeks turning a bright crimson-- but he obviously didn't care, pressed up against Téa the way he was. When Seto finally got a good look at the gift, he forced his own face to disguise his surprise.

It was a thick, heavy book --hardback, and undoubtedly expensive, even for Mokuba. And not just any book, but a rare, out-of-print book of ballet-themed woodcuts and prints, the scarlet cover embossed with gold leaf and silver trim.

"It's so beautiful... thank you so much Mokuba!"

The trio stared at the book for several minutes, Téa carefully separating the thicker colored pages from the thin parchment paper that protected them. Some of the pages were worn at the edges, with faint aging stains, but for its apparent age, the book was in very good condition.

But Kaiba couldn't keep his gaze on the book. Even if he was a tad bit jealous-- he'd never say it. The same held true for everyone else's gifts from earlier-- from Mai's Dancing Fairy-themed makeup set to Yugi's DVD... even the mutt got Téa something, though judging from Téa's reaction, it was too embarrassing to show to Kaiba.

Kaiba's gaze strayed to the white box he'd put his **own** gift in, the words 'open me last' writing on the top plain in the moonlight streaming through the foyer windows. That and... her.

Téa and her slender form, her bright eyes, her flushed cheeks...

"Mokuba, I think it's about time you went to bed," Seto finally said. It was probably wrong of him on so many levels to be doing this, but he'd waited long enough. If ever opportunity knocked on his door, now was the time.

Mokuba glanced from Seto to Téa, his gaze almost sad.

Téa finally nodded in agreement with the elder Kaiba, the gesture practically breaking Mokuba's heart.

"Your brother's right, Mokuba. You've got school pretty early tomorrow, so you should get some sleep."

Somehow, Mokuba doubted that was the only reason why they wanted him to go away.

Big Brother just didn't see. He didn't understand...

Mokuba wheeled away, his face screwing up into a frown before either Seto or Téa could see. He couldn't stand to cry in front of Téa...

_'You don't deserve her, Big Brother! You really don't!'_

After that, Mokuba dashed up the stairs, slamming the door to his bedroom once he got there.

Kaiba realized what was going on; he'd gone and upset Mokuba again. He'd seen it before, at the festival-- he liked Téa. His younger brother, having feelings for a girl? Somehow it sounded silly. Kaiba was the older one, the supposedly wiser and more mature one. And yet he was the one constantly plagued by confusing thoughts and feelings for Téa, while Mokuba, child that he was, seemed to have everything perfectly sorted out.

He liked Téa, and that was that.

Why couldn't things be so simple for Seto, too?

He was reluctant to just let Mokuba leave like that, knowing that the smaller boy's feelings were hurt, but... then there was Téa. And an opportunity that would never present itself again. Somehow... he was sure of it.

_'Forgive me, Mokuba,'_ Seto thought to himself, swallowing hard.

* * *

What could he possibly say or do? There was a myriad of possibilities, ranging from the typical --"Here."-- to the insane: kissing her before even handing her the present. Crazy ideas and questions wafted through his mind, and for once, the silence grew to an unbearable level...

"Are you leaving?" Kaiba blurted.

"What?"

"Are you leaving?" Kaiba repeated, forcing himself to slow down and not sound so... desperate. But it was the truth. He was desperate to know if this was his last chance. Even if it wasn't, he'd wasted too much time already, and he just wanted to tell her that he--

"I-- I don't know." Téa shifted uncomfortably in her seat, her gaze drifting off to the side. "Remember in that video we watched? Well, my parents left me more than a lump sum. They left me a fortune, Kaiba. And I-- To be honest, I really thought I was going to pack up and leave, once and for all. But... I can't just drop and leaving everything I have here. I have to at least finish high school."

It was true. She'd thought about it --on and off-- since deciding once and for all to just **do** something about her feelings for Kaiba, and **make** an opportunity for herself, rather than waiting for one to arrive. She'd thought of what she could do once she turned eighteen-- of where she could go. But the prospect of being alone and away from the safety and care of her friends frightened her more than she'd ever thought possible.

Finally, she'd made up her mind-- not to leave Japan until she'd finished high school, but to still act on her long-pent up feelings. She'd waited long enough. There was still a vast realm of emotions built up within Téa's heart-- fear, longing, hope... and above all else, love. It was crazy thinking that she could possibly be in love with him --with Seto Kaiba, of all people!-- but she was.

She wanted to see him smile again. She wanted that warm tingle to rush from her head to her toes. She wanted that drowsy, delirious warmth to press her eyes closed-- the scent of him against her, the pressure of his lips on hers...

But it might never happen. So she had to think of other things, like finishing school.

All of a year left before that would happen.

And then what?

But Seto Kaiba didn't even know what was going to happen one minute from now, let alone a year.

"They left you money?"

Téa nodded silently, remembering the veritable cloud of money that fell around her back at the bank. And now, all of that money was safe and secure in a metal briefcase, locked away in the farthest reaches of her tiny closet back at her apartment.

"Millions of yen," she whispered. "I-- I could really have just left any time, taken all that money and just left Japan, but... something held me back."

Maybe she should tell him just what it was. Right here, right now.

The silence grew, permeating the air between them. She couldn't figure out the exact words to say, and he couldn't put his feelings into words just yet. Just a little more time...

"Here." Kaiba handed her the last remaining gift on the coffee table-- the one marked 'open me last.' Téa glanced from the present to Kaiba's face, still a bit surprised. What could he have possibly gotten her?

"A photo album?" Téa asked, tearing off the wrapping paper as gently as she could. Unlike the boys, who loved to poke fun at Téa with their heart-printed or Dark Magician Girl wrapping paper (or in Joey's case, black and red 'cheesecake' paper, poking fun at the long-standing 'cabaret' joke he had with Téa), Kaiba's wrapping spoke volumes about him-- and the fact that he rarely, if ever, gave presents.

The paper was folded so precisely, it was a wonder Téa didn't consider the gift wrap a form of origami, what with the perfect creases and beautiful, thick and glittering wrapping paper. Swirls of gold shone off a white and light blue background of varying-size stripes. The gold swirls curled out into bold, blossoming roses with elegant leaves framing them; an endless garden of metallic color wrapped around her album.

"Open it," Kaiba stated softly. Not quite a demand, but not entirely a request, either. She glanced up at him after he'd spoken, almost instantly regretting it. They were CLOSE again, and his eyes were so dark and serious...

The first page took her breath away. A photo she'd long forgotten about, but here, right before her eyes and hands. The single happiest time from an otherwise painful past. Battle City... during the festival. They'd all lined up in kimonos and grinned for the camera, and Kaiba had his eyes closed. It was an entirely goofy shot, but... it made remembering the time just a little bit easier. Kaiba put forth extra effort, and captioned the photo with the precise date and time, labeling it exactly as it was-- 'Post-Battle City festival.'

The next page had the same effect: another startling picture from her past. This time, it was her face, her expression plainly angry, though Téa stood framed by a beautiful sunset. And she was yelling at him.

This time, the caption read: 'Duelist Kingdom. Lifesaver.'

"I didn't really--" Téa began, but Kaiba silenced her, putting a single finger against her lips. After a moment, he moved his hand away, a warm tingling spreading up to his shoulder.

"Where'd you get this?" Téa asked instead. No one took pictures at Duelist Kingdom. It had been a scary and trying time for all of them. And the picture in question --of Téa yelling at Kaiba just after the stunt that nearly took his life and Yugi's sanity-- brought vivid memories to the fore of Téa's mind.

_"You've spent so much time around all your machines, you've forgotten what it means to be human! You don't even have enough courage to face yourself, but at least Yugi won the duel that mattered-- the fight to protect you from yourself! __At the end of the day, what do you have? Tell me!"_

Kaiba shook his head slightly, willing the memory of her eyes --of the first time he'd genuinely taken notice of Téa Gardner, without the slightest clue as to the impact she'd have in his life-- to fade away.

"Pegasus," he said, amazingly keeping the disdain from his voice. "I hacked into his computer mainframe before, so..."

"So you went into his security database and pulled up the old camera shots?"

Kaiba smirked slightly, nodding. Téa shook her head, smiling nonetheless. "You're amazing."

_'Amazing...?'_

It wasn't quite the words he'd been hoping to hear from her, but... who was he to complain about flattery?

Téa trembled slightly as she turned the pages, taking her time in examining each photo that Kaiba carefully chose. He was far from being a 'crafty' sort of individual, but he was often praised for his creative genius. Unsure whether to judge Téa's quiet as a good thing or not, he remained silent at her side.

Finally, she came upon the last page-- the page Kaiba had the most reservations about. It wasn't a particularly beautiful picture, but it was one that called to him-- one that meant a great deal. From the beach excursion they'd taken so long ago... just the three of them: himself, Téa, and Mokuba, sitting scrunched together. The girl who'd taken the photo insisted they sit **_closer_** to one another, until Kaiba had no choice but to casually --as best he could-- drape his arm around Téa's shoulders.

Though it had been an awkward moment, it was one that he now held dear to his heart-- and he hoped that Téa felt the same way, as well.

A tiny caption, printed in Seto's neat script, labeled the photograph.

"At the end of the day... I have all that I need," Téa whispered, her fingers grazing over the photograph. "Oh, Seto..." her voice was choked with held-back sobs; tears dropped one by one onto the plastic-covered page of the scrapbook.

For the first time in a long while, she'd called him Seto... For a moment, Kaiba felt actual **joy**. He refused to let his sudden elation show, however, not knowing if Téa was just reacting to the photo or something else altogether. But he had to keep going, because this was the moment between them --alone, quiet, and perfect in almost every way-- that he'd been waiting for. If he didn't tell her now, he never would...

"I-- I mean it, Téa. I don't want you to leave again. It was hard enough with you gone that one week, and that was my own doing. I still feel so... idiotic for that, and I..."

_'I missed you.'_

He couldn't say it. He just couldn't...

Everything else tumbled from his lips easily, but he didn't regret it. Not a single word. Even if it exposed him completely... even if it bared his fragmented soul... even if it made him **weak**...

"I can't apologize enough for the things I said and did to you, but..." Kaiba stared at his lap, unsure of how he'd react if he met Téa's gaze, "but I truly am sorry. I didn't know that you'd tried so hard to help me back then, and that you actually could care about someone like me. I didn't want to believe it, but I got used to you being here, and lately, with you in the other house, it just doesn't **feel** like it used to... I can't believe I'm saying this, but around you Téa, I get incredibly confused, and..." Kaiba chose this moment to look at her, startled to find she was looking at him straight in the eye, her eyes clear and her face calm.

"And gods Téa, I think I want to kiss you right now..."

Unaware of the words he'd spoken until they'd spilled from his mouth, Kaiba's eyes widened, but he couldn't tear his gaze away from her. Téa's own eyes widened, ever-so-slightly, her mouth curling into a gentle smile.

"Then why don't you?"

It was a simple enough question, but one Seto Kaiba remained entirely unprepared for. He actually expected her to say something along the lines of 'Why would I want to kiss you?' or 'Why would you want to do that?' but instead--

"Because I--" Kaiba began, his gaze shifting to his lap again, but the rest of his inadequate excuse was cut off by warm lips on his. It took a moment to register that Téa was the one who took the initiative and closed the distance between them. She clambered somewhat clumsily onto his lap, kissing him with every bit of passion she could muster. As though the sun were breaking through thick rain clouds, the confusion that muddled Seto Kaiba's mind in recent months suddenly dissipated and faded away.

Before he could respond in kind, she pulled her lips away from his, her eyes half-lidded and her cheeks flushed.

It probably wasn't the best moment to ask anything, but Kaiba couldn't help himself: "That wasn't... our first kiss, was it?"

Something about her lips on his felt deliriously familiar, but... he couldn't remember. Something nagged at the back of his mind --harsh words, fierce stares, and salty tears. And... those selfsame soft lips...

"No-- no it wasn't," Téa whispered, allowing the arms that she'd impulsively wrapped around him to drop back to her sides. "But... you still don't remember, do you?"

Kaiba hesitated. He couldn't remember the words the security videos revealed him as saying. He didn't remember how he'd felt, or what he'd done... but the sensations, fleeting and distant, remained. When her lips came into contact with his, there'd been a brief instant of familiarity...

"The Ball, right? When... after I said..."

He couldn't repeat those words. The shock still lingered --he'd been so callous toward her.

_"How can you... **do** that? Pretend to be happy, or smile the way you do, after everything you've been through? Have you forgotten that your parents are DEAD?"_

He cringed at the memory, unwilling to admit that he wanted to hold her, to kiss her back, right then and there. He didn't deserve to, after that-- no matter how much he desired it.

"Yeah," Téa murmured. "But it didn't count."

"What?" He glanced up at her, more out of surprise than any other feeling, startled once more when he realized how close they were.

"And neither did that last one," Téa murmured, reaching up to cup Kaiba's cheek in her palm. She was... warm. His eyes drifted half-closed involuntarily, relishing in the sensation of her touch. It couldn't be real...

But it was, and suddenly she was kissing him again, and that single moment could have stretched into eternity. He hesitated to respond at first, but gradually pressed his own lips against hers, moving his head slightly to fully capture her lips under his own. In the same way Téa held his cheek in her palm, he reached up without thinking, brushing some of her hair aside and using his thumb to tilt her chin up. Her own hand slid down his face, joining her other arm wrapped around his shoulders as she pressed herself against him.

Kaiba let out a muffled moan without thinking, the warmth spreading throughout his body. A bleary darkness clouded his vision, spiraling down through him. Téa was fingering strands of his hair, still sprawled over his lap and pressed up against him, nearly every curve of her body melded with his own. More out of instinct than any real thought process, Kaiba used his free hand, guiding it down her shoulders and arms to her ribcage, just under her breasts, pressing her down onto the couch.

Téa tumbled backward easily, her hands sliding from behind Kaiba's head to his neck, guiding his kisses. His mouth slid from her lips to her chin, dragging down until he met with her neck. His hand tilted her chin up again, giving him better access to the tender skin there. This time, it was Téa who moaned vocally, raking her hands down Kaiba's back and arching her hips up into his. Abruptly, he stopped his fervent exploration of her neck, realizing with hazy, dark eyes just what that dark feeling curling in the pit of his stomach was.

They'd gone from something so simple to something so dangerous in a matter of minutes, and once again, everything was a confusing muddle.

"Seto, I..." Téa whispered breathily, nearly panting.

"We can't do this," Kaiba managed, trying his damndest just to breathe. "It's--"

_'It's confusing? It's incredible? It's... '_

"It's too soon," Téa agreed, turning her head to the side. But she couldn't deny her racing pulse nor her flushed skin. She'd wanted **that**, waited for that **moment**... for so long...

"I need to tell you something, Seto," Téa started, shifting to sit up. With Kaiba still lying above her, it wasn't an easy thing to accomplish-- especially given that he didn't seem too keen on getting off her. But the slightest movement brought forth a reaction from him- and all she had to do was press up against him once more before he scrambled off her, unwilling to chance things getting too heated again.

He couldn't face her, not when he realized that at least part of the confusing things he harbored for Téa were... were _sexual_ in nature.

There. He'd admitted it. He wanted her-- physically. At least that much was clear.

But...

"I love you," Téa whispered, pressing her cheek against his as her warm breath tingled on his ear.

Kaiba froze, unable to think or speak.

There. She'd said it. She'd tried to deny it, to convince herself that she didn't love him... but it was all for naught. And now, here she was, so close to him, on the verge of something she'd wanted for a long time now...

"I--" Kaiba wasn't one to stutter, but suddenly the moment that seemed incredibly unreal became a sharp, clear reality. She loved him. She really... loved _**him**_?

Téa waited for his response with bated breath, her mind supplying her with countless possible replies as the seconds ticked on. Maybe... after all that, he didn't feel the same? After all this, would she really walk away with a broken heart?

_'Again...?'_

"I don't..."

"You don't feel the same," Téa mumbled, dejection sweeping over her. Her head dropped and she pulled away from him, scooting to the far corner of the couch and curling up into herself. It was always too much to hope for... especially where he was concerned. He was Seto Kaiba... why would he change for **her**?

"That's not it," Kaiba said, wanting to reach over to her. But if he touched her again, who knew where they'd end up? "I-- I don't know what **love** is, Téa. I think --no, I **know**\-- that I feel something for you. It's more than just this... this **_lust_**, but I... Look, love's not the kind of thing that's pre-packaged and sold to every person, exactly the same. It's different for everyone, isn't it?"

Téa nodded dumbly, trying to absorb his words and block out the hurt that threatened to flood her soul entirely.

"I feel **_something_** for you," Kaiba repeated, reaching over and tilting her chin up slightly, "I want to find out what it is... with you."

Téa glanced up at him, startled by the amount of emotion present in his eyes. He was being sincere.

Silence enveloped the room, only broken by the slight scuffling as Kaiba moved toward her, tentatively wrapping his arms around Téa's relaxed form to hold her. She shifted into his embrace, leaning her head against his shoulder. Eyes, sore and red from crying, drifted shut, her breathing slowing to a relaxed pace.

The moment could have stretched on forever, the two of them just sitting in perfect silence. But Kaiba, realizing that Téa was slipping off into sleep, reluctantly broke the silence.

"We should go to bed."

Téa shifted in his arms, loosely hugging Kaiba back. "I don't want to leave you," she whispered. "I'm afraid I'll wake up tomorrow morning in that tiny room in the other complex, and none of this will be real. It'll all be some sort of dream..."

A moment.

"You don't have to go back there," Kaiba murmured, speaking into Téa's hair. He couldn't seem to hold her close enough, now that he had her in his arms. But she was right-- it all seemed too surreal. He'd wake up tomorrow in another cold sweat, and... she'd look at him in that same, gentle, but unfeeling way. She'd call him 'Kaiba,' not Seto. She'd leave him with that same cold, confused feeling as always, and he'd wonder if maybe his life really could change...

She glanced up at him, her eyes startlingly clear and wide. Téa only needed to nod once, and then the two of them slowly rose from the couch, his arm still around her. They walked up the stairs in a haze, hardly aware of the steps they climbed until they reached the landing and found themselves outside Kaiba's own bedroom. He bent down slightly, once again lowering his lips to hers, all while keeping his hands firm on her shoulders.

This kiss was entirely unlike the others-- his desire remained restrained, his touch gentle. Téa responded in kind, her lips barely grazing against his, her hands still at her sides. One hand slid from her shoulders to the handle of his door, freezing on it for just a second before turning it, nudging the door open with his foot and guiding Téa in with a hand on her hip.

He'd waited too long for this-- he wasn't about to let it slip from his fingers, like some sort of elusive dream.

* * *

As always, Seto's bedroom remained cool and dark, the heavy curtains barely parted to let light inside. Covered in shadows, it was close to impossible to make out either Seto or Téa's form-- so the two of them settled for each other's touch, as Kaiba guided Téa to the bed, holding her hand gently. She tripped slightly on the edge of his carpet, dropping forward into Kaiba's arms-- and he went backward as well, half-sitting, half-lying on his bed, Téa in his embrace.

He looked up at her, surprised but quiet, his want clear only in his eyes. After a second, Téa giggled lightly, nuzzling the side of his face.

"Do you always wear your slacks to bed?"

Kaiba blinked, then smiled impishly as a devilish thought crept its way into his mind.

"That's only because you still have my pajamas."

It was true-- in all the months Téa stayed at the mansion, she hadn't yet given him back the blue silk pajamas he lent her the first night of her stay. He remembered that well-- if only because the image of a scantily-clad, still damp Téa haunted his thoughts at the most inopportune moments.

"So you want them back, is that it?" Téa smiled, her fingers grazing his skin. He wasn't entirely sure whether it was an involuntary reaction or not, but he smiled, ever-so-slightly.

"Yes, please."

"Now?"

"Right now."

"Okay," Téa murmured, abruptly getting off the bed and disappearing into the darkness. Moments later, the door creaked open and Téa slipped out, the faintest of mischievous smiles curling the corners of her lips. Kaiba raised a single eyebrow, moving to the doorway to watch her even as she vanished down the stairs. He flicked the light on and dropped back onto his bed, his arms spread-eagle.

It was real. **She **was real.

_"I love you."_

But somehow, it still felt like a dream.

* * *

By the time she'd found the nightclothes in question, Téa's thoughts abruptly took a nosedive into naughty territory. Her rational self gave up in the fight against her less-inclined muse-- the part of her that told Téa that she'd waited too long for this, and couldn't let something like doubts and worries concern her. He wanted to be with her.

Sure, Seto couldn't say he loved her, but...

_'If I had to take falling out of love with him one step at a time, then he's got to take falling **in** love with **me** one step at a time. Only, he better succeed where I failed,'_ Téa smiled, pulling her sparkling top off and buttoning the large pajama top on. She'd only worn it that one time, and it still smelled vaguely of Seto's in-office closet, and of that old knit blanket draped across the living room couch.

And now...

Giggling as she slid the too-baggy pants and a pair of fuzzy blue slippers on, Téa indulged her thoughts. Who knew what would happen after tonight? But the future wasn't hers to decide-- she just had to go with the flow, and make her own destiny.

_'It's_ _my birthday, and I plan to have fun. I haven't gone through eighteen years of drama for nothing. This... **this** is my reward.'_

Of course, it was too soon to take that step-- that one big, huge step that couldn't be retracted or undone. And by going back to the main mansion --back to Kaiba, back to his bedroom-- she was taking a chance. But... it would be worth it. Confidence swept through Téa, who steeled herself by taking a deep breath. She closed the door to her small apartment, scuttling down the stairs back to the mansion.

"Miss Gardner?" a hushed voice asked. Téa turned around to face the source of the voice-- Charles, who'd just stepped from his own quarters, wearing striped pajamas and a navy bathrobe, eyeing Téa with a measure of curiosity in his eyes. He puffed on a cigar, the thick, vanilla-scented smoke twisting into the cool night.

"Ssh." Téa grinned, putting a finger to her lips. She bounced down the rest of the stairs, running back into the main mansion in Seto's pajamas, as if nothing was out of the ordinary. Charles shook his head in dismay, muttering under his breath.

"It had to happen sooner or later..." He only needed to take one look at his employer's window-- lit up, Kaiba's silhouette plain to see, pacing back and forth before the window.

"I just didn't think it would be **this** soon..." Charles groaned, heading back into his apartment. "I certainly hope you two know what you're getting into."

* * *

He'd started pacing, but only because the doubt that constantly lived inside him awoke the moment Téa was gone.

Maybe she won't come back, he thought. Maybe she thought it was funny, and it was all just some sort of joke to her. But no, it couldn't be, Kaiba reminded himself-- she'd kissed him back! Not just once, but twice! That and she'd--

Suddenly, the light flicked out, and Kaiba turned toward the doorway, startled. The slender crack that revealed the light of the hallway narrowed and finally vanished, prompting Kaiba to speak.

"Téa?"

A soft giggle was his only answer, barely indicating where in the darkness she stood. Kaiba moved toward the sound as best he could, but a hand abruptly snaked around his collar --which admittedly, he'd fiddled with out of nervousness, the top three buttons of his shirt undone. Jerked forward, his lips suddenly met with hers-- a warm, enticing feeling that, given the circumstances, was entirely surprising, and quite unlike the previous kisses he'd shared with Téa.

This time in complete control of his motor functions, Seto wrapped his arms around her, pulling her close and stumbling slowly toward his bed. It wasn't until he was sprawled on top of her again, barely aware of anything except the warmth and softness of her body beneath his, until he realized it.

"You're wearing them."

Téa chuckled softly, nodding as though she were proud. "If you want them back," she began, licking her lips in a purposefully seductive fashion, "you'll have to take them off."

Of course, in all his genius, Seto Kaiba could not come up with a vocal response to **that**. So he settled for the first thing that came to mind-- kissing her mindlessly again. For the most part, this plan --the Don't Talk, Just Kiss Her Plan-- worked, up until he lost control again, and his hands found themselves at the waistband of her pants --his, really, since they belonged to him-- fingers just barely grazing the soft skin of her stomach.

He could easily push the entire shirt off her, off her shoulders, and toss it to the ground. One quick motion, and those pants would be on the floor, and she'd be...

It was so deliciously tempting, and yet...!

"We can't do this," he murmured huskily into her neck, despite his own consciousness screaming otherwise.

"Can't because... it's too soon, or can't because you don't want to?" Téa asked, lying still and holding her breath.

"How can you even ASK me that?" He turned his intense gaze on her, planting his hands on either side of her face. "You know I want you."

"You want to-- to--"

_'Have sex with me?'_ That was the obvious answer, but somehow, she couldn't say it. She couldn't deny her own amorous feelings, but they were firmly rooted in a love that had grown in her heart for many months, after many trials and tribulations.

"I care for you --a **lot**\-- Téa. You know it. I just--" Seto frowned, reluctantly rolling off her and off to the side of his bed, his legs dangling onto the floor. "I don't know what 'love' is. I could tell you what I'm feeling, and... it might not make any sense. It might not be what you're feeling, or what you want me to feel. I need-- I need some more time."

Téa exhaled loudly, willing her body to relax from the heated, tense state it had been in only moments before. "Yeah. Me too."

Silence filled the room until Seto finally drew himself fully onto the bed, putting his arms behind his head as he stared up at the ceiling. He could feel her beside her-- her weight, her warmth, her gaze. He wanted to hold her, but he didn't know whether trying would be futile. They couldn't lose themselves to their hormones... they were just starting to figure out what everything was about.

"Stay?" he asked her, the slightest of quavers in his voice.

"I wouldn't dream of leaving," she whispered moments later, turning and wrapping her arms around his waist.

Relaxing, Seto sighed, holding her in kind. Maybe for once, his dreams would finally come true.

* * *

"I can't sleep."

"You either?"

It was well after three in the morning, yet neither of the two teens --awkwardly lying beside one another in Seto's bed-- could sleep.

"I was tired, but..." Téa trailed off. The truth was, her entire being remained acutely aware of Seto beside her. It wasn't just the weight of him on the bed beside her, but his rhythmic breathing, his radiating warmth, and his scent that surrounded her so entirely. Though she was exhausted, each and every detail --of having him beside her, of her confession being a reality-- kept Téa wide awake.

"Yeah."

"So..." she trailed off, unsure. What could she possibly say to fill in this lapse? They couldn't just go back to what they'd been doing before.

_'Not like I'd complain about it, but...'_

They weren't ready. She didn't even know what their relationship was --after all, Kaiba had no idea what he actually felt for her. And Téa refused to let her hormones control her and force her to act on impulse. She knew that when she took that big, point-of-no-return step --whether it was with Kaiba or not-- she would be completely assured of her partner's love for her. Téa Gardner wouldn't be used by **anyone**.

"Talk?"

"Yeah. I guess..." She swallowed, trying to think of something to say or ask. All of a sudden, something came to mind, and she blurted it without bothering to phrase her thoughts properly. "You were the one who paid for all our food at the diner-- the day after my parents died. Weren't you?"

Kaiba stared up at the ceiling, blinking in surprise as he recalled the day. Téa'd seemed oddly robotic that day, and it wasn't until Kaiba had overheard a teacher passing on his condolences to Téa that he'd even known what had happened to her. At first, he'd thought that maybe he'd found someone he actually had something in common with-- something real, something life-changing, something more important than schoolwork and card games.

He'd lost his parents as a child, and it changed everything.

And Téa, while older than he'd been when he'd lost his parents, knew how he felt.

He'd never her told her that-- though she actually **had** asked him why he was so generous to her, some time after he'd offered her room, board, and a job at the Kaiba mansion.

"Yeah, it was." She'd broken down in class, crying hysterically.

If it had been anyone else, under any other circumstances, Kaiba would have brushed it off and forgotten about it hours later. But it was Téa --the fiery, spirited girl who lectured him about the values of life, about friendship, and about caring for others. The girl who put her own safety after the well-being of her friends, and even those who **weren't** her friends. People like him.

He couldn't get her out of his head, and so he'd trailed the gang to a diner. It was amazing that they hadn't noticed him in the restaurant, but in the end, it'd worked out in his favor. Téa's tears had ceased, if only for a short while, and for a brief instant, she'd smiled.

"Thank you," Téa whispered, turning over onto her side and snuggling up against Kaiba. The sensation of her against him brought back those feelings from before, but this time, on a lesser scale. He **wanted** her beside him. He wanted to comfort her, protect her, and see her smile.

_'Is this...?'_

Seto Kaiba had a question of his own that plagued him.

"You were the one that suggested leaving the mansion in the first place. Why?"

Téa groaned, shifting to her side and smothering her face into a pillow. "Because I'm stupid," she mumbled. A moment later, she continued, raising her head only slightly, "You weren't supposed to agree with me."

"I wasn't feeling particularly kind that night," Kaiba recalled, though remembering his exact words and the caustic sarcasm he'd used surprised him even in memory. He was sure Téa had a retort ready for him, but she didn't say anything.

"You didn't tell me what you'd been through to get me out."

"Would it really have changed things?" Téa responded immediately, staring up at the ceiling. She hated remembering that night, when her world crumbled from underneath her-- all over again.

"I guess not. But things are different, and we aren't really complaining now, are we?"

Téa smiled, turning over to face Kaiba once more, her expression gentle. "No, we're not."

Her smile did very strange things to his mind.

_"I like the way it was before-- back when you actually smiled!"_

Mokuba's words. It stung, remembering that-- remembering that his own brother didn't find him... good enough. It wasn't a matter of being sufficient or effective as a brother, or even as a guardian. Mokuba wanted someone he could laugh and play and smile with-- and Seto couldn't be that person. But Téa... she was. She could be. And if she was happy, then Mokuba was happy, and then...

_'And then maybe **I** can be happy.'_

Strangely enough, the next thought --the next question-- that popped into Kaiba's mind had little to do with that initial discovery regarding the death of the Gardners, or the night Téa's investigative work got him out of jail.

"How **did** you make those Duel Monsters cookies, anyway?"

Téa giggled lightly, righting herself by pushing her arms up on the bed, each of her hands placed to Kaiba's sides. Though the room was dark, he could see her face clearly: her gentle smile, her bright eyes...

_'I want...'_

"Promise you won't be mad?"

Kaiba twitched.

"I sort of snuck into your office and looked at your deck."

He blinked. "You what?"

"I sort of--" Téa started to repeat, but Kaiba pressed a finger to his lips.

"It's not that I didn't hear or understand you, it's that I'm surprised, is all."

He paused, remembering the Blue-Eyes White Dragon cookie, and how Téa revealed the frosting-coated sugar cookies --that they'd made together-- with a dramatic flourish. She'd gone out of her way to cook for them-- to teach him **how** to cook. She spent time with Mokuba, helped him with his assignments, and yet still found time for her friends, schoolwork, and dream of dancing.

In comparison to her, was he really even that amazing? She'd been through so much, and still came out smiling, strong, and beautiful.

"Oh," Téa whispered, still staring at him. The single hand that Kaiba had lifted to silence her moved to her chin, his thumb stroking the corner of her mouth and her cheek. Her eyes drifting closed, Téa closed the distance between them, allowing her arms to go lax as she pressed herself against Kaiba once more, her lips gravitating toward his as if pulled by an outside force.

It was nearly impossible to believe that the very man she'd once brushed off as "cold as ice" could be so utterly warm and tempting. The selfsame hands that she'd wondered about while she'd made cookies were now dipping sensuously over her shoulders, his fingers lightly brushing against the skin of her face, her neck, her shoulders, her back. That same warm tingle --from back at the beach, when he'd massaged sunscreen into her skin, lulling her into a gentle sleep-- spread throughout her body, urging Téa into a state of relaxation.

"Mmm, Seto... I--" Kaiba abruptly stopped his ministrations, realizing that things were again, getting too heated for their own good. Despite his own thoughts, a traitorous voice suggested that perhaps it **wasn't** such a good idea for him and Téa to be sharing a bed.

"I love you," Téa whispered breathlessly. Upon Kaiba's lack of an answer, she pushed herself up again, propping her chin up with her elbows bent on the mattress. She stared at him, her gaze soft but true. "I love you, Seto Kaiba. And I'll say it again and again, until you get sick of me saying it, or until you say it back." Before Kaiba could come up with a reply, Téa pressed her lips directly against his, quickly moving to kiss his nose, his eyelids and then his brow.

"Good night, Seto." And then she turned on her side, pulling Seto's arms with her as she wrapped them around her torso.

"I... love..." Seto whispered. But Téa was already asleep.

* * *

He felt like a ten-ton rock.

The last thing Seto Kaiba wanted to do, feeling so lethargic and lazy, was to wake up that morning. But the sunlight was already streaming in through the gap in his curtain, and his body, adept at waking up and getting to work promptly, started churning.

First thirst, then hunger...

But he didn't want to leave.

Téa still remained beside him, curled up in his sheets and blankets. Her incredibly soft, sweetly-scented hair splayed over the pillows, giving her the appearance of an angel with a halo of chocolate brown hair.

So it wasn't a dream.

And as much as he wanted to relish that fact, and continue to hold her, to be beside her, her warmth, and her scent, his body refused to relax now that he was awake.

_'Damn,'_ Seto cursed. Curse his years of waking up precisely at the same time each morning, with or without school and work. Curse his Circadian clock...

Seto forced himself up, the blood rushing to his fingers and toes causing a bizarre tingle.

"Seto...?" Téa murmured drowsily, her hand sliding to occupy the space Seto just left. Her eyes opened slowly, her pupils still dilated and large. The normally-brilliant blue of her eyes seemed muted, almost appearing to match the deep navy bed sheets surrounding her, or (as Seto noticed with a blush), the silk pajamas practically falling off her slender shoulders.

"Hey."

"Come back to sleep," Téa mumbled, her fingers curling toward Seto's hand. For a moment, he relished in the feel of her hand against his, their fingers twined together. "It's too early to be getting up for school..."

"Téa, I--"

"Seto..." She shifted slightly, the too-large silk top sliding off her left shoulder altogether, and revealing the supple curves of her chest. Seto blinked and looked away with crimson cheeks, willing himself to imagine the thick, powerful scent and taste of black coffee. It didn't help any.

"Go back to sleep, Téa."

Téa was tempted to frown disdainfully; how dare he order her around? But then, she was too sleepy to _really_ complain. She felt so warm and comfortable...

She pouted, her half-lidded eyes and slender shoulders appearing all-too inviting to Seto Kaiba. She was his first real foray into the world of females-- and all their complexities. Téa Gardner presented a very challenging puzzle for Seto Kaiba to solve-- but he couldn't. Not at the moment, anyway.

"Okay. Big meanie..." Téa grumbled, about to turn over. Seto, feeling particularly bold with Téa already in his bed, dared to lean over and plant a warm kiss on her lips-- and just before she could respond, he pulled away, wearing his trademark smirk. Her cheeks were flushed and her eyes closed, but she was the picture of surprised bliss.

"Big, big meanie..." Téa mumbled, smiling. Seto only grinned wider, hoisting himself up from the side of the bed and walking from his bedroom.

* * *

Two and a half hours seemed to go by extremely fast that morning, as Seto was just sipping at his coffee and reading his paper when the door to the kitchen swung open. Glancing up, he saw Téa --still clad in his pajamas, no less-- smiling in the doorway, her eyes fully open and staring at him playfully.

"7:30 already? Time flies."

"Hmm," Téa agreed, walking slowly up to Seto. He rose to his feet without really thinking; in the next second, she was in his arm, pressed up against him in that way that felt insanely right-- beyond all explanation. He didn't even have the chance to say "good morning" before Téa kissed him, winding her arms around his neck, and giving herself extra leverage by standing on the balls of her feet. The minutes slipped by easily, Seto sliding his hand up to cup Téa's cheek and kiss her fully before allowing that selfsame hand to run down the curve of her neck and shoulders to grip her closer.

The loud bang of the swinging kitchen door slamming against the cabinets brought the duo from their lip lock, both of them turning astonished eyes to the still-swinging door.

Neither of them realized what happened until the front door slammed as well, the sharp noise echoing in the foyer for several seconds. It was then that Seto understood, the flush from his cheeks draining away.

"Seto, what is it? What--"

"It's Mokuba," Seto shook his head ruefully. How could he have been so stupid? So selfish?

No, he'd wanted this --Téa!-- for a long while, but the past several days, he hadn't been thinking straight. He knew that Mokuba cared for Téa --as more than a tutor, as more than a company employee, and as more than a friend. And yet...

"What are you talking about? Why would Mokuba have run out like that?" Téa asked, distress creeping into her voice. It was plain she cared deeply for the young Kaiba boy, through the tone in her voice and the expression on her face. She **loved** him, same as Seto did. And maybe that was why Mokuba's own affections were so misplaced, but...

"He... likes you. A lot, Téa. He must have seen us, and..."

"He **what**?"

Somehow it didn't compute.

_'Mokuba?'_

"He's got a crush on you, Téa. Has had one for a long time. I knew it, but I didn't say anything." Seto clenched his fists, realizing that again, he'd done the stupidest thing and put his own flesh and blood **second** to his inane desires. And now Mokuba was hurting, and it was all his fault. How dare he? What kind of a brother was he?

Téa flopped down into a nearby chair, her eyes wide and limbs stiff at her sides.

"I never knew... I-- I tried not to get in the way of you two. T-That's why I stopped, that time on your birthday. When we were so close--"

_'Oh.'_

They'd both known, for different reasons, that Mokuba presented a very real obstacle to a relationship. It had stopped Seto from saying anything to Téa before, and it stopped Téa from acting on her impulses.

And now...

"I-I'm so sorry, Seto..."

"You have nothing to apologize for," Seto told her resolutely, the determination plain in his voice. "We just have to talk to him. I'm sure he's just gone to school, and he'll be back later on."

Téa glanced up at Seto, her gaze unsure at first. But then, she too realized the truth in Seto's words. She wasn't about to give up the incredible feeling she'd just discovered-- not for anything. Mokuba was such a smart, sweet child... surely he'd understand.

Surely.

* * *

Mokuba's disappearance wasn't the only thing plaguing Seto and Téa's thoughts as they walked to school that morning. Also distressing Téa were the inevitable questions about her and Seto. It was what she'd feared all along-- what would everyone else think? Though Téa was a free spirit, apt to doing what she pleased and hanging out with whoever she wanted, she did place a high value on her friends' opinions.

They **cared** about her after all, and only had her best interests in mind...

"It's okay."

How did he know, without even asking? Seto just squeezed her hand in reassurance. The driver of the limo stopped before the school, around the corner, as had become usual for them. Seto got out first this time, reaching his hand out to Téa. Her reluctance faded away moments later, with the warm touch of his hand.

What did she have to worry about, after all this time, things were finally starting to fall into place?

The two of them walked the remaining distance to school, Seto never letting go of Téa's hand. It felt... odd, but a good kind of odd. It didn't matter that people actually noticed, and stopped to stare and whisper. Some of their school mates even pointed, a few of them gasping exaggeratedly and shrieking.

But all that Téa saw was Seto.

_'I'm so in love...'_

It was hard to believe that she could feel this way again, after everything. After all the duels, after all the battles... after Yami.

_'He wants the best for me, too. And right now... the best person for me is Seto.'_

Somehow, it all seemed to hard to believe. But... it was true.

* * *

The day passed without any extreme incident; of course, classmates crowded around both Seto **and** Téa at lunch, pestering them with questions. Suddenly, Seto, who previously intimidated almost every other male student at Domino High, save those he'd dueled before, was the center of attention, guys asking him how he'd scored Téa and how far they'd gotten. As reticent as ever though, Seto said nothing-- his silence only giving wild ideas to the boys present.

Of the girls pestering Téa incessantly, only one didn't ask a question: Chieko.

"It is about time you two finally got together," she smiled gently. "I am sorry I had to miss your birthday party yesterday," the blonde went on, handing Téa a small, beautifully wrapped package, "but I had to meet my fiancé."

Téa stared at Chieko, her eyes asking the questions her lips did not: "Well?"

"He is... interesting, as is his family. But I shall tell you about him another time. Please, open your gift."

Téa did, gasping in pleasant surprise as she revealed a set of greeting cards, each of them featuring a different scene from ballet, most painted by Degas. They each bore matching envelopes made of thick, handmade paper and decorated with tiny silk ribbons, with flecks of rose petals mixed into the paper.

"Thank you so much, Chieko..." Téa whispered, reaching over to hug her friend. Seto glanced over at Téa and the blonde, when Téa's hand slid from his own. His eyes briefly met with Chieko's, who favored Seto with a slight smile. It was strange-- not all that long ago, Chieko professed supposed 'feelings' for Seto, but they'd turned out to be a farce of sorts-- and Seto still remained confused as to why. But the words he'd said to Téa after their beach excursion remained true-- she was the only girl he wanted --or needed-- in his life.

Maybe he wasn't entirely sure if it was love yet, but... he'd find out, soon enough.

Now, the two of them walked up the path to the front door, the chauffeur having gone around to the garage in the rear of the complex after letting the two of them off at the front. After Seto opened the front door, an unusual silence greeted them.

There wasn't a single sound.

"Mokuba?"

But the young, ebony-haired boy was nowhere to be found.

"He's usually home by now..."

"Maybe he had a club meeting?" Téa suggested, hoping that Mokuba wasn't really too distraught about what he'd seen that morning. It still seemed a bit hard to believe that the young Kaiba brother had feelings for her. Téa always regarded him as a close friend --and dare she think it, her own sort of little brother. She'd never had siblings of her own before, and Mokuba presented a very tangible reason to be jealous of Seto Kaiba, when everything else about the CEO made him appear inhuman and unworthy of any positive feelings from Téa's direction.

But things changed.

"No... I'm going to look for him."

Téa nodded in affirmation, agreeing to search the lower floors and outside. He had to be somewhere. After all they'd been through --all the kidnappings, stunts, and heists-- surely Mokuba wouldn't run away, and **willingly** put himself in danger, right?

But he wasn't in the living room, the dining room, or the kitchen. Not in Seto's study, in the secret mezzanine, or even in the secluded computer room tucked behind Seto's bookshelf. He wasn't hiding in any of the closets, nor was the youngest Kaiba out in the gardens, the backyard, the patio, or the pool area. Téa dared to venture down into the basement-- past the workout room, the dueling arena, or the wine cellar, which Téa discovered during her attempts at cooking.

Hopefully Seto found his younger brother, simply taking a nap upstairs in his room.

But when Téa emerged from the side staircase, she found Seto staring blankly at a piece of paper in one hand, the other hand, still frozen on the banister of the main staircase. He seemed much paler than normal, frozen in place with his limbs rigid.

"Seto...?"

"It's Mokuba," Seto whispered hollowly. "He's gone."

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Everybody say: HALLELUJIAH! HALLELUJIAH!
> 
> No, I don't mean over Mokuba's disappearance. I mean that I got this blasted thing DONE, that the two are finally "together," and that the plot will only get **_better_** from here on out! YAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAY! 11 down, 25 to go!
> 
> HAPPY ONE YEAR ANNIVERSARY, WDKY! (Check out the Special Anniversary page at my Yu-Gi-Oh Website, Darkness Rising!)


	13. We Are Family

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Seto and Téa have finally gotten together, Chieko's met her fiancee, and... Mokuba's run away?! A bittersweet chapter signaling the start of a new period in Seto and Téa's dramatic relationship!

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> **What Doesn't Kill You  
> Chapter 12: We Are Family  
> A Yu-Gi-Oh Fanfiction  
> By: **Azurite**  
> Site: **seventh-star DOT net**  
> Conceptualized/First Written: **11/16/04**  
> Completed/Final Edit: **11/16/04 (HOLY MOTHER OF SHIVA!) 11/21/04, 3/22/08 (Thank you, Faye Zepher!)**  
> Posted: **11/24/04
> 
> Don't Forget! If you'd like to know what I have to say to your reviews, check out the official WDKY page at Darkness Rising, and click on 'Review Replies.' Alternatively, you can check my LiveJournal and go to my Memories/Azurite's Fanfiction section. I'll eventually add a Review Replies section as well, so if you see that, check there!
> 
> **Rated R/Mature for a reason**… You can't go see Rated R movies if you're under 17 or without an adult. You can't buy M-rated games without an adult, either. I'm hoping that people will be mature and responsible enough to let the same hold true for this fanfic. If you think you can handle language, violence, and sexual innuendoes, then great! Keep reading. But otherwise, I don't want to be responsible for what you read here— I've given more than enough warnings up to this point. No, WDKY will not be a lemon, as such fics are not allowed on FFnet, and I can't bring myself to write them anyway (I think I suck at them)! So don't worry about it. But if the content thus far has made you squeamish, then turn back now. Thanks for all your support and understanding.
> 
> **A Quick Recap:** Seto and Téa have finally gotten together, Chieko's met her fiancee, Yugi's confessed his (unrequited) feelings, and… Mokuba's run away!?
> 
> **THANKSGIVING!** I humbly give my thanks to the hundreds of you who took the time out of your day to review, even if you only said 'I like your fic,' and of course, extra stuffing for all those who went above and beyond that, and told me so much more. A whole stuffed turkey with cranberries for Mamono and Guardian Kysra, my faithful betas for this chapter— thanks bunches guys, I don't know what I'd do without you.
> 
> And after all that— **I MADE IT!**

"Seto…?" Téa stared at him, her own face pale. Mokuba was… gone?

Seto didn't waste any time reading the note again; he crumpled the short letter into a tight wad and tossed it to the floor. "I'm going to go look for him." And with one brisk movement, he whirled around, intent on heading to his office to get his coat and leave. Just before he could reach the room, Téa stopped him by pressing a hand to his shoulder.

"Seto, wait. Let me look for him."

"Téa—"

"I know you're going to say that it's not my fault, but you and I both know that's not true. Please. Let me find him. Let me talk to him."

The slightest sense of doubt crept its way into Seto's mind; how could he be sure that Téa could even find Mokuba, and that Mokuba would listen to her? It only took one glance at the wad of paper on the floor for Seto to reconsider his thoughts.

"…Fine."

"Thank you, Seto. Besides," Téa smiled gently, "I think I have an idea where he might be."

Seto stared at her, his brows knitted together, his face still a mask of concern.

_'Of course he's concerned. It's his little brother out there again! After all we've been through, who knows what could happen to Mokuba… Let's just hope I'm right, and I know where the kid is hiding.'_

"Go ahead and call around, just in case. Mokuba might have gone to Yugi's, so…" Téa trailed off. She hoped Seto understood why she couldn't be the one to call Yugi. Despite her and Seto's relationship —whatever it was— being public knowledge now, the friendship she had with Yugi was on shaky legs, at best.

Seto nodded, a sign of his silent agreement to Téa's plan. She flashed him a reassuring smile before reaching up to give him a quick kiss on the cheek, and then she breezed out the front door, away to find Mokuba.

Seto stood in the doorway, watching her go until she disappeared from view. After he'd closed the door, his eyes fell upon the ball of paper on the ground once more. His heart ached remembering the words scrawled there, but he bent down to pick up the paper anyway. People did call Seto Kaiba a masochist. Un-crumpling the paper, he examined the note, written in Mokuba's childlike scrawl:

_Stupid Seto! I HATE you!_

* * *

The sun was just about to dip below the horizon, casting the sky in spectacular shades of orange and gold. Bright, puffy clouds were lined with soft pinks, but Mokuba Kaiba took no notice. He was too sad.

He just sat in the swing at Domino Park, pushing himself back and forth at a snail's pace. He didn't care about it getting dark or cold… he just didn't want to go home. His eyes were too dry to cry anymore; now he just stared at the tiny flecks of sand, imagining that in his big brother's sandbox, he just represented one tiny speck.

_'He just doesn't care about me anymore. No one does,'_ Mokuba thought sadly. Back, and forth. It'd be nice if he could just stay in the playground forever, basking in the warm sunlight, without ever having to worry about anything— not school, not Duel Monsters, not Seto, and not Téa!

Mokuba squeezed his eyes shut, willing the memory of Seto and Téa wrapped around each other out of his mind. But the image wouldn't leave—it burned his brain and stung his heart.

"Hey."

Mokuba's gaze snapped up; he stared in the direction of the voice, his eyes widening to the size of saucers when they fell upon none other than Téa Gardner herself.

But somehow, he couldn't say her name. So he just kept staring.

Finally, Téa's gentle smile faded, and she walked forward. She sat in the swing beside his and started to pump her legs, swinging back and forth. She began speaking without even looking at Mokuba, fully aware of his presence and every move he made.

"I had a feeling you'd be here. This was where we broke even with that bet from the Ball, right? And we both had chocolate parfaits? Anyway, it didn't take me long, but I worried about you nonetheless."

Mokuba bit his lip. "No you didn't."

Téa stopped swinging and stared at him seriously. "Why would you say that, Mokuba?"

"You don't care. Big Bro— Seto **made** you come," Mokuba responded quietly, though the acid in his voice couldn't be mistaken when he referred to his brother. It was quite obvious there was a severe case of sibling rivalry here, something which the Kaiba brothers had never experienced before.

"Not true. But he is just as worried about you. Matter of fact, I had to convince him to let me come look for you."

Mokuba paused, glancing up at Téa out of the corner of his eye. "Really?"

"Yep. But if I'd stayed home and done nothing when this was my fault, I never would have forgiven myself."

"It's not your fault," Mokuba muttered quietly.

To his surprise, Téa laughed. Off his confused look, Téa explained with a grin, "You Kaiba brothers are both the same. I know you both care about me, and believe me, it's a wonderful feeling— but you both seem to take issue with me wanting to accept responsibility for my actions."

It didn't make much sense to Mokuba, but he did feel the need to explain something of his own: "It's not 'care,' Téa," he whispered. For the first time in a very long while, he'd dared to call her by her given name. And this was them —alone, and not in any danger. Just… talking.

"Mokuba?" Téa looked perplexed, as if she didn't understand his words. The look in her eyes revealed hurt hovering just below the surface.

"I— I like you the way Big Brother likes you," Mokuba explained. "That's what I mean by it's not just 'care'."

Téa sighed, starting to swing back and forth again. After a minute she responded quietly, "I don't even know what your big brother feels for me, Mokuba."

Mokuba stopped swinging altogether at this, fixing Téa with an aghast look. "He loves you, duh!"

Téa smiled ruefully, shaking her head even as she swung higher and higher. "I wish I could believe you, Mokuba. But if he can't say that to me, then—"

Mokuba dropped his head, chuckling to himself. "That's Big Brother for you. He can't admit anything."

Téa laughed lightly, but her gaze remained serious and fixed at some distant point on the horizon. The sky was turning a rich red-violet now, the brightest stars beginning to stud the darkening sky.

"Do you love him?" Mokuba asked after a moment, tugging on the chains of his swing. It seemed unusual for a boy so young to appear so tense and thoughtful, but such was the destiny of the Kaiba brothers— to grow up far too fast and to age beyond their years.

"Yes, I do."

Téa blurted her response before she could really give it any extra thought, considering she was speaking to Mokuba —a child— but also to someone who cared for her more deeply than she would have imagined. But the moment the words spilled from her mouth, she cringed. Her bluntness was probably one reason why she wasn't worthy of the love and affection she received— from Seto, from Yugi, or from anyone else.

But Mokuba didn't seem upset— rather, his expression melted into one of quiet acceptance and understanding.

"But you know," Téa began slowly, "I do love you, too, Mokuba."

The boy responded merely by scuffing his shoes in the sand, refusing to meet Téa's gaze. He mumbled something under his breath, prompting Téa to get up out of her swing and kneel before the younger Kaiba.

"Say it again."

Mokuba briefly considered that Seto was probably attracted to Téa because of her straight-forwardness. She said what she felt and did what she wanted— just like Seto. She didn't make wavering requests— she stated orders and demanded things. Like Seto, she probably came off as intimidating to some… but never to Mokuba. People just didn't get to know her. She was really an incredible person inside…

"Not the way I want!" Mokuba finally said, though his voice was only a notch higher than when he'd previously spoken.

Téa fell silent for a moment before choosing her next words carefully. "No, I guess not. You know, when your brother said you cared about me that way, I didn't believe him. It didn't make much sense."

"Why not?" Mokuba mumbled. "You're the only girl that's always been nice to me, and doesn't care that I'm a Kaiba, or that I always get kidnapped, or that I'm supposed to end up like my brother…"

"That couldn't be further from the truth," Téa stated resolutely, shaking her head.

"Why not?" Mokuba queried. Mokuba's thoughts, as of late, brought him into the state of mind where he no longer stood by his brother's side but in his shadow. He was destined to come second— after all, he could never be as smart, talented, or business-like as Seto…

"You're not like Seto. And you'd better take that as a compliment, Mokuba. Even before all of this happened, I've always thought you were the sweetest boy I'd ever met. You've always been brave, courageous, smart, and unselfish."

A pause as a smile crept its way onto Mokuba's face; "So you're saying Seto's not smart?"

Téa dropped her head to her knees, grinning after a second. "No…" She gave Mokuba a reproachful smile, "but you know what I mean." She slipped her hand on top of one of his, now resting on his lap as he sat in the swing at a standstill. Shortly, Mokuba clasped her hand as well.

"Can you keep a secret?" Téa asked after a brief pause. Mokuba nodded vigorously, curious as to what Téa would want to entrust to him and him alone.

"Ever since I met you and your brother, I've always been insanely jealous of him."

Mokuba's eyes widened. He never imagined Téa as the jealous type. Although, he'd be the first to realize, having come from a life vastly different from his current one —back in the orphanage— that the Kaiba brothers had much to be jealous of.

"What for?"

Téa smiled gently. "Because he has you."

Mokuba blinked in surprise, the answer unexpected. "M-Me? But—"

"Honestly, I always wanted a younger brother." Téa glanced at the remnants of the sunset, her gaze clouded. "That's not going to happen now, though."

Mokuba didn't exactly know what to say to this; he too, had lost his parents, but at a totally different age and under completely different circumstances.

"There used to be a time when you called me 'Big Sister Téa'," she continued. "Would it be too much to ask for us to go back to that?" When she looked at the ebony-haired boy once more, the expression in her eyes was almost pleading.

Mokuba considered this for a moment: it wouldn't be easy getting over these odd feelings —the ones that, at age twelve, led him to believe he was experiencing true love for the first time. But Téa was right— he wasn't his Big Brother, and that meant he wouldn't close himself off to the world just because he couldn't have what he wanted. More than anything, Mokuba wanted Seto and Téa both to be happy— and if his being the younger brother again did that, then…

"Nah. I don't mind at all… Big Sis."

Téa broke out into a wide smile, her eyes twinkling as she stood up, arms spread. After a moment's hesitation, Mokuba bounced up and hugged her fiercely.

"Mokuba?" Téa murmured, hugging the young boy back. "Let's go home."

"Yeah. Let's."

And with that, the two grabbed hands and walked out of the park, both smiling widely.

* * *

Seto couldn't focus in his own office, and concern for Mokuba caused him to pace about. So, while calling everyone he could think of short of the police, he walked all around the house, finally ending up in the foyer. He had just given in to his annoying conscience and called Yugi— but his rival hadn't heard from Mokuba. Still, the concern in Yugi's voice brought a measure of hope to Seto's heart; if Téa couldn't find Mokuba, Yugi would. The younger boy had promised— without the slightest regard to everything that had happened between them.

When it came to family, Seto realized, whether it was Yugi's or not, Yugi cared. And he kept his promises.

Still, it had been over an hour, and still no word from anyone…

When the door unlocked with a click, Seto didn't waste a second in detailing to Téa —who he was sure had come back empty handed (after all, if he'd had no luck, why would she?)— all the calls he'd made, without success.

"Téa, I called everyone, and no one's heard from Mokuba, and—"

Seto looked up, startled to see Mokuba walking in behind Téa, although he was trailing behind at a slower pace, his gaze a bit upset and slightly sheepish.

"Mokuba!" The younger boy barely had time to step out from behind Téa before Seto swept forward and swept his younger brother up in a fierce hug.

"Ow— Seto… ribs… breaking!" Mokuba struggled in his brother's arms, wiggling to the best of his abilities. Seto finally released him after a moment, his concerned expression replaced with a deadly-serious one.

"God, Mokuba, don't ever scare me like that ever again!" One too many near-death experiences threatened to separate the Kaiba brothers from one another, and Seto Kaiba was not about to let that happen again. Had Mokuba gotten kidnapped or tried to be heroic again, Seto would have been ready with a lecture- but Mokuba had run away, and suddenly guilt welled in in the elder Kaiba; he'd failed his brother and pushed him to that brink. He couldn't be the overbearing brother now.

"I— I won't, Big Brother. I promise."

Seto fixed the younger boy with a pointed stare that plainly said, 'You better not be lying to me.'

"So everything's okay, now, right?" Téa smiled softly. "Neither of you has anything you need to say?"

Seto glanced from Téa to Mokuba and back again. He could hardly believe that she'd found him… but on the same token, he was immensely glad she did. If Mokuba had remained missing for another hour, Seto Kaiba was sure he would have torn the house apart, not to mention the city and anyone he came across within it.

"Mokuba, there's something you should know," Seto began seriously, standing to tug an arm around Téa's waist and bring her close to him. With his other free arm, he gestured Mokuba closer, the younger boy standing in a loose hug at Seto's side.

"Things might be… different now, between Téa and I, but…"

"But that doesn't change how much either of us love you, Mokuba," Téa added, smiling, reaching over to place her own hand on Mokuba's shoulder and bring him into a hug.

"We are family, now. No matter what," Seto stated firmly, not leaving the possibility for doubt or questioning. "From now on, no more secrets from one another—" he stared pointedly at Téa, who had the grace to blush prettily, "right? You both promise?"

"You have to promise too, Seto," Mokuba nudged his older brother, who frowned slightly. He still had his share of secrets, but…

'_Never again. No more close calls. No more lies. I don't want the people I… care about in danger because of me. No more.'_

Seto sighed, nodding. "I promise. But what about you two?"

"No more secrets," Téa echoed. She knew only too well that secrets would hurt their blossoming relationship more than help it. From now on, no matter how difficult or painful it was, she had to tell Seto everything.

_'Besides, what would I keep from him now? He knows me— heart and soul.'_ This thought warming her up from the inside out, Téa snuggled just a bit closer to Seto, allowing herself to revel in the amazing fact that she was so in love with someone.

No, not just 'someone' — Seto Kaiba. Before, she likened him from everything from a machine to a really tall ice cube— but he wasn't any of those things. He was human —flesh and blood— and he cared. That was all that mattered.

"Promise?" Seto asked, staring at Mokuba. The concern disappeared from his face, but it was still plain in his eyes, from their shifting to their glassy surface. It took years of practice, but Mokuba knew his brother's odd expressions better than anyone. He knew that his brother cared.

"Promise."

* * *

Hours later, a warm sense of peace settled over the Kaiba Mansion— and for the first time in a long while, it felt like home again. When the shrill ringing of the phone broke Téa from her contemplative reverie, her head snapped up.

One ring, then another.

_'Seto's probably buried in his work again, the big oaf.'_

When he was focused on something, he didn't stop for anything, not even the slightest interruptions. Seto had a firm list of priorities which he stuck to— and doubtless phone calls were nowhere near the top.

And Mokuba? Téa supposed the young boy was upstairs in his room playing games or napping after his adventure. He wouldn't pick up the phone.

"I'll get it!" Téa called out to the empty mansion, just as a matter of politeness. Maybe Seto would get annoyed by the ringing and pick it up at the same time as she, but Téa doubted it.

Téa headed to the receiver in the kitchen, her mind still wandering to other things. "Hello?" she queried, distracted.

A raspy voice responded immediately, "Hello, Miss Gardner."

Téa's attention immediately snapped wholly to the phone; she didn't recognize the voice. "Who is this?"

"You could say I'm an… old friend of the family. Though whether it's your family or Mr. Kaiba's is up to you."

Téa didn't understand, but the speaker's decidedly creepy tone did nothing but unnerve her further. "Who are you? What do you want?"

"The name's Crump, Miss Gardner. Ring a bell?"

Téa blanched, and nearly dropped the phone out of shock.

_'Crump. One of the Big Five. They killed my parents!'_

Anger flitted across Téa's normally-composed features, her eyebrows drawing into a knot at the center of her brow. "Answer my question, bastard."

Crump only laughed, "So you do remember me! If you must know, I have an offer for you."

"I'm sure there's nothing you have that I could possibly want."

"But how can you be sure, Miss Gardner? What I possess transcends your desires— you need it."

"Short of oxygen to breathe—"

"The truth, Téa," Crump snapped, dropping all pretenses and interrupting her. "The truth about your parents."

Téa fell silent, contemplating this response. It took her a moment to finally come up with a reply. "I know the truth. You had them killed."

Crump didn't reply to this, and instead he said, "If you want the whole story, then I suggest you get into the black limousine that will be in front of your school tomorrow afternoon. It will be there for only ten minutes, and if you choose not to show up, I promise, you won't get another chance."

Téa swallowed the bile building in her throat, readying a venom-laced threat to send back to Crump, but the words wouldn't come.

"Oh, and don't bother trying to have your precious boyfriend or the police trace this number. It won't work. Tell anyone about this call, and you will regret it with every fiber of your being."

A click, and then a dial tone.

Téa stood frozen in place, still holding the receiver. What could she do? Crump was right: she did need the truth, but who was to say that she would live long enough to do anything about it? She'd vowed that she would bring the Big Five to justice, but…

_'I refuse to put anyone else in danger because of me!'_

She'd done it far too many times before. Too many people suffered for her sake…

The sound of the swinging door opening brought Téa's attention back to reality. Her eyes widened as she caught sight of Mokuba— his eyes dark and clear, a hand gripped around a cordless phone.

"Are you going to go?" Mokuba asked quietly, not even bothering to announce that he'd heard everything, or that he should be sorry for eavesdropping.

Téa looked away, clenching her free hand into a fist. "I— I have to, Mokuba."

Instead of arguing with Téa, Mokuba nodded his assent. Téa didn't notice, but instead wheeled on the boy, her eyes filling with tears. "Please Mokuba— you won't tell Seto, will you?"

Mokuba looked hesitant for a moment. He'd promised his brother he wouldn't keep any more secrets from him, and vice versa. But…

"I don't want to put him in danger, Mokuba. You know that, right?"

Mokuba dropped his head, long ebony bangs concealing his face. "Yeah. 'Cause you love him."

Téa smiled waveringly, "Yeah. I do." The more she said it, the more real her feelings seemed to become. She'd been ready to let them go not long ago, but now, they were her strength. She sighed deeply, finally replacing the phone back on its base before heading to the door. She couldn't just go into the meeting blind. She had to prepare.

"I won't tell him, then," Mokuba agreed after a minute. "But you have to promise me something."

Téa turned around, facing the younger boy once more. "What is it?"

"That you'll let me help. After what they did to all of us, I wanna make sure they get in trouble, too. So let me help."

"Mokuba…"

_"Tell anyone about this call, and you'll regret it with every fiber of your being."  
_  
She already knew what the Big Five were capable of. She couldn't risk letting them harm Mokuba, too. But the Big Five weren't the most intelligent criminals out there, no matter how many plans they'd foiled in the past. Maybe… there was a way Mokuba could help.

Maybe together, they could bring the Big Five down, and…

"Okay. Let's do this."

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Whoa. Just… whoa.
> 
> Azurite


	14. Five by Five

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Guess who's on the line? One of the Big Five responsible for the death of Téa's parents, not to mention trying to oust Seto from his position as CEO of Kaiba Corp! Téa's out for revenge, but her life is on the line! Will Kaiba be able to get to her in time?

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> **What Doesn't Kill You  
> Chapter 13: Five by Five  
> A Yu-Gi-Oh Fanfiction**  
> **By:** Azurite - azurite AT seventh-star DOT net  
> **Site: **seventh-star DOT net  
> **Conceptualized/First Written:** 12/5/04  
> **Completed/Final Edit: **12/7/04  
> **Posted: **12/15/04
> 
> **Don't Forget!** If you'd like to know what I have to say to your reviews, check out the official WDKY page at Darkness Rising, and click on 'Review Replies.' Alternatively, you can check my LiveJournal and go to my Memories/Azurite's Fanfiction section. I'll eventually add a Review Replies section as well, so if you see that, check there!
> 
> **On Chapter 12**... Frankly, I'm a bit insulted that some of you thought I actually didn't write Chapter 12. I write ALL my own fics. I don't do the "ghostwriter" thing, nor do I plagiarize. No one else has access to ANY of my accounts. Over the year (plus) that WDKY's been coming out, I've had very long chapters-- and most of you said it might take you hours or even DAYS to read them. I've been trying to shorten my chapters, and the plan for Chapter 12 indicated just that-- a short chapter!
> 
> Anyway, since this upcoming arc deals with the Big Five, you should remember something I pointed out early on-- the VR World/Noah's Fortress arc _never_ occurred in the WDKY ficverse. Think of the fic as a fusion between the original and the dub, the anime and the manga-- lots of elements from both are here in WDKY, to give it the most "complete" Yu-Gi-Oh universe setting I can.
> 
> Lastly-- I'm nearing 600 reviews (as of this writing)! WOW! I hope to get Chapter 16 (complete with the spoileriffic profile image on FFnet) up ASAP... but since it's original art, give me some extra time, okay? I shouldn't even be here right now, I have finals...

_'Why is he here?'_

Not that Seto Kaiba minded his brother's presence. Not at all. But since when did Mokuba go out of his way to meet him at the high school? True, Mokuba would be starting at the nearby junior high soon enough --and Seto always **did** emphasize preparedness above all else-- but still, something was odd.

And if that wasn't enough, his little brother was talking to the mutt.

Something was definitely wrong.

"Mokuba, what are you doing here?" Seto strode up to the pair, though he blatantly ignored Joey's presence. He wasn't about to start acting perfectly cordial to Wheeler every moment of every day; just because they'd had a few close-calls in which Wheeler saved his hide... it didn't mean anything.

_'Once a mutt, always a mutt.'_

"Oh, hey Big Brother! Uhm, I was just talking to Joey... remember that bet I won from a while back? Well, I was thinking about--"

"Have you seen Téa?" Normally, Seto didn't interrupt his brother unless he was stressed out --or worried about something. And in this case, that 'something' was Téa being missing. It was one thing if Téa had practice with the dance club or DPAC, but after several weeks of observing her schedule, Seto knew that neither was the case today.

All of her friends were already outside-- Kaiba could see them emerging from the cubby areas, casting odd glances his way. They all knew he didn't hang around campus very much, but since he and Téa were...

_"Wait a second, Seto." Téa tugged on his uniform sleeve almost urgently, digging her heels in and forcing him to come to a stop._

_"What is it?" They were going to be late if they didn't hurry. But... surely she wasn't going to insist they walk separately, like before, right? Surely she wanted everyone to know by now..._

_"What **are** we?"_

_"What kind of a question is that?" He didn't really understand, and truth be told, he was a bit impatient. Part of him --the perfectionist-- wanted to hurry, simply because he was never just 'on time,' he was always early. Another part insisted he take his sweet time and walk onto the school grounds, Téa at his side. Let them all stare and gape and drool. _

_'She's mine!'_

_Téa shook her head, and sighed, releasing her hand from his sleeve._

_"I mean... what-- what is this? Are we 'boyfriend' and 'girlfriend,' or..." she trailed off, wondering what a person such as Kaiba would refer to their relationship. She was afraid he'd say something like 'a mutual unprofessional relationship,' or some jargon like that._

_"Or what?" Did she expect him to refer to them as something else? It was a ridiculous notion --he'd never even thought about being attached to anyone before, and now, here he was. It was all a little new to him, and, as unusual as it was for Seto Kaiba, he was letting Téa take the lead and show him what to do._

_Téa exhaled abruptly, closing her eyes in a sigh of relief. _

_"Nothing. Never mind." _

_With that, they both walked onto campus, not caring about the whispers, the stares, or the pointed figures gesturing their way. All they saw was each other._

So, they were 'boyfriend' and 'girlfriend.' Well, the former certainly wasn't a term Seto Kaiba ever imagined being associated with. And yet, here he was, playing the role of a perfectly concerned --maybe just a bit **too** concerned--boyfriend.

"Er, Téa? Nope, why would you ask? I bet she already headed home or something, or maybe she went to go to another meeting-- Hey, maybe she went to go see Ma--" Mokuba stopped suddenly, not just because he'd almost blurted 'Mai' around Joey (her name, and everything revolving around her, was still a bit of a sensitive topic with him), but because his brother was shooting him a very stern look. It was a look that plainly said: _You're hiding something, and I know it._

"Mokuba..."

_'I can't tell them! I promised!'_

If Mokuba revealed what he knew, he'd be putting Téa in danger. But...

* * *

"So very **glad** you could join us, Miss Gardner," a raspy voice greeted Téa as she was bodily shoved into a wide, brightly-lit conference room. Her eyes had difficulty adjusting to the light; as soon as she'd entered the black limousine waiting for her outside her high school, she'd been abruptly blindfolded, and told that if she talked or so much as moved a muscle, they would kill her on the spot.

And given that one of the muscled 'special police' that accompanied her upstairs pressed a cold, seemingly-real gun barrel to her head, Téa hadn't so much as breathed a whisper.

Téa stayed silent, finally staring in the face of one of the Big Five-- directly responsible for her parents' deaths.

"You're allowed to speak now, Téa," Crump smiled toothily, gesturing to the two special police to leave the office. A few other suits remained, seated around an oblong table, each of them leering at her. Most wore sunglasses on their faces, but it didn't take a vivid imagination to memorize each and every one of their appearances.

_'You're all going to pay for what you've done to my family...'_

She didn't just mean her parents. She meant Seto and Mokuba too, and all the heartache they'd suffered...

"What do you want with me?" Téa finally blurted, her voice laced with just a bit too much venom.

"Oh come, child," Crump chuckled condescendingly, taking a seat. "It's not as though we forced you to come here."

"I seem to recall otherwise. 'If you choose not to come, I promise you won't get a second chance,'" Téa mimicked Crump's raspy voice, licking her lips once she was done. Crump sounded like he had a permanent case of laryngitis, and it hurt her throat just to make fun of him. It probably wasn't the wisest idea, but she was done being 'Miss Nice Girl' for someone that had a hand in the death of her parents.

"A matter of interpretation," Crump sneered. "Did you think I meant we'd have you killed if you didn't come? That wouldn't be very beneficial to us now, would it?"

"What are you talking about?"

"I'm not here to **threaten** you, Miss Gardner. If I wanted you killed, you would already be in your grave."

_'Yeah, right,'_ Téa thought to herself,doubt flitting across her face briefly in the form of a sarcastic smile. Crump only frowned, but said nothing about her apparent distrust.

"In any case, I'm here to make a... proposition of sorts."

Téa frowned, her eyes narrowing and darkening to a deep blue. "I don't make deals with criminals."

"You haven't even heard our side of the story yet, Miss Gardner," Crump laughed, not the least bit intimidated. Or at least, he didn't **appear** intimidated. But he knew that his so-called 'partners,' Gansley, Johnson, Nesbitt, and Leichter thought of him as expendable-- so if he didn't succeed in getting the last Gardner on their side, then he'd have to kill her. There was no room for failure.

"I'm willing to make an exchange of information, Téa," Crump began, ignoring Téa's cringe at his use of her given name. She detested the idea that he would refer to her as if she were close to him in any size, shape, or form. Surely he knew she **hated** him. So why all the false pretense?

"Get on with it."

"Ah, direct and to the point. You're definitely your parents' daughter, all right. And for once, such traits will actually be of **use** to us."

Téa grit her teeth together, her eyes narrowing even further. But she **had** to stick around and listen... she **had** to!

"Help us, and we'll help you. Enable us to remove Seto Kaiba from his CEO position, and the truth about your parents will be revealed."

* * *

"She **what**!" Yugi exclaimed. He, Duke, and Tristan all arrived beside Joey just as Mokuba finally admitted where Téa was. The answer: off meeting one of the Big Five-- and nowhere near Domino High, that much was sure.

"Aw shit, one incident with those jerkwads wasn't enough--" Joey began, punching a fist into his other hand angrily.

"There's more than that," Seto cut him off, his voice icy. The Big Five --responsible for the Gardners' deaths, several conspiracies against him and his company, and who knows what else... but why was Téa trying to take matters into her own hands **again**?

"I thought I said no more secrets, Mokuba," Seto muttered under his breath. He couldn't meet his brother's gaze. Why did he keep getting put into situations like this, where he had to choose between his brother and Téa? Why did he constantly have to choose between the bond he'd forged over years with his brother, and the new one he'd just created with Téa?

Mokuba jerked his head away, refusing to let the tears welling in his eyes slide free. He couldn't let his brother see him cry... Kaibas **weren't** weak!

But...

"You were lying to her too!" Mokuba finally snapped. He hadn't meant to yell; several passing schoolgirls who'd probably thought him an adorable youngster suddenly stared at him. Great, he was officially a loudmouthed runt.

"There's plenty of secrets you haven't even come close to telling Téa, even if you guys **are** going out. No matter what, she'll always be aware of that-- so she'll justify being able to keep her own secrets!" Mokuba frowned. It still ached inside, knowing that he could understand Téa, and Seto couldn't --wouldn't!-- but Téa had chosen **Seto** instead.

Seto couldn't respond to that. Maybe it was because he was so surprised-- but maybe it was because he couldn't find the words to say.

Mokuba barreled onward, "I told her I'd keep it a secret if she let me in on her plans. If I agreed to distract you guys long enough while she went to go meet them--"

"Where?" Tristan demanded harshly.

"I-- I don't know! They just said a black limousine would pick her up after school. It's been gone for a while now... But even if you **could** find it, it'd ruin everything! Crump said that if anyone found out, they'd kill her!"

"That means she's already in danger," Yugi whispered, turning serious eyes to face Seto. Kaiba only nodded before dashing out of the school grounds toward his own personal limousine.

* * *

"You want me to **what**?"

"I'm not asking for anything complicated, Miss Gardner. Nor am I implicating that Mr. Kaiba or his brother will come to any harm--" The glint in Crump's eyes said otherwise.

It wasn't enough that Seto demoted them once he took over Kaiba Corporation, but when their plan to join forces with Pegasus failed, they resorted to virtual dueling and been soundly beaten at that. Had they not prepared for that eventuality, they would still be stuck in cyberspace, prisoners of a group of foolish teenagers.

Not a single member of the Big Five cared to forgive Seto Kaiba for that-- and if it meant using his own girlfriend against him, they would do so. Of course, getting her to agree...

_'Liar!'_ She wanted to yell at him, she wanted to shout. Part of her even wanted to break free of her self-imposed restraints and attack the man. But she couldn't let anger take her over like that... She knew what it was like to be hopelessly controlled by your emotions, and unable --or perhaps, just unwilling-- to see the truth of a situation. She'd been there. Seto had been there. She never wanted to be like that, ever again.

_'Make him think I'll agree. Make him think that I'm tricking Kaiba... Maybe then, I can trap him.'_

But the odds weren't in her favor. Including Crump, there were no less than five other men in the room-- all of them easily brawn enough to get her to submit forcefully, if they wanted to. But she couldn't think like that. This was the **right** decision. It was **her** decision, where she could solve her own problems and not put anyone else in danger...

A cell phone rang.

Crump's gaze drifted to one of the heavier-set men sitting near him. The man withdrew a sleek black mobile phone from his inside breast pocket, flipping it open and speaking without a second of hesitation.

"Yes?"

The man was silent a moment, listening to whoever was on the other end. He didn't even bother with a 'goodbye' before he hung up, rising to his feet to face Crump.

Téa's heart abruptly began to race; she had no idea what the person on the phone had told the other man, and who knew what it could mean for her?

"They know. They're on the move."

Téa looked confused, staring between the man and Crump; it was only when Crump turned a malicious, leering grin on her that she realized: any hope she had of convincing Crump that she was on their side had just been shot to death. There was no way out now; she was sure of it.

"Well, well, Miss Gardner, it looks as though you haven't held up your end of the bargain. And now, you'll suffer the consequences. Your position has been changed from associate... to hostage."

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This chapter is even SHORTER than Chapter 12... Chapter 14 will be longer, though, as will 15 and 16 (the Christmas chapters). I happen to like these shorter, more suspenseful chapters... I'm sticking to my plan of events, so don't think I'm shafting you for drama, angst, and romance. All in good time... grin
> 
> \--Azurite


	15. Stronger

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> After the death of her parents, Téa wavered between strength and frailty, sometimes ignoring her problems and sometimes tackling them head on. But it's hard to tackle your problems when you're duct-taped to a chair...

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> **What Doesn't Kill You  
> Chapter 14: Stronger  
> A Yu-Gi-Oh Fanfiction**  
> **By:** Azurite - azurite AT seventh-star DOT net  
> **Site: **seventh-star DOT net  
> **Conceptualized/First Written:** 12/17/04  
> **Completed/Final Edit: **12/26/04 - Happy Holidays, everyone!  
> **Posted: **12/30/04
> 
> **Don't Forget!** If you'd like to know what I have to say to your reviews, check out the official WDKY page at Darkness Rising, and click on 'Review Replies.' Alternatively, you can check my LiveJournal and go to my Memories/Azurite's Fanfiction section. I'll eventually add a Review Replies section as well, so if you see that, check there! Oh, and please check out the Official WDKY Page's "Research" page, among the others offered... it's all at Darkness Rising-- I'll be updating it shortly, complete with all new info, did-you-know-thats, and tons more!
> 
> I know some of you have been disappointed with the last two **short chapters**, but that trend should end now-- chapters 14-16, I can guarantee you will be longer! This whole fic is already planned out though, so please stop whining about the length of the chapters...
> 
> Many, many thanks to **Mamono**, **Atlantis** and **Guardian Kysra**, my betas for this chapter. Once again, I couldn't have done it without you, ladies!

"Prepared is my middle name," Eric Gardner used to tell his daughter.

Shortly after the death of Téa's parents, she'd found it hard to believe that he'd been right-- after all, her parents died while trying to set things right.

But unlike her parents, Téa learned from the mistake that cost her parents their lives-- and she came to her meeting prepared.

Prepared meant that she'd changed clothes before she'd left school; she'd traded her uniform for a striped pink collared blouse, and a black pencil skirt with a bright pink ribbon lining the hem. She'd tied her hair up with a pink bow, taking it out only when she spotted the black limousine that brought her to the not-so-favorable position she was in now. She ran right past Seto, and he hadn't recognized her in the slightest.

Now, of course, she wished he had-- and he'd stopped her from getting into this mess.

But no matter-- she was prepared in more ways than one. Regardless of whatever the Big Five claimed they could offer her, Téa didn't plan to take them up-- she just wanted to bring them down, for all that they'd done. Whether she was an associate or hostage, she'd made a vow...

Now, she carefully sawed away at her duct-tape bonds, keeping her wrists bound tightly behind the office chair she sat in. She knew there was a strong chance that something like this would happen, so she carefully hid a sharpened nail file under her sleeve, bound to her arm with two, thin, elastic hair ties. Though she'd set off the metal detector when she'd been brought inside the building, she chalked it up to the zipper on her blouse-- and she refused to take it off, lest the special police escorting her miss out on their 'target' and neglect to bring her to Crump.

Téa had every right to be snappish-- Crump himself said the Big Five _needed _her. What they meant was that if they didn't get her on their payroll, she'd inevitably lead the police right to them, and that meant the end of their little operation, and their quest for vengeance against Seto.

_'Besides,'_ Téa thought uncomfortably, shifting in her skirt, _'Being female also means once a month I have an excuse to be irritable that can't be stripped away by anyone! Those stupid suits don't have any idea how gross it feels to be sitting in this skirt and hose when I'm...' _

Best not to finish that thought, though. It was bad enough she was taped up and stuck in this clammy room with a bunch of stuffed shirt, cocky businessmen-- but to be on her period, too? Things just weren't going in her favor today.

_'Go on, Crump. I dare you to set me off. Say something stupid, and I'll swing this chair at the side of your head.'_

But that was just her hormones talking-- hormones mixed with rage.

"I warned you Girl, not to tell anyone of our rendezvous... but you are simply too stubborn for your own good, aren't you?"

"I **didn't** tell anyone!" Téa snapped, struggling. Crump and his friends laughed, unaware that several centimeters of tape snapped while Téa sawed away at them while she shifted.

"Then how, pray tell, did Mr. Seto Kaiba himself know to leave the school so abruptly and start a fervent search to find you? He's called you-- three times, now. What will he think when his precious girlfriend doesn't answer?" Crump tossed Téa's pink cell phone up in the air, catching it in his clammy, odorous palm.

"I told you--"

"Regardless of what you say, we know you aren't telling the truth, so save your breath, girl," one of the other suits barked. "We've had people watching you from the moment you left school this afternoon, and we kept them watching Mr. Kaiba and his little 'friends,' to ensure you'd held up your end of the bargain. Now that you haven't you will pay the price."

Téa blanched. She wasn't working fast enough-- no matter how much faith or confidence she had, no matter how much speed, agility, or strength-- there were still more of them than there were of her. They could do what they wanted, and it would be futile to resist...

_'Damn it! Like hell I'm going to give up that easily!'_ It wasn't in her nature. Mood swings could come and go, but she had to stick to her original plan. There was just no way she'd become bait for the dastardly Big Five.

_'I can take care of myself!'_ Well, Téa told herself that earlier, before agreeing to let Mokuba be part of her plan, or before coming up with the idea to disguise herself and actually **meet** with the Big Five. In the here and now, she wasn't so sure. But... there was no going back. No doubting herself now, because there was no other path. She couldn't go through life expecting Yami to come bursting through the door to save the day --or as it was **nowadays**,Seto.

Which brought the question back to the fore-- how **did** Seto find out? Truthfully, Téa knew he'd probably find out-- but not so soon. She hadn't really prepared for the contingency that he'd care about her presence so abruptly...

_'Mokuba probably told him. I guess we were all lying when we promised not to keep secrets. But when it really matters, maybe it's okay to reveal them after all...' _

There was more to it than that, though. If she'd told Seto about all this beforehand, there was a possibility she would have just **found out** what the Big Five knew, and then the criminals would be in jail. Maybe she wouldn't be bound, uncomfortable, sticky, and sweaty in a high-rise office building in the middle of the city. Maybe...

"Mr. Kaiba will receive a call from us soon enough. But if he tries a single more trick, that fool teenager will find himself with a certain girl's murder on his hands--"

"You framed him for my parents' murder! Doesn't your cruelty ever stop?!"

Crump looked genuinely surprised, but that expression quickly melted away into one of demonic glee and pleasure. "Framed? I haven't the slightest clue what you're speaking of. Besides... I heard the true criminal was caught."

"Blackmailing Theodore into working for you--"

Crump's eyes narrowed; it was apparent Téa knew more than they thought.

"You know the police are after you --all five of you, and probably all of your SUITS, too," Téa hissed, jutting her chin out at Crump's accomplices, who were sitting coolly and watching the exchange between accountant and teenage spitfire.

"And **you **know that unless Mr. Kaiba meets our demands, you will be joining your parents shortly. There is no chance of us letting you walk free with the knowledge you hold. We will **not **be caught--"

"So you admit it then? You **did **have my parents killed!" Téa shrieked, tears falling down her face. Damn it-- she didn't mean to cry. But... she just kept remembering her parents' car, burnt black from the inside out, shattered glass piercing every inch of her mother and father's skin. She remembered the sickening swirl of flashing red and blue lights, and the acidic taste of vomit as she threw up over the guardrail on the freeway.

She remembered running fingers over melted plastic, and the rough texture of a serrated grenade, marked with the Kaiba Corp logo.

She remembered the heartache... the pain... and the tears.

Blinded by all these memories, she didn't notice Crump standing before her with a pair of scissors until he was right before her.

"Oh, quit your pointless fussing," Crump sneered, a lecherous grin spreading across his fat lips. He hooked one of the scissor blades in the opening of Téa's zipper pull, tugging it down centimeter by centimeter. With every bit of skin that got exposed, Téa felt more and more dirtied, more and more infuriated.

Frozen from the hairs on her head to the nails on her toes, only one thought rang clear in her mind: _'Seto... save me.'_

* * *

"Hold on a second, Kaiba!" Tristan hollered before Kaiba could get a step closer to his car.

"Yeah, freeze, Moneybags! Téa might be your girlfriend, but she's **our** friend, too! And you're gonna rush off and-- do what? Do you even know where she is?"

Kaiba turned around slowly, finding himself facing the whole motley crew once more-- Tristan, Duke, and Joey eyeing him angrily, while Yugi stood by Mokuba, both of their gazes averted. Seto fixed his gaze on his little brother, wondering where or when it was that he'd gone so wrong-- that his own brother couldn't trust him anymore, especially with matters that --to him, anyway-- dealt so apparently with the life and death of their loved ones.

Mokuba had to know what a sensitive subject that was, and yet...

_"You were lying to her too! There's plenty of secrets you haven't even come close to telling Téa, even if you guys **are** going out!"_

Much as Seto Kaiba hated to admit fault in anything, his brother was right.

There was plenty he hadn't yet told Téa-- and honestly, didn't know if he ever would. Things about his past that no papers or ghosts could tell her... things about the way he felt...

Things that, in all honesty, Kaiba kept locked away deep within him-- secrets that not even Mokuba knew of.

They ate away at his insides --_'At what bit of a soul I might have,'_ Kaiba thought, scoffing-- slowly, but surely.

"You said Crump was the one that called," Kaiba stated, addressing his brother, though he couldn't bring himself to look at him. Even if he did, he knew Mokuba wouldn't meet his gaze. "I know where Crump will be."

"And where Crump is, Téa will be as well?" Yugi put in quietly. He knew just as well as Kaiba that there was a strong possibility that Crump was merely the one who'd called-- and one of the other Big Five, or any number of their 'employees' had taken Téa to some undisclosed, unknown location in the middle of nowhere.

But Seto Kaiba wasn't the type to stand by and wait for anything --good or bad-- to happen. He had to take action **now**.

"I'm positive."

Joey muttered _'Only fools are positive,'_ under his breath, earning a sharp stare from Kaiba, but the CEO said nothing in response.

Tristan hesitated a second before reaching into his pockets and pulling out a set of keys. "Here," he tossed them to Kaiba, who caught them easily. "You'll get there faster than any limousine, anyway. And since you already know how to drive one..."

Kaiba didn't need to ask Taylor how he'd found that out in the first place; the pencil-headed boy had known for some time now, and this particular instant wasn't exactly suitable for asking questions.

The motorcycle in question was parked not far from the limousine, where Kaiba's personal chauffeur still awaited direction regarding what to do or where to go.

Kaiba took one step in the direction of the motorcycle before freezing again, this time half-glancing over his shoulder. He stared hard at a person in particular, even though the boy in question still wouldn't meet his gaze.

"Yugi."

The spike-haired boy's head shot up, his eyes wide, though full of concern for his missing friend. He didn't have a chance to say "Yes?" and query Kaiba on what he wanted; as always, brash Seto Kaiba charged right on and said what needed to be said.

"Take Mokuba home. Your friends can wait for Téa and I to return later, and--" Kaiba jerked his head in Tristan's direction, "I'll bring the bike back there, as well."

"Big Brother, but--!" Mokuba protested, but Yugi already realized the sense in Kaiba's 'orders,' and started tugging the younger boy along, ducking into the limousine after Duke opened the door.

"Forget it, Kaiba!" Joey hollered, stepping forward, shaking his fist at Kaiba. "I ain't waitin' for you to be the hero when you're goin' in all cocky like always. Like it or not, you just got yourself a sidekick, so you can forget about goin' after those stinkin' Big Five alone! You ain't the only one with a score to settle with 'em, you know!" Joey looked ready to pounce on Kaiba if he so much as uttered the word 'no.' Not in the mood to argue or put up with Joey's antics, Kaiba turned on his heel and walked away-- rather reluctantly. Normally he felt the need to strike Wheeler with a few choice barbs, just to get him to shut up.

Tristan, the last person to get in the limo, looked at Joey and Kaiba unsurely, then sighed to himself and got in the car.

"How do you propose you 'tag along,' Wheeler?" Kaiba asked scathingly. The truth was, he was only trying to make a point-- motorcycles weren't exactly built for two gu--

"Look, I don't have a fancy license, but I stand by the fact that I'm going whether you want me to or not. So hop the hell on and start this sucker up, okay?"

Kaiba's response was to swing a long leg over the saddle and flick the ignition on. He revved the engine twice to test it, and then smirked at Joey over his shoulder.

"If I were you, I'd hang on." He didn't even give Joey the chance to blink in query before he sped off, forcing Joey to tumble forward and grab onto Kaiba's waist like it were his lifeline. Well, it sort of was.

Duke suppressed a snort, watching from the limo, which pulled away from the curb after a minute and went in the opposite direction of Kaiba and Joey on the motorcycle.

Yugi stared down the road, up until the car turned the corner. He wanted to be the one to burst in and save the day, to help Téa and have her fall gratefully into his arms, and--

Well, it just wasn't his place anymore. Maybe it never had been.

_'Kaiba... good luck. But I hope you won't need it.'_

* * *

Téa Gardner didn't **want** to need to be saved. It was just... she'd been a bit too brash this time. A bit too stubborn for her own good. And now her well-intentioned plan had landed her in the hot seat-- literally. But until Crump backed away from her and put those scissors down --and who said he even **would**?-- she couldn't risk slicing the last bit of tape that held her in place.

He'd managed to get her blouse halfway opened, exposing Téa's lacy camisole. He snickered under his breath, nodding to his companions as he backed away, savoring the state of weakness Téa appeared to be in. Tear-stained, undressed, bound... And then he spoke once more.

"It was nothing personal."

If anyone ever thought to compare Téa Gardner's personality to a state of weather, up until a few months past, or during particular incidents, they most undoubtedly would have picked 'sunny.' Other words to describe her included 'warm, bubbly, cheery, pleasant, and nice.' But at that particular instant, only seconds after Crump spoke, Téa Gardner took on an entirely new facet-- perhaps due in part to her recent 'intimate' relations with Seto Kaiba. In truth, in that moment, she could be described as nothing less than icy. The very world around her --the air she breathed, and the look in her eyes-- froze to an excruciatingly cold temperature, but Crump remained blissfully ignorant and unaware. And if the suits surrounding him noticed, not a single one of them made any sort of signal to her or Crump.

Snap.

Snap.

Snap.

The final three threads binding her now-sticky wrists to the chair broke quietly, and without really thinking, Téa wriggled her hands free. Acting entirely on autopilot, she grasped the spine of the chair with still-clammy hands, hefting the light chair into her arms and swinging it hard and fast, straight into the stomachs of two nearby suits.

"Nothing personal?" Téa seethed, ignoring as the two men went flying into the table, knocked unconscious by the force of their heads slamming against cold glass. "Say it again! I DARE YOU!"

She'd never been angrier in her life --or more wildly out of control. This wasn't the way she planned things-- but it didn't matter anymore. Crump's words had been the straw that figuratively broke Téa's back-- or her sanity, rather. She couldn't stand it anymore, knowing that criminals like him --shameless, pathetic humans like him-- would go about walking in the free world, happy, well-fed, and spoiled.

"You are a tiny, pathetic brat," Crump chuckled, the three remaining suits beside him agreeing mutely. "Do what you will-- you will not leave this office alive."

"Keep laughing, bastard," Téa hissed. "But I warn you-- it's never wise to piss a girl off when she's on her damn PERIOD!" This time, Téa took the chair and shoved it from where she stood, unexpectedly barreling it right into Crump and knocking the wind out of him. Before the other three suits could advance on her, she snatched one of the other chairs the now-unconscious suits once sat in, and hefted it up-- slamming the blunt end of the wheels into one of their rib cages-- and doing the same to the final duo, her actions lightning-quick.

Two down, and two out for the count-- the latest duo struggling with labored breathing and fractured ribs. The other suit clutched his chest and then tried to hold onto one of the chairs for support, only to have it abruptly wheel away from him. He went slamming into the floor with a loud thump, and didn't move after that.

Only Crump was left. Fat and winded as he was, he could do nothing but stare at Téa in mute astonishment.

"Do what you will," Crump repeated in that raspy voice of his, "you won't succeed. You, your fool boyfriend, or his idiot brother! They are both disgusting, pitiful excuses for humans, as are you and your tittering group of friends!"

"Shut up," Téa warned him in a low voice.

Forget the chairs. Forget bruising her knuckles or dirtying her skin. As rage boiled up in her blood, there was nothing more that Téa wanted to do right now than sock Crump right in the face...

* * *

"You sure this is the place?" Joey hollered, running after Kaiba as fast as his legs could carry him.

The two of them sped through Domino into downtown, where all the high-rise financial office buildings were. Joey only knew because he'd made deliveries there for his job-- but it wasn't as though he recognized any of the places, or thought them the headquarters of a gang of evil masterminds.

But then again, the Big Five had tried to defeat **them** in a virtual dueling environment and failed miserably-- they certainly weren't masterminds.

Evil, yeah. Criminals, sure. But masterminds?

Kaiba didn't bother responding to Joey; he took one quick scan of the interior of the white, wide open lobby and spotted the stairwell. The building used to house Crump Financial, but since a warrant had been issued for the Big Five's arrest, Kaiba hadn't wasted any time closing down their subsidiaries and branches of his own company-- shifting the employees to other divisions of Kaiba Corp., after submitting each and every one of them to thorough background checks.

The police already conducted searches of every one of the Big Five's office headquarters and branch offices, leaving the buildings abandoned and for sale... but not completely locked down or out, especially to people who wanted a place "right before everyone's eyes" in which to hide.

It made sense that Crump returned here --Kaiba was sure of it, the feeling rooted deep inside him. 'Everything lost is always in the last place you look,' or something like that. Of course it was-- why keep searching for something after you'd found it? Crump, like the other Big Five, doubtless stayed hidden while the police searched his buildings-- and then returned there, knowing that the police wouldn't.

Joey was heaving before he even reached the door. "Can't we just take the elevator?" he panted out, clutching the door with a trembling arm.

"Would you take the damn elevator if Valentine were the one with those slimebags?"

Joey froze in the doorway, his expression melting into one of fierce determination. Kaiba be damned-- even though he was probably aware that Joey hadn't yet resolved things with Mai, he knew just what to say about her to make that fierce overprotectiveness come over him again. Just like at Battle City, when Marik had stolen her very mind...

Glad Kaiba hadn't added a rude remark about panting like a dog, Joey slammed the door to the stairwell shut, bounding after Kaiba as he took the stairs two-by-two.

* * *

"You killed my parents. You destroyed my entire life. You tried to kill my friends, and you tried to hurt my new family. For that, you deserve to die." Téa kept advancing on Crump, forcing him to back closer and closer to the panel of windows on the far side of the room, facing the busy downtown streets-- some twenty floors below.

"Are you going to throw me out the window, like your precious boyfriend did to **his **father?" Crump wiped the corner of his mouth, leaking saliva due to the way he was breathing so hard. He still couldn't catch his breath...

Téa stilled, but only for an instant. She'd tried to forget about the more recent painful times-- encounters with ghosts, and harsh words exchanged with the man she loved over his darkened past.

"Gozaburo wasn't Seto's father," Téa stated coolly, "and he didn't push him. Gozaburo **jumped**." This she knew for a fact-- she'd faced Gozaburo Kaiba's malicious spirit, after all, and nearly died trying to discover the truth about what kept him tied to the mortal plane.

Crump scowled at this reminder, likely having idealized Gozaburo into some sort of hero, with Seto as the ungrateful, villainous son who'd destroyed an old man's dream.

If there weren't already so much blood on Crump's hands, a Téa of ages past might have pleaded with him, to find it in his heart to forgive Seto and Mokuba, to turn himself in. But he was beyond forgiveness, and at least somewhere in Téa's fragmented thoughts, he didn't deserve justice, either.

She was only a few meters from Crump now, her gaze focused and determined. They'd underestimated her in every single way, and now she was really going to bring them down.

"I think it's time I finished what my parents started, Crump," Téa hissed scathingly.

But before she could take another step, a hand snaked around her ankle and yanked down on her hard, sending her crashing to the ground. The full weight of a very angry, disgruntled lackey suddenly impressed itself on Téa, and that fear that once welled in her earlier returned full force.

_'Oh... crap.'_

* * *

Kaiba flung open the thick double doors on the uppermost floor of Crump Financial with a loud bang-- but the reverberations didn't make a single impression on anyone or anything present. He surveyed the place with narrowed, steel-blue eyes, discovering but one thing: the place was empty.

Joey emerged from the stairwell a moment later, heaving in great gulps of air while resting his palms on bent knees. It didn't take him long to realize that the top floor was just as empty as the lobby, and every other silent, ghostly floor they'd passed since.

"Well, Moneybags?"

"He's hiding in here somewhere, I'm sure of it."

Joey rolled his eyes. Many things irritated Joey, but one of the things at the top of his list were people that just couldn't be wrong, even with the truth right in front of their faces. _'Pompous ass,'_ Joey gritted. But Kaiba knew the Big Five better than anyone else... and if **he** was wrong, then where were they to start looking for Téa? They had no other clues to go on.

"Olly olly oxen free! Come out, come out, wherever you are!" Joey called in a singsong, cupping a hand by his mouth. When no answer came, Joey fixed Kaiba with a bemused stare, complete with raised eyebrow. Kaiba did not look amused.

"That's not what I meant, you chimp." Kaiba glanced around the office one more time. A moderate reception area, with a dapple-gray counter where the receptionist used to sit. A pseudo-wood board in the rear of the desk still read in gold-spackled letters 'Crump Financial.' The F was oddly tilted, as if...

Kaiba moved toward the sign, examining the letter with careful scrutiny. After a moment, he had it.

"Wheeler, step back. Over by that plant." Joey was busy tugging on the doors; no luck, every single one of them was locked. If Téa was up here, there had to be another way to get to her. But where?

It was funny Kaiba hadn't noticed it before; if everything else in the office had been cleared out, why not the potted fern? The same applied to the letters still left on the reception area sign. They were concealing something.

"Don't you tell me what to do, you--"

"WHEELER! I'm trying to save Téa, if you don't mind. Either be a good 'sidekick' like you said you'd be and shut up and do what I say, or tuck your tail between your legs and get out of here!" Kaiba snapped.

Joey shut up promptly, though he grumbled all the way to the plant. He didn't understand why Kaiba was ordering him to stand there in the first place...

"Brr... weird. Why's it so cold right here?" Joey muttered.

"What did you say?" Kaiba snapped.

"Nothin'!"

"No," Kaiba tried again, changing the angered tone of his voice somewhat, "I meant, could you repeat what you just said," a pause, "please?"

Joey stared at Kaiba, baffled, and carefully repeated his words: "Uh, weird. Why's it so cold, right here?"

"Bingo!" Kaiba snapped his fingers and shoved down on the F hard-- he was rewarded with an instant clicking sound, and then a gust of wind startled Joey from his position beside the plant-- and instead he leaped into it, clutching the fern for dear life.

Kaiba smirked and moved toward the newly revealed doorway, aware of the ticking sound echoing in its depths; the door was on a timer, which meant if he didn't go through now, it'd be a long while before he could get through again.

_'So... Gozaburo wasn't the only one with secret passageways,'_ Kaiba thought grimly stepping into the darkness without hesitation. _'We'll see what else you're hiding, you snakes.' _

It was next to impossible to see in the blackness, so Kaiba pulled out his always-present cell phone, using its LCD screen as a flashlight. It served its purpose well enough; with it, Kaiba was able to see exactly where he was going and when they were approaching a new wall or door. Once they reached the first door with an odd puzzle acting as the key to its unlocking, Kaiba glanced briefly at his phone once more-- December 10th. Merely two days since Téa's birthday, only two nights they'd spent in each others' arms, and **this** had to happen.

Wouldn't they ever get a moment of peace?

Joey trailed after him, the two of them encountering more and more riddles-- each of them on a timer of sorts. The length of time required for each entry puzzle grew shorter and shorter, leaving Kaiba wondering how the Big Five put up with going through these passages if it was all so much trouble. The slightest amount of doubt crept into his mind; what if this was yet another one of their elaborate traps?

No, but it couldn't be. The Big Five were snakes, the lot of them-- devious, cunning... but in these most recent years, lazy. There had to be an easier way to get through these halls; Kaiba just didn't know what it was.

The minutes ticked on, the incessant beeping of the concealed timer slowly growing faster, and wearing away on Kaiba's nerves, his fingers constantly slipping and the synapses in his brain firing all too fast. Everything was blurred and hazy, and none of the patterns made any sense... he just needed to find her, to get to Téa before...

"You know," Joey began casually, the first time he'd spoken since he and Kaiba entered the secret passageway, "brains are good and all, but every now and then, brawn has its advantages." He shot a cocky grin at Kaiba and then rammed his shoulder into the final doorway. To Kaiba's astonishment, the doorway shuddered.

Joey looked at him, still smirking as he leaned on the doorway. "On three?"

Kaiba couldn't refrain from the sly smile that crept up his lips

. "One--"

"Two--" Joey returned his gaze to the door, his expression deadly serious as he stiffened his muscles and readied for a brute attack. That was always something the two of them had in common, even if they never saw it: they were 'beatdown' kind of guys, enjoying the direct approach above all else. Right now, they couldn't get any more direct than they already were... because they were officially out of time.

* * *

"You sniveling, double-crossing--"

Before the man pinning her down could finish, Téa curled her tongue in her mouth and did something that Joey would have been proud of --though undoubtedly astonished that she'd copied. She hacked back a mouthful of saliva and spit right into the lackey's exposed eye. Temporarily blinded, Téa used the chance to wriggle downward in an attempt to escape, but the man sensed her movements and pressed down on her once more. Barely able to move, let alone breathe, Téa knew she had only one choice now...

Though it pained her to do so, she rubbed her wrist against the rough carpeting, sliding the nail file concealed by her sleeves up into her palm...

With one quick movement, she snapped her arm from its sleeve and stabbed down --hard-- on the heavyset man's hand. He bellowed in pain, rolling over and off her. Téa heaved, catching her breath and sliding her arm back into its proper sleeve, unwilling to give Crump anymore of a free show than he'd already gotten. The man she'd stabbed clutched his hand for a few moments, staring wide-eyed and pale. Then, his eyes rolled back in his head at the sight of his own blood, and he passed out entirely, joining his companions on the floor.

"Oh right, where-- were-- we?" Téa bit out venomously, throwing her own version of a sneer at Crump.

"N-Now listen--" Now alone and unguarded, Crump obviously thought twice about Téa being his hostage. It seemed now that the roles were reversed, and this agile young beauty, daughter of the genius duo that had very nearly brought down the Big Five's entire organization had more than proved her worth.

Crump immediately started to look around for some way to escape or defend himself, but all the chairs were scattered about the room, Téa's nail file, now bloodied after being embedded in one of his suits' hands, lay useless on the floor a good two meters away. All that was left was him, Téa, and a glass window leading out to the street kilometers below.

Crump tripped and fell backward on the floor right as Téa closed the space between them; she favored him with a cold stare and grabbed him by the tie around his throat, forcing him up while he struggled for air.

"Oh Crump?" Téa chuckled, a sickening sense of sweetness in her voice. She didn't hear the secret door in the wall across the room open, nor did she feel the gust of cold air. She didn't even hear the shrill beeping of the automatically-timed door lock, slamming shut as quickly as it opened, or the terrified gasps of Kaiba and Joey as they entered the room at last.

"This? Nothing personal." And with that, Téa sent a tightly-clenched fist straight toward Crump's pudgy face, an audible snap signaling that she'd broken his nose. Crump gagged for a moment, one of his hands clutching at his tie, his throat, and then at his chest. Then, he collapsed bonelessly on the floor. Téa dropped his tie, releasing his dead weight, and took a deep breath.

Kaiba and Joey stood across from her, their eyes wide with astonishment. Even more surprising, though, was the fact that it was Kaiba's mouth hanging open as he noticed the indisposed special police scattered across the floor-- one of them passed out with a bloody hand, and the others unconscious, with two of them clutching their chests in agony.

It was Joey who spoke first, his voice almost indignant: "Those were my moves!"

Téa finally noticed the boys' presence, but she didn't say anything as her eyes finally took in some light, and brightened back to their usual hue.

"Téa, are you-- are you all ri--" Kaiba began hesitantly, but Téa just marched right past him, her cheeks red and streaked with tears.

"I'm **fine**! Just DANDY!" she hollered, zipping up her shirt. Kaiba and Joey caught only a momentary flash of her camisole, Kaiba's cheeks reddening briefly before his body caught up with his mind and he made to dash after Téa, about to follow her out the normal doorway-- one of the doors leading into a hallway connected to the main floor, locked from within.

Kaiba exchanged a glance with Joey, who only shrugged.

"Want I should call the cops?" Joey asked. Kaiba only nodded, heading out of the room at a quick trot.

"Hey, Domino Police? Yeah, I'm up on the top floor of Crump Financial-- there's some most-wanted guys beat up here I think ya gonna wanna arrest."

* * *

"I just want to go home."

Téa sounded utterly exhausted, and rightfully so; she'd just beaten six full-grown men to the ground, and now, with police sirens wailing in the distance, she knew that justice would be served-- at last. There was no way that Crump and his men could escape now.

_'One down, four to go. Just... not now.'_

"Uh yeah... about that," Joey began unsurely. He gestured to Tristan's motorcycle. It had been hard enough keeping hold of Kaiba during their wild bike ride --and technically, even with the older boy legitimately licensed, they'd still done something very illegal by not wearing helmets. They couldn't exactly hope for an encore of that performance **and** take Téa home. "How we gonna do this?"

Kaiba looked to Téa and back again; he didn't want to leave her, but of the three of them, he was the only one who could ride the bike back to the mansion, where he promised he'd return the bike to Tristan. He wasn't about to leave the bike in the middle of downtown, either-- he wanted to avoid any confrontations with the police after that whole framing scandal... Not to mention the fact that he owed Tristan.

Seto Kaiba hated being in **anyone's** debt.

Joey scratched behind his ear, looking at Téa leaning tiredly on Seto, who seemed to be contemplating a course of action. He finally swallowed and mumbled out an idea. "You just take her home, okay? I'll uh... grab a bus or something and meet you back at the mansion in a couple of hours, huh? Just take care of her, okay?"

"Wheeler--" Kaiba began, a protest forming on his lips. But why was he objecting? Wheeler: leaving. Wasn't that supposed to be a good thing? Alone with Téa, time to talk, time to make sure she was safe, and healthy, and...

"Joey, don't," Téa whispered hoarsely. "Seto, just call one of the chauffeurs. Joey and I will take the limo, and you can ride back alongside us."

Well... it was probably the best idea. It meant that if Seto was seen roaring down the streets of Domino without his helmet on, the fine would be less-- after all, he wouldn't be endangering Téa while he was at it. And lately, any situations revolving around him inadvertently endangered her too, and Seto had more than enough of that...

"All right."

Joey was astonished by how easily Kaiba acquiesced, but said nothing; for the most part, they'd worked well together today, even though in the end, it had been Téa who did the most work out of all of them. They still had a **lot** to talk to her about, that was for sure.

* * *

Téa's spirits seemed to have brightened tenfold during her ride back home to the mansion, though Kaiba couldn't begin to fathom why. Obviously she and Wheeler had spoken of something in the car that he wasn't going to be privy to; the two of them only smiled and grinned at him, with Téa muttering something incomprehensible under her breath. He didn't even think to associate it with what Mokuba had told him earlier --something about that bet he'd won when he 'lost' his duel with Téa some months ago.

Yugi, Duke, Tristan and Mokuba all welcomed Téa back warmly, glad to know she was safe-- though Yugi, amazingly astute for someone who tended to be toward the bottom of the class rankings, noticed Téa's bruised wrists and neck, and the smatterings of blood on her slightly-opened blouse.

"Are you sure you're okay, Téa? You don't want to just sit down and rest, and let us take care of everything?"

Kaiba frowned; though the whole school pretty much knew that he and Téa were a couple now, that certainly didn't mean her friends could invite themselves into his home and do whatever they pleased. But...

"No, it's all right, really, Yugi. Thank you. I just... I want to rest a bit, and grab something to eat." Téa grinned, "I didn't eat lunch, actually."

Yugi bobbed his head in silent agreement, along with Duke and Tristan, he started to head out the front gate, offering only a slight wave in greeting and thanks to Kaiba.

"Joey, aren't you coming?"

"Er, uh--"

"Joey and I have got to talk some more, guys," Téa called back to them. "Don't worry, we'll give you the full report later on!"

Yugi seemed baffled, glancing at Kaiba to see what his reaction to all this was. But Kaiba had schooled his face into remaining perfectly expressionless-- only letting his frustration and confusion show when his back was turned to Yugi and his other pals. Well, it wasn't as if he could put up much of a fight-- he had to admit, 'sidekick' Joey **had** helped him save Téa.

Well... sort of. Téa hadn't really **needed** saving.

So... what was going on here?

* * *

Night fell on Domino at long last, and after a heated argument between Kaiba and Téa regarding Mokuba's won bet (during which the aforementioned child and Joey sat back and watched, amusement playing across their faces), Kaiba finally agreed to let Mokuba go through with his 'condition' for winning: having Joey stay over for an entire week.

Joey didn't seem to mind this arrangement at all; it meant he'd not only get to stay in the most posh mansion in all of Domino, but he'd get free meals, daily hot showers, guaranteed clean clothing, and access to the most high-tech equipment Japan had to offer. Plus, he would get to spend time with Téa and Mokuba-- while he terrorized Seto.

Still, the timing wasn't right just yet. Joey knew that if he stayed away from his father for that long, when he finally went home, he'd be in for a sound beating and then some. He weakly promised Téa and Mokuba that he'd get back to them with an exact date when he could stay, but he couldn't promise anything just yet. Doubt and fear flitted past Téa's eyes; only she knew what Joey's father was like, from a brief visit to his run-down apartment a very long time ago.

Mokuba finally went to sleep, pleased that he'd gotten his way, while the trio of teenagers remained awake. Seto agreed to order some take-out-- pizza of Joey's choice, much to the blond's delight. While Seto quietly cut up his slice, Joey shoveled whole pieces into his mouth, as Téa looked on with a wide grin.

She took a short sip of her canned iced tea before turning to Joey. "Have you patched things up with Mai yet?"

Seto wanted to smirk, but he caught a reprimanding stare from Téa before his lips could even curl. He sulked in his chair, keeping silent.

Joey sank down in his own chair, heedless of his posture or his becoming hangdog expression. "Nah. I mean, after what happened--"

"What **did** happen, Joey? I don't get it-- why'd you blow up at her at my party?" she looked a little hurt, remembering how Joey had accused Mai of lying to him, and then they'd yelled out on the patio for a good five minutes. Then, Mai came in alone, gave Téa her present, and left without looking back once. Téa hadn't seen her since.

"Look, I kinda knew in my gut that Kaiba was the one you were goin' out with, okay? I jus'... didn't want to accept it. It didn't feel right! But Mai kept on tellin' me, over and over, 'what are you talkin' about, she hates him, she'd never live with him, she'd never lie to you...'" Joey trailed off, staring hard at his hands, clenched on his lap.

"She was trying to protect me," Téa whispered softly. "I... I didn't think you guys could handle knowing. That-- that was before I even knew how I felt. So much has happened since then, Joey--"

"I know!" he yelled. He glanced up, seeing startled expressions on both Seto and Téa's faces. His voice dropped a level, "I know. It's not what she said though-- it's the fact that she lied to me. You know, I've always known there's a difference between omitting the truth and lying. She outright lied to me, when she could have... well, done what you did, and just kinda dodged the truth!"

Téa's cheeks abruptly turned a pink hue; "You actually think I did the **right** thing?"

"In the grand scheme a'things, yeah! I just... man, if I can't trust her when I'm worried about my own friends, what can I trust her with? Téa, I already told her I--"

Joey stopped, as if suddenly realizing that the stoic statue sitting beside him was, in fact, alive. Seto only blinked owlishly at Joey, obviously curious and wanting him to continue. He didn't know why-- it wasn't as though Wheeler's personal life fascinated him any, but if the mutt was going to be here a week, there was probably no avoiding it. Better get used to hearing it all now... But Joey only clammed up, pursed his lips together and dropped his head into his folded arms.

"You love her, don't you?" Téa blurted, her voice tinged with desperation. Wasn't that what they all wanted in the end --to be wanted and adored-- loved?

Seto sat, listening to all of this silently. **He** still couldn't tell Téa that he loved her, because part of himself doubted that it was really true. And especially after today, Seto Kaiba refused to be dishonest to someone he cared about, when it would only put them in danger.

Joey nodded glumly, and proceeded to bang his head on the table many times. Seto abruptly growled under his breath, and Téa squeaked in surprise, hauling Joey up out of his chair.

"Joey!" she hissed angrily, "you'll wake up Mokuba!" She quieted a bit and then spoke again, sitting on the arm of the nearby couch, "Look, you've got to know something--"

"I don't need to know nothin' about it, Téa! She... she can lie to me so easily, but then, she's all lettin' me get all close to her, and we did-- I mean, we got to this point where I thought I could trust her, and I thought maybe she'd come around and tell **me** how she felt, but no! All she's doin' is lyin'!"

"Joey, will you **listen** to me for once? Geez, you men, you're so hotheaded!" Téa sighed in exasperation. "Remember that week where I was... living elsewhere?"

"With Mai, you mean?" Joey put in blandly. "When Moneybags here was bein' a jerk to you after you'd hauled him outta jail?"

"Wheeler..." Seto growled under his breath, but again Téa shot him a look. This one, however, was almost pleading, and filled with exhaustion. She simply didn't want to deal with the two boys getting into a testosterone brawl right now... and Seto had to respect that, after everything she'd been through and done for him.

"Yes. Look, while I was there, I learned a lot about Mai that you might not even know. I'm sure you've uh... **stayed over **at her place before," Téa said, though her non-usage of the choice words for this situation only made things all the more apparent for Seto, the outsider, "but I don't think you've really looked around."

Téa's voice quieted as she remembered Mai's saddening story. "Did you know she used to dance, like me?" Before Joey could answer --though if the surprised look on his face were any indication, Téa already knew what he would have said-- she continued. "Matter of fact, she even used to go to Domino High. It was her old uniform that I wore that first day I came back, and it was why it was a bit too... small for me," Téa laughed nonchalantly. "She probably did all her growing once she finished high school-- either that or she shrunk that uniform in the wash. Anyway, Mai had a best friend she was very close to-- but who betrayed her for Mai's first love."

"Wh-- I don't get it."

Seto too, seemed to lack understanding, though he, like Joey, sat enraptured.

"Mai was in love with a man at her school. And yes, I said **man**. He was a teacher at the time, but a very young one. Since Mai was a third year, she hoped they could be together after she graduated, but things didn't work out like that. All the signs that seemed to point that this man was falling for Mai turned out to be misdirected-- he was already involved with her best friend, and neither of them had told her, even though they'd all worked together to form DPAC."

"Your dancing school?" Seto put in abruptly, his eyebrows knit together.

Téa nodded, "That's right. Mai, Fran, and Vincent were the original founding members-- but Mai found out about Fran and Vincent's little 'affair' on DPAC's debut night, and she ran off. She didn't speak to them after that, and vowed not to have anything to do with dance or back-stabbing guys again. Can you see why she's a little bit reluctant to open herself up to you, Joey?" Téa finished.

In her own personal way, Téa could relate. Her first real 'heavy' love had been Yami --and that crush had caused a mess of confusion, desire, and anxiety. Shortly after Battle City, Téa spent many days alone, thinking about what she could do for this boy pharaoh in her best friend's body. And it was then that it hit her-- it wasn't her best friend that she loved at all, but the pharaoh within him. The pharaoh who was incorporeal except for when he took over Yugi's body, the pharaoh who was naught but a spirit. Dead.

Day by day, her love ebbed away upon realizing this, upon coming to the conclusion that she could never have Yami and hurt Yugi in that way. She didn't love Yugi, after all --not** that **way.

She wanted to block out any future chance of that sort of painful love ever happening again-- but how? People didn't simply shut themselves away from the outside world and all possible influences, least of all people like Téa -- an adventure-seeker. So she'd gone on living her life until the death of her parents... and in the course of a few weeks, her whole life --and heart-- changed forever.

Someday, she was sure Joey would get through to Mai, in the same way Kaiba had unwittingly gotten through to her. Somehow, Mai would realize that Joey's intentions were pure and that after all this time, he really did **love **her, simple as that.

Joey finally got around to admitting everything --about his suspicions about Kaiba and Téa from the get-go, and the signs that neither of them realized had been there. Likewise, he spoke of Mai and how much he cared for her-- going back to their first meeting at Duelist Kingdom, again in the Big Five's hacked virtual world, and again in Battle City. Back then, Mai had very nearly lost her life, and it was then that Joey realized how much she meant to him.

After the 'RPG Incident,' a simple walk home had turned into a first kiss, while Kaiba finally resolving his differences with Téa that one night at DV8 had led to Joey's first time with Mai.

"She didn't make you sleep on the couch?" Téa uttered, shock written in her eyes.

Joey flushed to the roots of his hair, "Téa, how much clearer are ya gonna make me say it?"

"She made **me** sleep on the couch!" Téa protested, although Kaiba, fully understanding of Joey's implications, smothered his laughter.

"Joey," Téa finally restarted later on, after her friend had spilled his guts about everything, "I wasn't supposed to tell you about Fran, or Vincent, or any of that stuff. And I don't like bringing it up at school, where Chieko is, or around Serenity. Both of them are in DPAC with me, both of them know, admire, and respect Mai and... I really don't want that to change. But if you love her like you say you do, then..." Téa pressed her hand to Joey's, twining their fingers together.

Kaiba spotted this gentle gesture, a spark of jealousy flaring in the back of his mind. He remembered Joey admitting that in their first year, he'd harbored a deep --though temporary-- crush on Téa. But... Joey had just spouted about how in love he was with Mai. And Seto knew that Téa loved him wholeheartedly. So why was he feeling jealous and overprotective, when it was plain there was no reason to be?

_'Maybe...'_

But maybe not. Seto was simply not sure how he felt, and even if he had the slightest inkling, he wouldn't go gushing it in front of Wheeler. Not in a hundred million years.

"Both of you need each other, Joey," Téa whispered softly. "I know it. I can see it in both of your eyes. Believe me, I **know** what it's like to suffer like that, loving someone so much and not being able to say it. Instead, you get into arguments and fights, and..." she glanced lovingly at Seto, "that never helps matters. But if you say that you love someone..." Téa's hand slipped away from Joey's as she looked at Seto, walking toward him without blinking, her lips curving into a sweet smile, "then their whole world just might change."

Seto stood rigid, his thoughts still torn between deciding what he felt for Téa --why he was jealous of her relationship with Joey, Yugi, and even Tristan and Duke-- and the implications Téa made while speaking to Joey. He didn't hug Téa back: for some reason his arms felt like leaden weights, stiff at his sides. Long ago, he'd grudgingly admitted that Joey was a decent duelist, and that meant Seto had to deal with him in one particular manner: never revealing any weaknesses, always treating him like the potential rival he was.

And if for just one minute, Joey saw him let his guard down and reveal **any** feeling-- it would all be over.

Joey sighed loudly and dramatically. "Téa, I have yet to prove you wrong at anything, don't I?"

Téa smiled and nuzzled Seto with a soft yawn, heedless that he wasn't really holding her back, "Probably. Oh... I'm sorry, I'm just so tired..."

"Yeah, you would be, after puttin' all those moves I taught ya to good use. Nice work today, Téa."

"Thanks--" Téa grinned cockily as she stepped away from Kaiba, a hand on her hip. She raised an eyebrow at Joey, smirking in a certain way. Joey mimicked her stance and raised his hand --Kaiba was about to move forward and stop Joey, if he thought he was going to do anything to Téa-- but instead, the two of them bumped hips and high-fived each other in an elaborate fashion-- slap, turn, click, fists connect, and then clap! Téa and Joey laughed after the whole process was over, leaving a stupefied Kaiba blinking in their wake.

Joey headed toward the door, offering a jaunty wave to the couple as he walked out. "Thanks for dinner tonight, Kaiba! And uh... yeah, thanks." It looked like there may have been more Joey wanted to say --maybe a thank you for something more than dinner-- but the words didn't come. Joey closed the door with a click, and dashed away into the night.

"I'm... heading to bed," Téa murmured sleepily, heading upstairs. Seto still gazed out one of the windows beside the door, staring at the moonlit front yard, and the wrought iron gate that separated the Kaiba mansion from the rest of the neighborhood-- no, the rest of the world.

Seto allowed himself a private smirk as he watched Téa disappear into his bedroom --the bedroom they'd shared for two nights now-- but his mind wasn't actually on her-- it was on Wheeler.

_'Friends?'_

Seto had a different sort of relationship with Mokuba. And an altogether different one with Téa. Brothers. Lovers.

All that was left was... friends.

After today, was that what he and Joey were?

_'Me and the mutt? Preposterous.'_

But Seto Kaiba was smiling as he flicked the lights off and finally went to bed that cool December night.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Keep your eyes peeled for more chapters coming soon (and I do mean soon)!
> 
> Happy Kwanrisdanukahulevus, or whatever you might celebrate!
> 
> Check my LJ or Darkness Rising's Official WDKY Page for Review Replies, and my FFnet image for a sneaky (albeit small-- though not my fault!) spoiler profile image for the next chapter!
> 
> Hugs, kisses, and many thanks to you and yours throughout the coming new year!
> 
> \--Azurite


	16. Bah, Humbug!

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> It's winter in Domino, but not all is as it seems. There's a new transfer student at the high school, a play to be put on, and a mystery afoot! All Téa wants is for it to snow!

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> **What Doesn't Kill You  
> Chapter 15: Bah, Humbug  
> A Yu-Gi-Oh Fanfiction**  
> **By:** Azurite - azurite AT fanfiction DOT net  
> **Site: **azurite DOT incandesce DOT org  
> **Conceptualized/First Written:** 12/21/04  
> **Completed/Final Edit: **1/28/05  
> **Posted: **2/9/05 - Sorry for the long delay. My excuse? School. - Tool of the Negaverse, I tell you! (whoops, wrong fandom.)
> 
> **Don't Forget!** If you'd like to know what I have to say to your reviews, check out the official WDKY page at Darkness Rising, and click on 'Review Replies.' Alternatively, you can check my LiveJournal and go to my Memories/Azurite's Fanfiction section. I'll eventually add a Review Replies section as well, so if you see that, check there!
> 
> **By the way...** the R rating still holds for this fic, and every chapter. This one is rated R for mild language.

"We're all going to die horrible, horrible deaths!"

Ten pairs of eyes turned to look at the speaker, who tossed his hand over his eyes in a thoroughly dramatic fashion.

"Will you stop being such a drama queen?"

"But that's my job!" the young man protested, staring at his classmates from the space between his fingers. "Besides," he continued, "wouldn't **you** care to be just a skosh bit dramatic, knowing that despite all our accolades and hit performances, the Domino High drama department is one show closer to going under?"

"Gee Shunsuke, I never knew you were such an optimist," another boy drawled sarcastically from the auditorium seats.

Shunsuke and the other members of the Domino High Drama Club were all meeting at their usual time, in the usual place- despairing about the usual thing: the fact that they were severely under funded, despite all the awards they'd gotten in the past, from last-minute, haphazard shows. Emergencies such as the one facing them now always proved to be to the Drama Club's benefit, but not this time- not a single one of them had an idea for a production that could possibly carry the club into the Spring semester.

"Well we've got to do something," a girl sitting on the stage pointed out reasonably. "Why don't we try to coordinate some kind of effort with the other visual and performing arts clubs?"

"Well, let's see," Shunsuke stood up and began pacing the "pit" area where the club sat, "there's the Choir Club, and not a single one of them wants anything to do with us. Even when we tried to work a musical out, to get some of their members interested, they shunned us. Then there's the art and design clubs, but they only want to work with us if we've already got good ideas in mind for sets and costumes- none of them want to act. Orchestra and Band are only interested in helping us out if we have a guaranteed audience big enough to split profits with them. Do I even _need_ to mention the more exclusive clubs, like the Poetry and Haiku Club, the Jazz Band, the Strings Ensemble, or the Pop Music Club?"

"What about the Dance Club?" someone in the rear piped up. Eyes widened and faces brightened at the mention of the new, highly-successful organization.

"Yeah, that's right! There's plenty of girls in it that would be willing to work with us- all we have to do is talk to Téa or that Chieko girl!"

Shunsuke didn't look convinced. "What's to stop either one of them from doing what all the other clubs have done and reject us flat?"

The girl sitting on the stage shook her head vehemently, "Neither one of them is like that, I'm sure of it. They're both such nice girls, and Téa's a creative genius when it comes to dance numbers- I'm sure we can think of something that her Club will want to participate in!"

"That's the other big problem," Shunsuke sighed, flopping down in his chair once more. "We **still** don't have an idea for what to do! We're less than two weeks away from Christmas Day, which means we're beyond pressed for ideas here!"

"Uhm-" a quiet voice in the rear of the auditorium piped up. No one heard the small boy speak. Akane, the girl sitting on the stage and vice-president to Shunsuke's "Director" position of the club noticed however, and she signaled everyone to be quiet so the boy could stand up and be heard.

"Well, well," the boy began, twisting his fingers together, "I- I know I'm just a first year, but but... Mi-Miss Ninomiya likes to showcase good stories written by students in her English c-classes. M-Maybe we can ad-adapt one of them fo- for the stage?"

Shunsuke glanced at Akane, who looked contemplative. Then her face broke out into a wide smile, "That's a great idea! We'll ask her if she's got any top recommendations, and then we can contact the author to see if they'd be willing to help us out!"

The boy looked astonished that they liked his idea, and soon everyone was chattering away.

Someone else piped up, "What about a holiday-themed story? Everyone likes those this time of year, right?"

"Yeah!" More people hollered, excited by the prospect of their sole performance finally coming to fruition.

"Okay! We've got a game plan, ladies and gents- let's do this!"

* * *

"Recommendations, you say?" Miss Ninomiya, always the cool, composed teacher, raised an eyebrow. "Truthfully, I changed my curriculum, and I don't have any story submissions from this year." The drama students looked crestfallen, afraid that their best and only idea had been shot down before it could even get up in the air.

"BUT," Miss Ninomiya smiled in that mysterious, coy way of hers, "I do have some excellent works that fit your description." She opened one of the heavy metal drawers in her desk, pulling out a thin manila folder. She picked out a select few papers contained therein, and handed the short stack to Shunsuke, who beamed.

"Look them over, and if you like any of them, talk to the students. If you need help finding them, I believe all of the writers are currently enrolled in my second-year English course."

"Thank you very much, Miss Ninomiya!" Shunsuke grinned broadly, practically skipping out of her classroom. Akane was kind enough to remember to bow politely to the teacher, before she too dashed off.

A few moments later, the two of them sat in plush, foam-gushing chairs sitting center-stage in the auditorium. They each had a stack of three stories, all of them several pages long.

"Hey, you won't believe this," Akane grinned widely, "but one of the stories here was written by Téa Gardner herself!"

"Oh? Is it any good?"

"Well, I've only skimmed the first few pages," Akane admitted, "but it sure is an interesting idea. It's a modern adaptation of Charles Dickens's 'A Christmas Carol.'"

"A modern version hm?" Shunsuke's interest looked mildly piqued. "Go on."

"Funny thing is, she used names of all her friends- so if we really wanted, we could cast them, and everyone would be perfectly in-character."

Shunsuke looked startled. "Let me see that."

He read over the script intently, his mouth set in a tight line. Eventually he broke out into a wide smile, and then laughter. "She's got Seto Kaiba as Scrooge!"

"Yeah, and she's the equivalent of Belle! Funny thing though," Akane mused, "she wrote this before they started going out."

"Officially," Shunsuke reminded her with a raised finger. "They could have been seeing each other behind the whole school's back without anyone even knowing!"

"That's impossible," Akane stated firmly. "Not only are you always on top of all the hot gossip, but trust me- if they'd been going out in secret, one of Téa's friends would have told and spilled the beans to the rest of the whole school."

"I presume you're talking about the nephe- er, I mean, Joey Wheeler?" Shunsuke smirked, referring to Joey's role in Téa's story: Seto's happy-go-lucky best friend. The original story had him as Scrooge's erstwhile young nephew by the name of Fred, but Téa must have realized that such a relationship wouldn't work for her story, so she kept Joey's name and changed his role to suit her story's purposes.

"If this really was written a year ago, Téa sure had some strange ideas about the relationships between her friends," Akane grinned. "I mean, Kaiba as Scrooge I get, but why would someone as greedy as him even **have** a best friend?"

"You forget," Shunsuke pointed out idly, "we're talking about Téa Gardner. There's no one she doesn't make friends with."

"Don't tell me you didn't hear, then?" Akane asked, a devilish grin curling her lips.

"Hear what?" Shunsuke demanded, shifting in his chair so he was facing Akane, a determined expression on his face.

"Not long after the school festival, Téa fainted in class. When she came to, she got into this huge argument with Bakura outside of the nurse's office."

"Whoa, whoa- Bakura, as in Ryou Bakura, the 'too-hot British transfer student?' from earlier last year?"

"Bingo," Akane nodded. "I'm pretty sure they're not friends."

"Makes no sense," Shunsuke bit his thumbnail. "I just saw the two of them eating lunch together a while back."

Akane shrugged. "Maybe they got over their differences?"

"Hmph. Maybe. If Téa can find it in her heart to date Ebenezer Scrooge himself, then maybe she can forgive Bakura for whatever he said. Though he's so quiet all the time, I can't imagine him saying something to get Téa riled up. I thought she was everyone's darling?"

"Hah!" Akane laughed. "You didn't see her and Wheeler attacking the kendo club's training equipment a while back. She can be vicious if you give her the chance."

"BUT!" Shunsuke smiled, "She's supposedly much nicer when she gets her way, right? She just wants to be a star- so let's make her one. Come on."

And with that, Shunsuke dragged Akane out of the auditorium off to find Téa and make 'A Modern Christmas Carol' story come to life.

* * *

"Are you serious?" Téa stared at Shunsuke and Akane, still stretching with the rest of the Dance Club. They met during lunch time three days a week, and for two hours at a time after school on those same days, plus the occasional one-hour session on half-day Saturdays. All in all, the fledgling club was popular enough to warrant a very predictable schedule, which was excellent news for Shunsuke and Akane.

"One hundred percent, totally," Shunsuke affirmed. "We really like your story, and plus you're the co-President of the Dance Club. If your girls are interested in being overnight sensations..." Shunsuke trailed off, his words easily catching the attention of the surrounding Dance Club members. Akane subtly rolled her eyes, but Shunsuke just kept grinning.

"Gosh, I wrote that last year, back before-" Téa laughed, recalling how she'd cast Kaiba as Scrooge, and she as Belle, Scrooge's ex-girlfriend.

"Ironic, huh?" Akane grinned. "And in your story, you had an even happier ending for Scrooge- he gets back together with you."

"Don't tell me you want Seto to be part of this too, right? He'd laugh if he found out I'd written this all that about him, and last year, too..." The truth was, she'd written the story shortly after the Battle City tournament, and Téa's mind had been so frazzled, she had hardly completed any of her assignments until the last minute. An early December television screening of 'A Christmas Carol' prompted Téa to write her own version- but she found herself unable to erase recent events from her mind. So, she'd cast her friends -and everyone else she knew- as characters in her 'remake' of the popular holiday story. Surprisingly, the story was a hit with her picky English teacher, and Miss Ninomiya had kept it as one of her prize 'example' works.

"Well, of course!" Shunsuke said, surprising Akane and Téa. "Who better to play the grouchy workaholic than Mr. Seto Kaiba himself?"

Téa shook her head as she sighed, "Well, I'm in. But I hope you won't be sorry about bringing Seto into this because... well, I guess we'll all see, huh?"

* * *

"You've **got** to be kidding me, Téa," Seto stated flatly, giving his girlfriend a disbelieving look.

Téa shook her head vehemently, "No, I'm not. Please, Seto? Just give it a chance..."

"Can I at least read this script?" Seto asked blandly. "After all, if I'm going to be the lead character..." He allowed himself a private smirk, remembering Téa's description of the story and his role in it. He actually didn't mind being associated with Ebenezer Scrooge -_"A fine role model for any businessman"-_ or even having Yugi 'Bob Cratchit' Moto as his **underling**. But Téa told him little else, especially when it came to how she'd 'modernized' the classic tale and given it a "happier" ending.

Téa's face abruptly turned scarlet and she squeezed her eyes shut. She turned away, her face still burning bright. "Uhm, well, I still have to find Chieko so I'll get back to you with that-"

"You realize if you don't tell me what I need to know, I'll just find this Shunsuke character and ask him, right?" Seto pointed out, a smirk curling his lips.

Téa halted in her tracks, her cheeks still pink. "Oh... okay." She sat down and began, her voice starting out soft but quickly growing to a higher pitch and faster pace. "So it's basically a rewrite of Charles Dickens's 'A Christmas Carol,' but it takes place here in Domino during modern times, and you have to remember that I wrote this just after Battle City ended -what was it- eleven months ago? And well, anyway, my brain was just a bit frazzled from everything that happened, and I happened to be cramming for this assignment late at night, and they happened to be showing the movie 'A Christmas Carol' on TV, so I watched it and decided the ending wasn't happy enough, and I actually knew people kind of like those in the movie, so..."

"Téa-" Seto interrupted, but Téa kept going, much to Seto's frustration. _'Glare?'_ No, that didn't work. Téa wasn't even looking at him. _'Yell?'_ That would just get her angry, and frankly, Seto didn't want to put up with the additional embarrassment of getting into an argument with Téa with their classmates watching. _'Kiss her?'_ It was the most tempting of the three options- especially considering Seto wasn't paying attention to Téa's words so much as the way her lips moved as she babbled. But... he couldn't do it. For the same reason that he couldn't yell at her, he certainly couldn't **kiss** her, either. Their classmates were watching Téa prattle on and gesture wildly, mild amusement plain on their faces. Finally, Seto grabbed Téa's wrist mid-gesture, and she immediately stopped speaking.

"Slow down," Seto whispered under his breath. "And summarize the whole thing in a few sentences, instead of an epic speech, will you?"

Téa sighed, wrinkling her lips. "Sorry. Okay. So... well I basically cast all my friends in the roles- 'course, back then you weren't a real 'friend,' I guess, but I thought of you first when I thought of Scrooge," her cheeks turned pink again, "and I just kept going from there. There weren't many female roles, so I wrote myself in as Belle."

"So," Seto smirked, "you wrote yourself in as my ex-girlfriend, hmm?"

_'Shoot.'_ She'd been hoping he didn't know the story well enough to make that connection immediately. But this was Seto Kaiba- he could probably recite the entire story word-for-word, along with any of Shakespeare's works, and probably a bit of Freudian psychology while he was at it. Téa avoided telling Seto that she'd technically rewritten the play- and given Seto-Scrooge a happier ending by getting back together with her character.

_'He'll laugh. Or refuse. Or...'_ But he seemed to be in a pretty agreeable mood. If only she could get out of the classroom before he found out too much.

_'Let him figure out the ending once he gets the script!'_ Téa thought, a streak of determination flaring to life within her. The only catch was, Seto was staring at her, expecting an answer to his question.

Téa flushed an even deeper crimson, shaking her head. "Really, I didn't... you know I didn't think about you that way back then..." Rather, Yami had occupied almost every single one of her thoughts, romantic or otherwise. And when the whole Battle City tournament ended...

"Didn't you?" Seto only smiled in that triumphant way of his. "I did save your life, you know." He was, of course, talking about the time he used his Blue-Eyes White Dragon card to stop one of Marik's henchmen from crushing her under a two-ton crate at the edge of the Domino Harbor.

"We were even," Téa sniffed, not desiring to recall the period very much. However, Seto didn't seem to notice her reluctance in bringing up the subject, and continued on, looking perplexed.

"Even? What are you-"

"I saved Mokuba from those Rare Hunters. It's the same difference to you, isn't it" she asked rhetorically. "Now if you'll excuse me," she stood up, not giving Seto the chance to reply, "I'm going to find Chieko, now."

And with that, she dashed out of the room, leaving Seto Kaiba very confused and somewhat upset with himself.

An old feeling returned: why was it always around Téa things got so complicated?

* * *

Chieko Sagusa was about to look for Téa too, but a quick trip to the administrative offices left her with an entirely new goal: to show a brand new student around campus. Since it was lunch time, Chieko hoped to show the new student all the less-populated places, so that the areas crowded with people eating, practicing, or chatting away could be saved for another time. She felt proud just to have gotten used to Domino High enough to be considered for an important task as this one- helping a new student out.

She wanted to ask the transfer where he was from; she was from the United States, and Ryou Bakura, while born in Japan, was from London. This student had a rather exotic look to him; where could he possibly be from?

Curiosity overwhelmed Chieko, so much so that she didn't give finding Téa a second thought.

* * *

Hours passed before Téa had the heart and mind to coordinate with everyone; after she'd dashed away from Seto, she found herself unable to find Chieko. So, she retired to the quiet solitude of the roof, where she picked at her lunch. With her mind so full of Battle City, and how it was very nearly a year since it had ended, she found it very hard to concentrate, much less eat.

Her thoughts kept straying back to the fear that continually gurgled up within her whenever she considered that time- almost on par with her parents' death, in relation to the fear she felt compacted into a single period.

After the bell rang, she'd finally resolved not to think further on it; Seto had no idea why the subject of his infamous tournament upset her so, and there was no reason to let it haunt her. She returned to her classes, speaking with Yugi, Joey, and Tristan during their breaks. All of the boys seemed amused by the idea of Téa's story being turned into a play, and they agreed -though with a certain measure of reluctance on all their parts- to help out in whatever way they could.

By the time the final bell rang that day, Téa hadn't spoken to Seto any more than she had at lunch.

"Téa!" Chieko bounded through the crowds, somehow appearing graceful even when she was shoving and sliding past masses of people.

"Chieko!" Téa smiled gratefully. "I was looking for you earlier. What happened?"

"Oh," Chieko waved her hand as she caught her breath, "the teachers had me running around campus doing all sorts of things. I'm just glad to finally go home." She wanted to tell Téa about the exotic new student, but Téa looked as though she had something far more important to say.

"Oh yeah," Téa shifted her weight from one foot to the other, ignoring the goose bumps crawling up her arms. "So the Drama Club wants to put on a musical of this story I wrote last year- it's a modernized version of 'A Christmas Carol.' We're still looking for interested players- are you in?"

"Of course!" Chieko smiled widely. "Especially after all those talks with the administration- they're amazingly insistent about having extra-curriculars on our transcripts." Her mind immediately started burbling with ideas- costumes, sets, the songs, the dance numbers... Just as quickly as thoughts of the student she'd toured earlier came into her mind, they were swept out by creative visions and hope-filled ideas.

That was a peculiarity about Chieko- once she was focused on something, it became her sole source of energy and activity, with little else encroaching on her mind.

"So true." Téa smiled, ready to launch into the whole description of the play. But Chieko's gaze wandered, staring over Téa's shoulder. "What is it?"

Chieko smiled gently "I think there is someone else with a more... pressing conversation. I shall talk to you later, okay Téa?" Without so much as an explanation, Chieko dashed off, leaving a very confused brunette in her wake. When she finally turned around, she realized where her goose bumps and anxiety came from. Standing as tall and imposing as ever was her expressionless boyfriend- waiting in silence.

She sucked in a deep breath and walked alongside Seto, keeping quiet. She couldn't think of anything to say to him, and doubtless he had little to say to her. He could have just left school on his own, leaving her to walk home by herself, but...

_'I guess I do owe him **some** sort of explanation, but... he just wouldn't understand.' _

Once in the limousine, the silence continued to reign. One minute passed, then two... then three.

"I'm sorry!" Téa finally blurted. "You don't know why I hate talking about..." she shifted her gaze out the window, watching Domino blur past "...about **that** time. I don't really want to get into it, so... let's just not talk about it ever again, okay?"

"Téa, I-" She probably expected him to apologize. But what did he have to apologize for, anyway? How was he supposed to know what Battle City meant to her? She obviously didn't want to talk about it, so... what else could he do? On a whim, he grabbed Téa's hand and pressed a soft kiss to it, surprising her. Her cheeks were pink when she finally turned to look at him, a question in her eyes.

"Seto..."

It wasn't really an apology, but it was the closest he could come. All he needed was that unspoken reassurance from her- that she wasn't mad at him, that she didn't... **hate** him. They could have their share of differences and playful arguments, but in the end...

_'I just want her to smile at me.'_

Well, they were an odd couple, that much was certain.

* * *

The following day during lunch period, the entire Dance Club met with the Drama Club in the auditorium, with Téa dragging along Seto, Yugi, Joey, and Tristan. Duke, for his part, chose an apt moment to disappear amongst the ranks of his fan club, and was nowhere to be found. Chieko joined the growing ranks, once again having forgotten the new student- even though the two of them had been in this very auditorium a few hours ago.

_"This is our school's auditorium," Chieko gestured to the wide open space, with its wooden chairs and scarlet carpeting. "It may not look like much now, but one of my classmates has assured me that it will be bustling with life soon enough. We're putting on a production of Charles Dickens's 'A Christmas Carol,' but modernized and set here in Domino."_

_Chieko was hoping for some sign of interest from her otherwise-silent companion. But he said nothing, instead just looking about the auditorium with mild interest._

_"Have you ever read 'A Christmas Carol,' or anything else by Charles Dickens?" Chieko queried._

_Instead of responding, the young man beside her only shook his head. Chieko still smiled, but her left eyebrow twitched. This 'simple tour about school' was certainly proving to be frustrating._

_"Chieko!" The blonde and her companion turned to the source of the voice, a third-year student bounding down the stage steps. "Great, Téa told me you were up for the performance. I have a good idea of what you can do to help us out, if you're interested- hey, who's this?" Shunsuke barreled onward, inspecting Chieko's partner._

_"Would you stop being such a busybody, Shunsuke!" A new voice called out in an exasperated tone. It was Akane, holding a sheath of papers in her arms. _

_"Well, he's new here, right?" The young man nodded slowly, as if assessing Shunsuke in his mind. "But... no, I swear I've seen you somewhere before. You didn't go to this school before?"_

_"No." _

_Chieko blinked in surprise; it was the first time her companion had spoken in the past half-hour. It was a rather flat, simple answer, but an actual answer nonetheless! Maybe Shunsuke could pry some more information out of him... _

_"Oh, I've got it!" Shunsuke snapped his fingers. "You must be a duelist, right? We've got so many of them in this school, sometimes I lose track. All these tournaments and Battle Cities and..." _

_"Hey! I've got an idea!" Akane interrupted. "You probably need to get some extra-curriculars on your transcript, right? Well, we're looking for some participants for our musical. I know it's a bit abrupt, but we've actually got some great minor roles, or..." Akane looked a bit sheepish as she suggested this "well, a rather major non-speaking role that would fit you really well." _

_Shunsuke seemed to know what Akane was talking about and gave the new student a once-over. "You're right. He **would**." _

_"You're talking about the Ghost of Christmas Yet To Come?" Chieko spluttered. She glanced at her companion, her eyebrows furrowed. Well, he certainly did have an intimidating aura about him..._

_"A non-speaking role, correct?" _

_Shunsuke and Akane nodded eagerly, wisely staying silent while the new student contemplated their request._

_"Very well. But I have other pressing matters to attend to for the next several days, so I will not be able to attend any rehearsals for a while."_

_"Oh! That's totally okay," Akane blurted, clapping her hands together. "There will be announcements about the final dress rehearsals posted up here at the auditorium and by the dance studio... just make sure to be here for those, and know your role and everything. It'll be great!"_

_"Well then- now that that's settled..." Chieko could sense that Shunsuke and Akane wanted to get their newfound 'Ghost' to tell them more about himself, but she couldn't waste any more time. Besides- she wanted to find out more about this new second-year on her own. _

_"I'm very sorry, directors, but we do have to get going- there is much more of the school to see..." Chieko didn't give anyone a chance to protest, dragging the new student out by his arm. Midway through their rushed trek up the aisles, Chieko realized with a flushing of her cheeks that her companion was very well-toned, with muscular arms that spoke of strength untapped._

_Once outside and far away from the auditorium, Chieko spoke once more. "So, do you play Duel Monsters?" Shunsuke thought that the newbie was familiar- a duelist of great fame, perhaps, but in a school with so many popular duelists, it was hard to know for sure. The world of Duel Monsters was never one of great interest to Chieko anyway, and it was only now, getting used to her friends and their strange pasts that she bothered to take a stronger interest in the subject._

_Her companion hesitated, shifting his gaze out toward the courtyard. A cold December breeze whipped through the trees, sending what few leaves were still attached to branches off into the distance. _

_"I used to."_

_And that was the end of that conversation- her companion walked away before Chieko could so much as utter another syllable._

Now Chieko sat in on the meeting easily comprised of fifty students, all chattering away about the upcoming musical. She didn't even consider that the new student was nowhere to be found among Class 2-B, nor among the lines of other students.

"Attention, everyone!" Shunsuke called out in an excited voice. It took another three hollers, with Akane joining in on the final one before they got everyone's attention. Despite the masses of students, the auditorium was clearly divided- the Drama Club members took up their usual seats in the front center section, while the Dance Club members occupied the back and right, while Téa, and her band of friends, Chieko included, sat near the front right.

"Well, after many grueling hours last night, we've managed to convert Téa Gardner's absolutely _amazing_ rendition of 'A Modern Christmas Carol' into script-form. We have enough copies to go around, so take a look and see what parts interest you. But before you ask, yes, a couple of parts are..." Shunsuke smiled at Seto and Téa, winking at the latter, who blushed from all of Shunsuke's compliments, "reserved. We've left all the names intact though, so it shouldn't take a genius to guess which parts are reserved for who. You're welcome to audition for them nonetheless, if you're up to having a major lead role -and I tell you, almost **all** of them are big roles. You never know- the actual people might rather be set designers!"

Everyone laughed, eagerly grabbing a copy of the script when it came their way. Téa grinned when she got her copy; she, along with Seto and their other friends opened the script. Téa smiled when she saw her name plastered all over the cover page.

Not much later, laughter spread throughout the crowd; people seemed to agree wholeheartedly that Yugi made an excellent Bob Cratchit archetype, that no one but Seto could play the greedy miser equivalent of Ebenezer Scrooge. Joey seemed thoroughly amused by the fact that his role was that of Seto's old 'college buddy,' the too-enthusiastic replacement for Scrooge's nephew.

"Hey, I got a wife in this!" Joey exclaimed. "Who's it gonna be?" A gaggle of girls from the Dance Club eyed Joey flirtatiously, and he puffed up, smiling broadly. But it was Akane, sitting casually on the stage, who fixed Joey with a casual, half-lidded glance- startlingly reminiscent of Mai. Joey gulped and sat down quickly, thumbing through his script once more.

Téa spotted the tell-tale blush on his cheeks, and whispered conspiratorially to Chieko, "I should recruit Mai for this too, just to freak Joey out."

Chieko agreed with a smile. "That would be most amusing."

Soon enough, the entire room was abuzz with laughter and chatter; people discussed the parts they wanted, and the parts they knew would be best filled by someone else. Some girls loved the idea of there being a whole slew of extras: that meant they wouldn't have to take center stage, but they'd still have very pivotal roles. Shunsuke's script had Téa's story converted into a musical, but there wasn't a single incident when Seto would have to sing.

"Darn, I was kind of hoping I'd get to hear you sing..." Téa mock-pouted, giving her best doe eyes to Seto. He blinked once and turned away, forcing himself to be unfazed.

"Not a chance."

Téa still smiled. "Oh, I'll get a tune out of you _somehow_..." she murmured, reaching up to sneakily dance her fingers across Seto's ribs. He jolted immediately, practically tipping off the top of the chair he sat on. Téa only smirked when he shot her an indignant look.

_'Ticklish, much?'_ she mouthed, laughing to herself. Seto only glared at her.

* * *

Days later, Shunsuke and Akane had the entire production planned out to a tee. People were busy at work designing sets and costumes, and slowly but surely, buzz spread throughout the school of the upcoming musical. Even the organizations that previously shunned the Drama Club became interested, their presidents and advisors offering their services.

"This is great!" Akane exclaimed. "We've got the Orchestra lined up for all the musical numbers, plus some Choir Club members interested in filling in the empty spots we have for extras! And the Band is okay with performing intermission music, and then some entertainment later on for a cast party! Can you believe it, a **cast party**!"

Thanks to the fact that the major roles were being played by the very same people their characters were named for, there was little difficulty in the way of memorizing parts. Everyone agreed wholeheartedly that Shunsuke, ever the enthusiastic 'drama queen' he was, should play the narrator- a descendant of the author of the original play, Charles Dickens. Much to Yugi's embarrassment, the beautiful third-year vice president, Akane, would be playing his girlfriend, the story's equivalent of a hot-headed 'Mrs. Cratchit.'

When it came time to choose people to play the Ghosts, many realized that while Téa left them unnamed, as they had been in the original story, the Ghosts of Christmas possessed surprising similarities to other characters- namely Tristan and Joey.

"So for the Ghost of Christmas Present, we need someone who is jolly..." Shunsuke began, looking at the gathered cast members.

"Someone who likes partying-" another voice put in.

"Someone who likes to eat!" A second-year student in the back hollered.

"Sounds awfully like someone we both know..." Seto whispered under his breath to Téa, smirking as he glanced at Joey. The latter boy remained utterly oblivious, unaware that everyone was thinking of him for the role.

After a few more descriptions of the merry Ghost of Christmas Present, all eyes turned to Joey, who was still reading his script. When everyone hollered out his name, he bolted out of his chair in surprise.

"What? What'd I do?"

"Congratulations," Akane smiled devilishly as she sauntered up to him with a thick pink highlighter, "you've just been nominated to play the amazing role of the Ghost of Christmas Present. You get to stuff your face and party like there's no tomorrow. Your reaction, sir?" Akane held the highlighter up to Joey's face as if it were a microphone. Joey just gaped, his jaw hanging open.

"Ah... yay?"

The crowd only laughed.

As lunch time came to a close, all of the roles were filled- though Téa, who had been carefully keeping track of who would play whom, seemed a bit confused.

"What is it?" Seto asked her, eying the way she was chewing on her pen and nibbling on her thumb-nail.

"Well, Yugi's playing himself- the original story's Bob Cratchit. Tristan is the Ghost of Christmas Past and the charity clerk you meet at the beginning... I'm Belle, and Chieko's going to be Joey's wife, 'Clara.' The twins-" she gestured to two giggling first-year twin girls, who were making eyes at Yugi, "are playing Yugi's younger sisters, since we all decided everyone looks too young to have kids just yet. Akane is going to be Yugi's girlfriend, and Hiroshi, the guy who actually suggested to Shunsuke that he use Miss Ninomiya's story submissions, is playing the homeless caroling boy."

"So?"

"**So**," Téa bit her lip before continuing, "we're missing two of the biggest roles in the play! The Ghost of Christmas Yet to Come, and Tiny Tim!"

"Oh, don't worry about the final Ghost," Shunsuke called from the stage.

"Oh yes! Téa, I forgot to tell you, but yesterday I toured a new student around the grounds, and introduced him to the directors here." Shunsuke and Akane beamed, loving the title Chieko bestowed upon them. "Since it's not a speaking role, he agreed to play it. Unfortunately, he had some pressing engagement that prevented him from coming to the meeting."

"We're okay with that, though," Akane assured Téa. The guy certainly has a way of just standing there and looking intimidating," she glanced out of the corner of her eye at Seto, who obviously didn't understand her innuendo regarding how he too fit the same description. "Well, we cast him right then and there. We need whoever we can get."

"Come to think of it, I thought he looked a bit familiar..." Shunsuke began, but then he shook his head. "But nah, there's just no way."

At first, Téa thought that maybe that they'd cast Bakura on the sly, but Chieko had just said that the frightening Ghost was a **new** student.

'_One less problem to deal with,_' Téa thought to herself. She couldn't face Bakura, not after the whole DV8 incident. What made her feel horrible about it all was that Ryou was the true victim of her negligence -she had, after all, promised him a part in the Dance Club. But she couldn't think about that- not now. There were **other** pressing matters at hand.

'But what about Tiny Tim?" Téa reminded everyone.

"Well, originally we thought of Yugi," Shunsuke grinned lopsidedly, "but you had him cast as Kaiba's worker. So we tried to find other people..."

"No luck. No one really has that 'childlike innocence' Tiny Tim needs, you know?" Akane finished.

Téa remembered how she'd associated each of the roles in Charles Dickens's story with people she knew; when it came time to cast the role of the modern 'Tiny Tim,' there had really only been one face...

"I've got it!" Téa snapped her fingers.

"Who?" Akane, Shunsuke, and Chieko all looked bewildered; then again, Téa **was** the original author of the modernized story.

Téa smiled broadly, "Why, none other than the cutest little rascal Domino has ever seen-" she turned to Seto. "wouldn't you agree, Seto?"

Shunsuke and Akane blinked, not understanding. "But Kaiba's already playing Scrooge-"

"He's not exactly child-like, either..." Shunsuke added under his breath.

"I don't mean this Kaiba," Téa thumbed toward her boyfriend. "I mean the littlest Kaiba!"

"Mokuba?" Seto uttered, his eyes widening. "Are you sure he can handle something like this?"

The moment he said the words, he regretted them. True, Mokuba was still in elementary school, but Seto of all people recognized that Mokuba was more mature, and had been through much more than his peers. Still...

_'I'll have to talk to Mokuba,_' Seto thought grimly to himself. And not just about a potential role in the play- about everything else that had been disturbing their formerly-close brotherly relationship before. Above all else: trust.

To make matters even worse, Téa had an expression on her face that looked as though she were reading his mind. It wasn't just the fact that she knew Mokuba was cute, and had the ability to win over whole crowds with his puppy eyes. She knew that getting Mokuba involved in their activities would require Seto to talk to him...

"Never mind, I'm sure he can. I'll talk to him tonight."

* * *

"We need to talk."

To a different person, in a different time and place, those four words would have signaled the beginning of the end. But to Mokuba Kaiba, they only meant that he was in trouble. To make matters worse, Téa just left Seto's office with a gentle smile and a meaningful glance toward both boys. Then she closed the large double-doors leading to the rest of the Kaiba mansion - and effectively cutting off any chance of escape.

"...What about, Big Brother?" Mokuba asked with a forced grin. Truthfully, he was still trying to work through his feelings for Téa- and the unprecedented jealousy he still harbored toward his brother.

So what if he was only twelve, or that he'd never really run Kaiba Corp.? Who cared that his grades were less than stellar, and that, while he was an expert gamer, he was nowhere near his brother's level?

That was just the thing- **Téa** didn't care, and that was why Mokuba liked her so much.

But as with everything else, Seto was the champion. While Mokuba would never stop being his number one fan, and Seto Kaiba's constant source of faith and boundless energy, it didn't stop those little bits of doubt creeping in from the back of his mind, reminding Mokuba of all that Seto had that Mokuba could never even dream of possessing.

"You tell me," Seto responded just as promptly, sitting on the arm of his office couch. Mokuba was still standing a distance from him, pacing from the doorway to the window and back again. He never did like being in locked rooms. "What's on your mind?"

Mokuba stopped pacing and cast a hesitant gaze back at his brother. In the past, he easily could have told his brother exactly what was on his mind. But not now- not 'I'm don't want to be second-fiddle to you anymore. I'm tired of being "Seto Kaiba's little brother" instead of me, Mokuba Kaiba.' Mokuba half-wished that his brother knew what was bothering him so- that way, he wouldn't have to worry about these awkward conversations.

But his brother was far from psychic- if anything, he was stubborn beyond all belief, and wouldn't address a problem unless it dealt directly with him.

_'Maybe a long time ago, I **would** have been one of those matters that dealt directly with him..._' Mokuba sighed, and resumed pacing.

"Why are you doing this, Big Brother?" What he meant was 'Why are you talking to me? What are you going to get from this?'

"It's been a while since you've called me that." Seto responded, ignoring Mokuba's question. "Téa told me that when she found you in the park, you called me 'Seto,' instead of 'Big Brother.'"

Mokuba paused, contemplating an appropriate response. Truthfully, he hadn't put much thought into how he referred to his brother since that incident. But by no means had Mokuba forgotten about it entirely. Seto would _always_ be his older brother, but...

"I'm growing up."

Mokuba waited for a response with bated breath, half-expecting his brother to make some sort of snarky comment about his height. It was true- Seto inherited their father's good looks and dominating height, while Mokuba inherited his mother's dark hair and petite stature. But such things as appearance mattered little to the younger Kaiba. Life experiences taught him that trust and family mattered above all else. What did you have when you couldn't trust your only family?

"That's what I was afraid of," Seto sighed softly, much to Mokuba's surprise. Of all the answers he expected his brother to make, that wasn't one of them.

After a few minutes of silence, Mokuba finally decided to settle down beside his brother on the couch. Words were still hard to come by, so the younger Kaiba decided to contemplate his fingers before responding.

"This is weird. You haven't paid attention to me like this in a long time."

Seto shot him a surprised glance. "Do you want me to?"

"Of course!" Mokuba blurted before he could really stop himself. "What I mean is... well... look, I know..." Quite suddenly, visions from the morning after Téa's birthday, when he'd walked in on the two of them wrapped in each others' arms and totally lost within one another assaulted Mokuba's mind. Tears stung at his pinched-shut eyelids, his cheeks growing increasingly hot.

_'I won't cry, I won't cry, I won't cry!'_ Kaibas didn't cry. That was the rule. Ever since they'd become Kaibas, that meant they had to be stronger, better, faster- it meant those bullies from the orphanage couldn't look down on them anymore, or beat up on them, or...

"I know you and Téa are going out and all, and I know I said I'm growing up, but-"

Abruptly, Mokuba found himself smothered in his older brother's embrace, the only part of his face not squished against Seto's arms being half of his nose on up.

"Don't turn into me, Mokuba. Don't even _think_ about it."

"Big Brother?" Mokuba queried, though his voice came out as muffled. Seto eased up on his grip slightly, but he still held Mokuba within his arms. The elder Kaiba was silently grateful that Mokuba _was_ still small enough to fit in his arms. One day, that would all change, and one day, Mokuba would be his height, wearing his suits and trench coats and...

_'I can't imagine it.'_ Somehow, the idea of Mokuba becoming just like him concurrently sickened and confused Seto Kaiba. What would become of the carefree little brother who spoke his mind, but was always his number one fan, most loyal supporter and believer, and the one he could always trust and rely on, no matter what?

"It's hard," Mokuba finally whispered, his voice unexpectedly cracking. "It's hard watching you guys together. She's the first real friend I had besides you, Big Brother" Mokuba began, referring to Téa indirectly "and... I liked making her smile. And I know she makes you smile too, but..."

It was strange. He was jealous of his brother because he had the pleasure of Téa's company, her touches and her smiles... her unadulterated, unconditional love. But on the same token, he was jealous of Téa, because of all the undivided attention she seemed to get from Seto, and how before, when only Mokuba could have read his older brother's mysterious expressions, now Téa could as well.

_'He really is growing up,'_ Seto realized, albeit with more than a measure of reluctance. Starting junior high in a year, and then...

_"Not for long, kid. The minute you turn thirteen, I'm hauling you in front of a crowd of people and YOU can talk about the past year's developments and successes."_

It was all said purely in jest, but... eventually, people would expect Mokuba to take a more active role in the company that his brother now ran. He'd more than proved his worth acting as Battle City Commissioner, after all. But now, nearly a year after Battle City and months after that snide remark said merely to quiet his brother, Seto found himself doubting whether he wanted Mokuba to take any part in Kaiba Corp. at all.

If he did... that would mean Mokuba really was growing up. Growing up, and going away.

Seto Kaiba prided himself on his intelligence- and he was smart enough to know his brother better than anyone else. And he knew that he couldn't keep Mokuba pinned to Domino, to Tokyo, or even to Japan. Mokuba had to _want_ to stay. But... would he?

"She does," Seto finally responded, his voice soft and somewhat gruff. Funny- after his mother had died, Seto never would have thought another female could have any sort of impact on him whatsoever. But...

_'Things change. People change. I... even I changed.'_

"You love her, right?" Mokuba asked. But he wasn't being flippant about it- his dark eyes were shining with a fierce glint to them -over-protectiveness, almost- that Seto once thought was reserved just for him. But now Mokuba had to think of Téa not as his crush, as he had for who-knows-how-long, but as "Big Sister Téa." How hard that had to be, for a boy so young and already so heartbroken...

"I-" Even just speaking to his brother, the answer didn't come easily. "I don't know."

Mokuba peered at his brother, craning his neck as if Seto were some sort of zoo animal on display.

"What are you looking for, Mokuba? It's not written on my forehead in indelible ink."

"It should be," Mokuba responded back just as promptly. "I think you're just too scared to tell her."

Seto abruptly stiffened, his eyes narrowing. To anyone else, such a stance and icy expression would mean sudden death for them, but Mokuba didn't seem the least bit fazed. Rather, he yawned out of the corner of his mouth, and brushed a few stray bangs aside.

"I. Am. Not. Afraid."

"Are too," Mokuba shot back. "You've never had a girlfriend before, so how would you even know what to tell her?"

_'Damn.'_ For a twelve year old, his brother was startlingly perceptive. And he was right. Everything else Seto Kaiba said and did was based on previous experience. He'd lived life the hard way for many years, learned from each and every experience, and resolved to never make the same mistakes over again. He continued to live in this manner day by day, even applying the concept to his duels.

Never the same duel twice. Never the same deck. Never the same strategy. Always know your opponent. Always expect the unexpected. Always...

_'Be sure of yourself, above all else. Without that knowledge, you lack confidence, and you expose weakness. Then you **are** weak.'_

"Even if you are right," Seto started, heavily emphasizing the 'if,' in his sentence, "you know just as well as I do that rushing into things only makes you a fool."

Mokuba bobbed his head up and down in a jaunty nod, closing his eyes in self-assurance as he spoke. "Yeah, but some things you just _know_."

Obviously, Mokuba 'just _knew_' about how he felt for Téa, and that was why he could go about being so open with his feelings, and so carefree with his actions. In a bizarre twist of fate, Seto Kaiba found himself jealous of his brother. It was a feeling that came and went rather infrequently, only serving to perplex him when it did occur. Him, jealous of Mokuba? But then...

_'Téa was right. Mokuba really is like Tiny Tim. So... selfless and caring. He's nothing like me._' But that thought didn't disturb Seto in the least. It was more the thought that this loving, caring boy that fit so snugly into his arms, that was Seto's last reminder of his mother, his last link to his father... that he would fade away, and change into someone else. Someone hardened to the world. Someone... like himself.

The innocent, smiling Seto that had been lost to Gozaburo Kaiba never returned. Seto knew that his conscience would never forgive him if the same fate befell Mokuba.

"Stay you, okay Mokuba?" Seto mumbled under his breath, forcing his gaze away from his brother. "Don't ever change."

Mokuba regarded his brother silently. _'Maybe he does need me, after all._'

"Okay."

A few more minutes of silence, and then Seto Kaiba rose to his feet and straightened his rumpled shirt. "Are you up for a challenge?"

Mokuba jumped off the couch, glad to have the strange tension between him and his brother lifted at last. So their conversation probably wouldn't be considered enlightening by anyone else's standards, but what did anyone else matter to the Kaiba brothers? Anyone besides Téa, that is. What mattered is that Seto at least paid a modicum of attention to Mokuba, clearly desiring to straighten things out between them and stay 'brothers' no matter what.

_'And... I resolve to really, truly treat Téa like the big sister I've never had. 'Cause even if he can't say it, I know Big Brother loves her. I can't -I **won't**\- get in the way of that. No matter what.'_

"When am I not?"

Seto turned his back to Mokuba, wondering how to phrase this rather out-of-the-ordinary request about the role of "Tiny Tim" in Téa's play. Surely Mokuba would be shocked that _he'd_ agreed to it, let alone was acting as recruiter for other roles.

"You want to prove to the world that you're 'Mokuba Kaiba' and not just my younger brother, right" Seto finally asked, facing his brother with a semi-smirk creeping across his lips. The shock on Mokuba's face was undeniable, but he quickly closed his slacking jaw and nodded vigorously.

_'Maybe Big Brother **is** psychic after all.'_ Mokuba grinned to himself. But maybe it was just a minor brother-to-brother sort of psychic connection. Surely if Seto had any extra-sensory perception, he would have gotten together with Téa long ago.

"Domino High's putting on a musical version of a story Téa wrote last year. It's a modern adaptation of 'A Christmas Carol.'"

"Seriously!" Mokuba practically jumped a half-meter in the air, his eyes shining with delight. Even if his brother tended to fit the 'Scrooge' archetype, Christmas was always Mokuba's favorite time- time when Seto had no excuse_ not_ to spend time with him, and when they could really have fun as brothers, and as family. Even with Téa as a new addition... well, it'd be three times the fun!

One of Mokuba's favorite Christmas activities -much to his older brother's chagrin- was watching every rendition of 'A Christmas Carol' ever made, from the old black-and-white versions to the one with the Muppets, and the one with that foreigner Bill Murray. The whole marathon tended to take hours and result in at least four bowls of popcorn and twelve candy cans disappearing in a single day but... it was _tradition_.

Needless to say, the younger Kaiba absolutely adored the story.

"Yes, seriously," Seto responded plainly. But his little brother's enthusiasm was just a bit infectious. Just a bit. "Téa thought of you first when considering roles for her version of Tiny Tim. You in? Rehearsals start this week, every evening until around nine. The performance is on the 23rd at six o'clock."

"Whoo-hoo! I'm Tiny Tim, I'm Tiny Tim!" Mokuba didn't even bother formally responding to his brother; he just bounded out of the office with a holler, his smile wide and bright.

In the wake of his brother's enthusiasm-packed exit, Seto shook his head in resignation. "I guess that's a 'yes.'"

* * *

"So we're finally having our first dress rehearsal today," Shunsuke clapped his hands together, "and we've actually got every person here, for once!" Their first dress rehearsal began in the late afternoon into the night. Shunsuke arranged to have a large dinner delivered, but was adamant about not spending a cent until they'd made it through the first few acts.

Scattered laughter spread throughout the Drama Club; most of them were still chattering about how successfully everything was coming together. Thanks to Chieko's excellent ability to multi-task, she acted as choreographer and costume director, along with her minor role as Joey's new bride. Since everything was set in modern times, everyone wore modern clothes- but they were all playing characters who were several years older than the actors were in reality. That meant they had to dress just a bit differently...

"Well," Chieko fixed Kaiba with a flat stare, eyeing his bleach-white business suit and blue silk tie, "at least I won't have to help **you** knot your tie."

From backstage, a familiar howl pierced the air, "I'm dyin' here! Help, he-" Then there was an abrupt gagging sound, and hushed laughter. Ever since he'd gotten a major role in the play, Joey became even more of a 'drama queen' than Shunsuke was at times. It was hard getting him to 'tone down' his act and just be himself, which was exactly what Téa was hoping for when she wrote Joey into his role as Seto's former college buddy.

"Everyone's here?" Téa queried, just for verification purposes. She knew about the girls in the Dance Club acting as townspeople and extras; she spotted Yugi and Tristan snickering over their suits, and she had Mokuba sitting at her side, the small boy clad in a worn t-shirt and torn denim jeans.

Her story was really coming to life.

Chieko nodded in affirmation. "Yes. Even our elusive Ghost of Christmas Yet to Come. He must have finished whatever pressing matter kept him away from all the other rehearsals, apparently. If Shunsuke has his way, we should be able to get through the entire script today."

"Music and all?" Mokuba piped up from his seat.

Chieko nodded warmly at their youngest recruit. "Yes. Although, I agree with Téa..." she nodded toward Téa and Seto, "that it is quite unfair that everyone but your brother sings in this performance."

Seto just shook his head, his arms crossed over his chest. "Thank goodness."

"Maybe you should just come over when Big Brother's in the shower," Mokuba uttered in a stage-whisper. Téa and Chieko's eyes widened in surprise, the former girl's cheeks turning a brilliant shade of pink.

"Mokuba..." Seto murmured in a low whisper, bordering on a growl.

Mokuba blatantly ignored his brother's warning and continued, "He's actually pretty on-key, I think, though that might have something to do with the shower acoustics..."

Téa and Chieko burst into laughter, while Seto had his chance to turn red.

"Five seconds, runt."

Mokuba's jaw dropped and he immediately sprung from his seat and tore across the auditorium in a dead-run. Exactly five seconds later, Seto sprung from his own seat and tore after his rambunctious little brother, much to the watching crowd's amusement and surprise. However, before Seto could catch his younger brother, Shunsuke clapped his hands again and called out through his bullhorn.

"Places, everyone!"

* * *

An hour or so later, there were only two scenes until the end of the play; Seto had only to meet the voiceless Ghost of Christmas Yet to Come, and then he would realize the error of his ways and make amends with Yugi, Joey and... Téa.

Téa wrote her story so that Seto could have his reunion with her character, and that they'd "give it another try," but there was no mushiness involved. For some strange reason, it felt... wrong. Like she was cheating both herself and the character she played. But then again, this _was_ considering Seto's stint as the most miserly 'Scrooge' there ever was...

Maybe it had something to do with the odd feeling that threatened to swallow Téa ever since they'd started rehearsing.

_'I'm sure it's just because I haven't finished memorizing everything yet._' Téa glanced at Seto, who, as always, exuded an aura of confidence. He'd long ago memorized his lines, having reminded Téa about his supposedly-infallible "photographic memory." The same 'memory' that failed him in August when they'd first kissed... but that was water under the bridge. Best she just let it go and concentrate on the play instead.

Yet, she couldn't shake the odd feeling that kept trying to overwhelm her.

They were between scenes now, and she was supposed to head off-stage until Seto had his traumatic, life-changing experience with the Ghost of Christmas Yet to Come. Téa shifted her weight to one foot, memorizing what she could of her last scene's lines when a cold tingle rippled down her spine.

She glanced up and saw the imposing, dark figure of the Ghost standing right beside her- as though he'd appeared out of nowhere.

_'It... It can't be.'_

Téa dropped her script without blinking, her eyes wide. Step by step, she stumbled backward, her breath growing increasingly cold and prickly in her chest.

The newcomer guised as the Ghost of Christmas Yet To Come didn't move. The bright stage lights continued to glitter off the golden chain around the Ghost's neck, and the large Eye of Horus pendant in the center. She recognized that shape- it was the mark of the Millennium Items and all who knew of them. The chain itself wasn't a Millennium Item; Yugi still had the Necklace stocked away somewhere for safekeeping.

But it wasn't the chain alone that terrified Téa into silence.

It was the sun-tanned golden skin clutching the scythe; it was the unusual lavender eyes just barely visible through the black rayon mask disguising the Ghost; it was the gold bracers peeking out from under voluminous dirt-gray sleeves.

It was...

"Stay away from me!"

She remembered the invasion of her mind, the warping of her memories, the twisting of her senses. She remembered being bound to a metal chair on the edge of an unsteady dock. She remembered seeing her two best friends duel one another, in what could be a life-or-death situation. She remembered bile creeping up her throat, and residual sensations from her controller flashing through her memory.

Seto and the others in the auditorium stared at Téa in confusion and astonishment; why was she so terrified of a student? He was just in costume, and surely Téa knew that!

The Ghost moved forward slightly, raising one of its arms as if to halt Téa from continuing. But she didn't. Her cheeks flushed and her eyes tearing, she dared to yell at the Ghost once more. .

"Why are you here again, Marik?"

Eyes that were once confused now widened with surprise, then narrowed in suspicion and anger.

Yugi looked from Tristan to Joey and then back up at the stage, where Téa trembled not a meter away from Marik, still disguised as the Ghost. Seto stood a short distance away from both Marik and Téa. The logical course was to wait -just a moment- and see what either of them would do. Not because they dictated his actions, but because he wouldn't be the brash fool who did something stupid.

_'Always let the enemy make a fool of himself.'_ Or so years of training under Gozaburo dictated. Maybe now, Seto Kaiba hesitated for a different reason.

It was Téa who finally shifted; her eyes watered with tears and she dashed backstage, not giving Marik the chance to say a single word.

Marik dropped his head, and sighed to himself. He tugged off the mask, but didn't meet Seto or Yugi's gazes. Instead, he just ran after Téa, Seto hot on his heels shortly thereafter.

* * *

"Hold it," Seto grabbed Marik by the hood of his costume before he could take another step toward Téa, who'd run off into the blackness of the backstage.

Marik gagged for a moment, shooting Seto an angry glare. When he realized it was Seto Kaiba, his former opponent in the Battle City tournament, his eyes widened. He shifted his hood again, and crossed his arms over his chest.

"What are you doing here?" Marik hissed in a low voice.

"I could ask you the same question," Seto responded snidely. "Where do you think you're going?"

Marik didn't respond; instead, he regarded Seto with a casual eye, appraising him as if he were some sort of prized object on sale. "So it is true."

"What are you talking about?" Seto didn't bother dignifying Marik by referring to him by name. For all he knew, Marik was again using an alias and trying to dominate the world again or something stupid like that. But...

"You. Her. The two of you," Marik sneered, running his tongue across his teeth. "It makes no sense."

"Will you stop speaking in fragments and just spit it out already!" Seto growled, quickly growing irritated. "What are you doing here, and why the hell do you think you have any right to go after Téa?"

Marik raised an eyebrow, but didn't respond to Seto's question. Instead, he turned around, facing the darkened backstage area. He could easily tell where Téa was hiding, but Kaiba didn't have to know that he knew that- or how. If it was indeed true, and Téa had become romantically involved with Seto Kaiba... well then, Kaiba could find his precious girlfriend on his own.

"You'll have to forgive me," Marik stated in that presumptuous way that Kaiba came to associate with all members of the Ishtar clan. "I merely wanted to allay her fears of me. I'm not here for..." He caught sight of Yugi, Tristan and Joey hovering near the outskirts of the curtains, waiting for Marik to say the wrong thing and give them a reason to interrogate him into next week. "I am not here for anything malicious. I mean no harm to any of you." He addressed Kaiba and Téa both, knowing the two of them could hear him perfectly well, just as Yugi and his friends could.

"I'll speak to Téa another time."

"We'll see about that," Seto muttered under his breath. Marik only raised an eyebrow and walked off, not even giving Yugi, Tristan and Joey a second glance.

Shunsuke stared as calmly walked across stage, disappearing between the curtains. He then shifted his confused gaze to Akane, and then to the other cast members assembled out in the audience.

"Uhm... well we've been working pretty hard for a while- how about some dinner?" Shunsuke was obviously not an expert when it came to sorting out awkward situations, but the other cast members seemed to think Shunsuke's idea a fine one, and they all followed him out of the auditorium in a great exodus.

* * *

"Man, this is heavy," Tristan sighed, flopping down onto a folding chair in the cast preparation room. The whole place was littered with bolts of fabric and stray pieces of plywood; amongst all the mess, no one would see their little gathering of people discussing this most unexpected turn of events.

"What does weight have to do with it?" Mokuba asked innocently. The only reason why Joey, Yugi, and Tristan didn't mind that Mokuba tailed after them was because they knew that Seto, being the only other one on stage with Téa at the time Marik made his debut, went after the duo.

"Nothing," Tristan grumbled. "It's just an expression."

"Man, why the hell didn't we go chasin' after that jackass?" Joey scowled, punching a fist into his other palm. Then his expression grew sheepish as he realized Mokuba was peering up at him with a curious smile on his face. "Er, uh... 'scuse my French."

"That wasn't French," Mokuba responded smartly, earning a glare from Joey.

"Joey's right though," Tristan cut in smoothly, before anyone could make any more snide remarks. "Why are _we_ here, while Kaiba's in _there_ with Dr. Evil and Téa?"

Yugi sighed deeply, frowning. "Because Kaiba's her boyfriend, and we're not."

"Like that matters!" Joey yelled. "Just 'cause they're goin' out doesn't mean Téa doesn't need friends no more. 'Sides," Joey added, his voice dropping lower "Kaiba wouldn't know why Téa's so upset if Téa had the reason hangin' on a neon sign around her neck."

"Why _is_ Téa so upset?" Mokuba queried, the same innocence as before filtering in through his voice. He looked perplexed, as if muddling through the possible reasons why Téa would be afraid of Marik. The last time they'd all seen the Egyptian was during Battle City, but everything had been resolved peacefully- and without any casualties, as far as they knew. So why would he scare Téa so much?

"Because," Tristan began angrily, "Marik totally took advantage of her during Battle City."

"D-Don't say it like that, Tristan!" Yugi yelped, shaking his hands about wildly. "You'll give Mokuba the wrong idea."

"But it's the truth!" Joey snapped, crossing his arms over his chest. He leaned against a nearby cabinet, balancing one of his feet against the wall. "Come on, Yug' don't treat 'em like a kid. Mokuba was there, he saw it all."

Mokuba bit his lip. Joey was right- he _had_ seen it all, but like his brother, he didn't understand much. He was a lot more open-minded than his brother- he was sure of that, but...

"Say, Mokuba," Tristan started, scratching his chin thoughtfully "weren't you with Téa before she got er- sidetracked by Rare Hunters?"

"You mean before Marik warped her brain into a pile of melted gelatin?" Mokuba asked blandly. "Yeah, I was. She helped me escape from the Rare Hunters but then she..." Mokuba trailed off, his voice full of regret.

"The kid's got our point down pat," Tristan grumbled. "So again, why are we in here while Téa's out there with Señor Psychopath?"

"Are you talkin' about Kaiba or Marik?" Joey asked sarcastically.

"Joey!" Yugi frowned at his best friend, shooting him his best glare. Joey opened one eye and glanced at Yugi, noting the reprimanding expression on his face.

"Awright, awright. Sorry," Joey grumbled, slumping against the wall. "I can't believe you're still defendin' Kaiba, Yug'," he muttered under his breath.

"Neither can I," Yugi mumbled softly. "And you're right, maybe we should be in there with Téa- but maybe that would only make things worse."

"How so?" Mokuba asked. "I mean, we're _all_ her friends, right?"

"True," Yugi started "but I think the reason why Téa's so scared of Marik is because he took control of her multiple times- and she could never stop him."

"Yeah, it wasn't like you," Tristan gestured to Joey "when you broke out of Marik's control. Téa never could do that."

"So you're saying that if we were in there, Téa might think we're just rubbing it in- that she can't control situations, and she always needs help from her friends?" Mokuba questioned.

The older boys stared at Mokuba, surprised by his perfectly on-target and mature answer.

"Well," Yugi scratched the back of his head, feeling sheepish for having dumbed down his explanation for Mokuba's sake, "yeah."

Mokuba only shook his head. "I dunno, though. Something tells me my brother won't be the best person to help matters, either."

* * *

Once the backstage was empty again, Seto made every effort to locate Téa. She had to be back here _somewhere_\- the auditorium's rear exit was on the other side of the stage, and there was nothing on this side but closets, spare props, and the curtain controls. And...

A sniffle.

Stifled, but an audible sniffle nonetheless.

Seto followed the sound, having tracked down his brother by the sound of his sniffles on multiple occasions. Only now, he was trying to find his girlfriend, and figure out why Marik's presence upset her so much. Surprise he could understand. He too was surprised by Marik's reappearance in Japan. To top it all off, he was not only in Domino, but in their school, in their grade, and in Téa's play.

Suspicion would have been understandable too, but somehow Seto doubted that it was simple suspicion of Marik that brought Téa to tears.

A salty droplet of water landed smack on Seto's nose, trailing down to the corner of his mouth, at which point he promptly wiped it away. He glanced up and found a shadow sitting far up in the prop lofts, where dusty mannequins and cardboard treasure chests sat, stuck to the wall by thick, gray cobwebs.

_'Téa...'_

He found the ladder going up a few moments later, quickly scaling it and making his way past the clutter to her side. Though every fiber in his being protested at sitting down amongst the mess, this seemed to be one of those times when his 'better judgment' was better off silenced.

"Téa...?" He kept his voice low and quiet, aware that Téa was in tears. But this was different from all those times back at the orphanage, when the older, bigger kids bullied Mokuba. For one, Téa wasn't his little brother, and it wasn't bullies that terrified Téa- she'd proved on more than one occasion that she could handle people like that just fine on her own.

Seto remembered walking into Crump Financial's office, only to see Téa punch his former associate smack in the nose. Five other bulky men were just as indisposed, scattered about the office. There was no doubt in Seto's mind that Téa could handle **bullies**.

She didn't answer him, she just kept on crying and sniffling intermittently, her form shaking with suppressed sobs. Seto frowned, looking off to the side. He half-hoped that when he glanced down to the dimly-lit backstage, he'd see Yugi or Joey staring up at him, giving him some measure of reassurance, or some idea of what he could say. He just wasn't used to this... 'comforting.'

The best answer seemed to be not to give one at all, so Seto hesitantly sat on the dust-covered floor of the loft, dangling his legs off the same way Téa did. A second later, he wrapped his arm around her shoulders, letting her scoot closer to him. It wasn't so bad, really- having her there, in his arms- even if she was crying, and not smiling or sleeping. Those ways were the ways Seto preferred to have Téa, because having her unhappy just didn't seem to compute in his mind. It just wasn't right.

"I'm so scared, Seto," Téa finally whispered. "I can't go back down there."

"You don't have to," Seto murmured. "Shunsuke called a break for everyone. Pretty much everyone left to have dinner."

"E-Everyone?" Téa mumbled, briefly nuzzling her face against Seto's chest. She scrubbed away her tears with her sleeve, but more just kept coming. She couldn't stop. "Even h-him?" By 'him,' she of course meant Marik.

And the truth was, Seto didn't know if the Egyptian had left the auditorium. For all he knew, he could be standing amongst the shadows below, still wearing that rag-costume of his.

"I..." He couldn't lie to her. Better to change the subject. "Why are you so scared of him, Téa?"

Téa didn't answer at first, instead staring at her knees. Her legs seemed to disappear into the darkness of the backstage area, like a massive creature were eating her, bit by bit. She'd felt like that once...

"Thank you, for what you said to him. It... it means a lot."

Seto blinked in surprise. When he'd chased after Marik and threatened him to stay away from Téa, it had all come instinctively. Of course he wasn't going to let a known psychopath go chasing after her. Even if **what** he felt for Téa was still a bit confusing, that didn't change that he felt _something_, which meant she had to be protected, above all costs. It meant she was his, and no one else's...

"I didn't tell you what happened last week, when... when I met up with Crump." Try as she might, Téa couldn't keep the revulsion out of her voice. Just saying Crump's name caused a cold shiver to ripple down her spine, and memories of his raspy voice and clammy hands to echo painfully in her mind.

Téa continued before Seto could ask any questions, though his expression immediately hardened into one of extreme seriousness.

"I snuck right past you, you know that? Now that I think about it, I wish you would have seen me and stopped me, because-"

"Did he do anything to you, Téa?" Forget Marik, Crump would **die** if he'd done anything to hurt Téa. It didn't help that instead of answering him right away, Téa just looked away and began playing with her fingers.

"...Tied me to a chair. Duct tape glue is really hard to get off, by the way."

"Téa..." She was good at dodging the subject, and she knew it, too. Of course, this all went back to her fears, anyway- while Seto refused to admit that he even _had_ any, Téa tried her hardest to ignore them altogether, until they came to face her. Hadn't they learned by now that running away didn't solve anything?

"If I hadn't stashed a nail file under my sleeve, I wouldn't have been able to cut through that duct tape" Téa explained in a dull whisper. "Then he would have succeeded in tearing more than my shirt open, and-"

"I'll kill him."

"He's already in jail, Seto," Téa sighed. But after everything the Big Five had done to her and her family, why was she even defending Crump? Why waste her energy? Seto was right.

"I'll kill him anyway."

Téa laughed shortly, flattered by Seto's over protectiveness. Sometimes his timing was a bit off, but... in his own strange way, he could be awfully endearing. "You don't really want to end up back in jail again, do you? I wouldn't be able to find any evidence to get you out, and last time I checked, your lawyer abandoned you."

Of course, she was right. It wasn't fair.

"I hate this." Her voice was soft and monotonous, with her head hanging against her chest. "Every now and then, I can be strong. I can be smart, I can be quick. But... when it really matters, I get kidnapped, brainwashed, tied to a chair with a two-ton crate hanging over my head. I _always_ need to get rescued. I hate it!" The tears slid down Téa's cheeks, even as she squeezed her eyes shut as tightly as possible.

"I won't let him hurt you, Téa."

She stiffened in his arms, her cheeks suddenly flushing with an angry heat. "You won't _let_ him? That's not how it works, Seto. You don't own the world or anybody in it, least of all me! You certainly don't give permission to-" Téa cut off, her eyes abruptly darkening. She shook her head and sighed sadly. "What's the use?"

"Téa, I-" Somehow, somewhere, he'd messed up. But how? He just wanted to protect her- what was wrong with that?

"What now? Are you going to say, 'it's okay to be weak and vulnerable like that, because I can protect you'? Do you think that's what I really _want_? Do you think that's what I _need_ from you"

Seto was silent. Wasn't that what he'd always been offering to her, from the start? Why now was it suddenly so wrong to want to protect her? Only minutes ago she seemed to find it... well, almost 'cute,' and now-

_'I will **never** understand women.'_

"You just don't get it, Seto. I thought you would, because we've been through so much of the same things, really. When you lose someone that means so much to you..." Téa trailed off sadly, her voice breaking slightly. But no! She couldn't let herself become weaker and more vulnerable. She had to prove to Seto that she didn't **need** his care. Wanting and needing were two totally different things...

"It's nice knowing you care so much, Seto, but I don't want to be a sheltered girl, hiding out from the big bad world for the rest of my life. That part of me is gone."

"Then why are you still so terrified of Marik?" Seto countered suddenly, turning steely-blue eyes on her. Damn it all, he just wanted answers- straight, clear ones. Was that too much to ask?

Téa fell silent in the face of this new question. Out of sight, she clenched her fist. No matter how many explanations she made, or how many tears she cried, Seto would never understand. He'd needed protection just like her, but while Téa eventually got that protection and became stronger because of it, Seto never did. He'd never been protected by anyone, not since his parents' death, and as a result, he was the protector, instead of the protected. It simply wasn't in his mind to let Téa be strong for him, or even for herself- it made no sense to someone like him.

"You don't know what it's like- to have someone... _rape_ your mind like that! You never believed that any of that ever happened, even when you saw it with your own eyes. You didn't bother to ask questions or understand it- you just ignored it! You accused us all of making believe, of pretending and playing in Egyptian fairy-tales, when you knew all along it was so much more than that!"

"How can I understand anything you're saying when you don't bother to say it clearly? Téa, what does all this idiocy about the past have to do with Marik? He's a damn fool, and he doesn't deserve the power you're giving him by being so afraid-"

"I know that!" Téa yelled, just a bit too loudly. Her voice echoed hollowly off the catwalks, resounding in the auditorium for a moment before it faded. "I know. But it's not idiocy, and just because it's the past doesn't mean I've dealt with it completely. I- I _can't_. I can't just forget."

"Why not?"

A simple question, but a stupid one.

_'Everything I say... he hears it, but he just doesn't **listen**.'_

"You just wouldn't understand!"

* * *

Joey, Yugi, and Tristan all wandered back into the auditorium, wondering if Kaiba succeeded in talking to Téa. They all suggested that Mokuba stay outside with the rest of the cast, lest Marik still be wandering around.

The youngest Kaiba didn't appreciate the idea- after all, he knew too well that he practically had a neon sign above his head reading 'BAIT!' in brightly colored letters. Anyone that wanted to take advantage of his brother could do it through him. But... they were right. It _was_ safer with crowds of other people. So he stayed outside, but that didn't stop him from worrying about all of them- not to mention Téa or his brother.

Opinion was still mixed regarding what to do when they saw Marik again, as he hadn't followed the rest of the crowd outside. But they couldn't find him in the auditorium, and now they were torn about what to do. They head up to the stage, looking for any sign of life. None of them expected Téa, still in tears, to come barrelling into Joey's arms, nearly bowling him over.

Joey stumbled backward to regain his balance, forced to wrap his arms around Téa to keep her steady. She buried her face in his chest and refused to let go of him, holding onto her blond friend like a lifeline.

"Tell me," she cried into his arms, "tell me why was I so stupid? Why am I with someone like him? Why did I think for a single second that he'd understand a fraction of what we've all been through together, that he could believe-" At this point, her words became incomprehensible as her body became racked with sobs, the whole of her trembling uncontrollably.

Joey looked helplessly to Yugi and Tristan, who obviously had no idea who the 'he' Téa was referring to was.9;

It was then that Yugi looked up toward the darkness of the back-stage are from where Téa came; a person stood there between the curtains, the angles of his face contrasting sharply with the shadows. From the expression on Kaiba's face, it was plain he'd heard everything Téa just said- it hurt him deeply, and though he didn't realize it, it showed. In the next second, Kaiba wheeled on the ball of his foot, back into the darkness.

"Y-You know, Téa," Joey began, raising one arm to scratch the back of his head. He was about to do something unprecedented- and quite possibly stupid. But he had to hazard a guess, because his friend needed comfort more than anything right now. He knew where she was coming from, and why she was so upset, so... "If it weren't for him, you probably wouldn't even be here right now. He saved your butt back then, during that duel..."

Téa stilled in his arms, sniffling once loudly. A second later, her voice came, muffled. "You're right... I guess."

He'd done so much for her since then, especially recently, when times had been even tougher. But in the course of a single hour, everything seemed to put so much pressure on her, and bring back so many painful memories... and Seto could never understand any of them. He could never understand what it was like to have your mind ripped from your control. He could never understand what it meant to stand on the sidelines while someone wore your face, spoke in your voice, did things you'd never do, and fooled all your friends...

"Why is he back?" Téa whispered a minute later, her voice hoarse. "What does he want from us? The God Cards, now that he knows they're all in one place? Or the Millennium Items, now that you have so many of them, Yugi?"

Now the 'he' she meant was Marik, and if the paleness of her face and the shaking of her body was any indication, she was terrified of him.

"We don't know," Joey finally managed.

"But we're sure as hell going to find out," Tristan added firmly. Both boys looked to Yugi for affirmation. He didn't know what to say to Téa; he wasn't her boyfriend, and though he wanted to be with her, embrace her, and reassure that everything would be all right, somehow, it didn't feel like his place to do so. Not anymore.

Yugi just nodded, a gesture that Téa only saw by turning her head just-so. It was enough for her though, and the tiniest of smiles crept up her lips. With her friends by her side -people that could **understand**\- maybe they could get to the bottom of this.

Hidden by curtains, props, and shadows, Marik watched these proceedings with a neutral gaze. Finally, he turned away, allowing himself to be enshrouded in the darkness once more.

'_Téa, I wish I could tell you why I'm back here... that's it's because of you..._'

* * *

"Are you sure, Téa?" Yugi and the other boys cast hesitant glances at their friend; despite the fact that she was so distraught over Marik's reappearance, she was no longer crying. Her cheeks regained some of their color, but her eyes were still red, and her lips were still twisted into a plastic smile.

"Y-Yeah. I just need to be myself for a while." There was a silent agreement to keep an eye on Marik, and so Téa bid them a goodbye as she dashed up to the roof to eat her dinner alone. "Thanks, guys!"

And then she was gone.

Yugi sighed deeply, flopping to the floor outside the stairwell exit. "What a day."

"It ain't over yet, Yug'," Joey frowned, opening his hot boxed dinner and picking at it with his chopsticks.

"You're telling me," Tristan grumbled between bites of sticky rice. "We still have to find out why the heck Marik's back."

"We just have to ask him," Yugi stated softly.

Joey and Tristan stopped chewing and stared at their friend, their jaws dropped and their lips spattered with grains of rice.

"Come again, Yug'? You want to **ask** Marik why he's back? I don't know about you, but I really don't think there's a point. How many reasons can there be for why he'd be back, anyway?" Joey shook his head resolutely, refusing to believe that Marik could have possibly enrolled in their school and gotten cast in their play for reasons that _weren't_ malicious.

"It's been nearly a year though, Joey," Yugi murmured. "People change."

He was not-so-subtly referring to people like Téa and Kaiba. A year ago, had someone asked the two if they had any intention of moving in together and becoming deeply involved, they both would have thought it was a joke. But so much happened, and now...

Yugi stood up abruptly, letting his empty dinner box clatter to the floor.

"Where you goin' Yug'?" Joey asked curiously.

"To find Kaiba," Yugi responded simply before dashing off, not giving anyone a chance to respond.

* * *

The eldest Kaiba sat, as stiff-backed as always, in one of the auditorium chairs. The way he was staring at the stage, it was almost as if he were watching a performance that no one else could see. Yugi approached him slowly at first, finally resolving to just talk to his rival and get it over with.

_'No... we're not rivals anymore. Téa **loves** him...'_

Yugi sucked in a deep breath and marched down the aisle, sitting beside Kaiba without saying a word. He stared at the stage too, wondering what fascinated Kaiba so much that he hardly even blinked.

"She's up on the roof."

Kaiba stayed silent, still staring at the stage. Yugi frowned to himself and decided to try again.

"Do you even understand why she's so upset?"

"She won't talk to me anyway," Kaiba finally grit out, refusing to face Yugi. "I already screwed up once."

_'More than once, actually,' _Yugi thought mentally. But he couldn't say that aloud- it wouldn't help matters any. It wouldn't help _Téa_.

"What did you say to her?" Yugi asked. Whatever he'd said, it caused Téa to question why she was even with him- so his words must have upset her greatly. Though Téa's tears were more than enough just cause in Yugi's mind to accuse Kaiba of a multitude of crimes, there was always another side to matters- he just had to find out what it was.

Kaiba lowered his gaze from the stage to his lap. he stared at his hands, balled into white-knuckled fists resting on his knees.

"That I'd protect her," he murmured. "How is that wrong?"

Yugi sighed. So, his suspicions were correct, after all. Téa was sick of being in situations where she lost all control. She didn't want to keep being rescued or protected- she wanted to be able to fight back on her own. Having someone say he'd protect her -though said with the best of intentions- didn't help her state of mind any. She wanted Kaiba to understand that simple fact, and it didn't register in Kaiba's mind.

"She doesn't need you to protect her," Yugi began. He might as well be telling himself the very same words. Téa didn't _need_ him like she used to, and that was why he found himself distancing himself from her, even though they remained friends, even though he still cared for her... "She _wants_ you to, though, but... without saying so."

Kaiba glanced at Yugi, a frown creasing his face. "What's the difference?"

"You know the difference between wanting and needing, Kaiba. I don't have to explain that to you."

And it was a good thing Yugi hadn't even tried, lest Kaiba accuse him of being belittling or condescending.

"It doesn't explain why she lets herself get so scared of Marik. He has no power over her."

"She could say the same thing to you about Pegasus... or Gozaburo Kaiba."

Kaiba shot Yugi an icy glare, though his eyes searched the smaller boy's for any sign that Téa told him about the ghost incident.

"How do you know about him?" Kaiba hissed. He hated remembering Gozaburo and his words, his foul treatment of his own adopted sons. But... Kaiba forgave him. Gozaburo was just a shadow of a memory now, and it was a waste of energy to think otherwise.

"Who _didn't_ know about him?" Yugi responded quietly. "Your taking over Kaiba Corporation was big news. Articles were all over the place about your father's death, and plenty of magazines did profile stories about him... I might have been young back then, but I still kept up with the news."

So, Yugi _didn't_ know. It was a relief, but a minor one at best.

"You were there," Yugi continued. "You saw Téa acting strangely. Even if you didn't want to believe in Egyptian magic and past lives, or prophesied duels, you had to know that was Téa. Marik was talking _through_ her. He took control of her."

"...She said he raped her mind," Kaiba murmured quietly.

Mind-control. Millennium Magic. Cards brought to life in Dark Duels. Souls lost in inexplicable comas. The transformation of body and soul.

Of course it would sound preposterous to anyone else- to anyone with any **sense**! Yet... they were right. He _had_ seen it with his own eyes, and he'd still been unable to believe it. And now he was paying the price for it. The longer he spent away from Téa, the less she would feel he knew her, understood her, or cared for her, and then their relationship would end before he could even figure out what he really felt.

He couldn't let that happen.

Yugi nodded solemnly. "I can't imagine what that was like for her. It's no wonder why she and Mokuba have always gotten along so well" Yugi allowed himself a lopsided grin"they're both always being used as bait."

"Not exactly something to be proud of," Kaiba grumbled.

"There are bad people in this world, Kaiba," Yugi put in. "For a long time, Marik was one of them. He came all the way to Japan only to hurt people, and to get revenge for something he didn't understand. He was full of so much hatred that it consumed him."

That explained Marik's psychotic 'other' half that appeared during Joey and Odion's duel back on the Battle Ship. But that hardly meant Kaiba was going to start believing every little thing about magic or Millennium Items that Yugi said.

"Why can't she just let go of the past, though," Kaiba asked, pressing his hands together.

_"You just wouldn't understand!"_

"What wouldn't I understand?" he asked bluntly, looking at Yugi.

"The past is what makes you who you are," Yugi started out softly. The explanation held true for everyone, not just Téa. "Téa is like you in the sense that she doesn't walk away from something unless she's sure she's learned from it- that she's gotten stronger because of it."

Kaiba paused. "Did you just compliment me?"

Yugi fixed Kaiba with a flat stare, wrinkling his lips. "Would you stay on topic, please? Besides, I've dueled you enough times to notice that much about you."

Well, that much was true. Never the same deck twice, that was Kaiba's motto.

"But in Battle City, Marik just kept taking control of her mind, and unlike Joey, Téa couldn't stop him. He did it right until the very end... so she left Battle City thinking that she got weaker, instead of stronger. Marik coming back just reminds her of that."

Much like Gozaburo's spirit appearing made the past that much more painful for Kaiba. Though he'd denied the existence of ghosts up until the last minute in a dangerous situation, part of Kaiba might have sensed the truth- and that was why he'd snapped at Téa, when he discovered she was delving through his past.

Gozaburo Kaiba had committed suicide, leaving Seto plenty of power and control, but none of the strength he'd taken away from the boy Seto had been: an innocent, wide-eyed child.

That strength had yet to return.

"Well," Yugi stood up, clapping his hands to his thighs as he rose to his feet, "I think you should go talk to her, now that you understand everything." He glanced at Kaiba with a raised eyebrow. "You _do_ understand, right?"

Kaiba nodded slowly, rising to his feet as well. "If she'll let me..." he murmured quietly. Yugi glanced back at him, but didn't say anything. Moments later, the two of them walked out of the auditorium, heading back to the stairwell door where Joey and Tristan waited.

* * *

"What do you want, Kaiba?" Tristan seethed as soon as the taller boy appeared from the auditorium. As far as Tristan was concerned, whatever Seto had said to Téa had only upset her further, so he was in no mind to be courteous to Kaiba in any size, shape or form. Téa wanted to be alone, and he would respect that- and would prevent anyone from going upstairs, even if it was her own boyfriend.

"Tristan, Joey," Yugi appeared behind Kaiba, looking to pacify his friends. "It's okay. He's going to talk to Téa."

"But Yug' I thought we said we'd-" Joey protested, but then his jaw dropped as he noticed a third presence appear from the dimly-lit auditorium.

"Let me speak to her," Marik said bluntly, though his soft tone made his words seem like less of a demand. He only glanced at Kaiba and Yugi for a moment before facing Joey and Tristan, who still blocked the door.

"Not a chance, bucko-" Tristan growled, rising to his feet. Yugi looked as though he had something to add, but he kept silent.

"What do you have to say to her?" Kaiba asked pointedly, asking the question Yugi hadn't.

"That I'm sorry," Marik answered without hesitation, surprising the others. "That people change." His words were crisp and pointed; his narrowed eyes shifted abruptly back to Kaiba, silently implying that if Kaiba could change, then so could he.

"I'm unarmed," Marik continued, pointing out that he no longer wore the thick, concealing robes of the Ghost of Christmas Yet to Come. A sweeping gesture across his casual wear -a pair of black trousers and a form-fitting, long-sleeved lavender hooded sweatshirt- revealed that there was no way he could be hiding anything that could hurt Téa. "I do not wish to hurt anyone, least of all Téa."

Kaiba's eyes narrowed at Marik's words, but he didn't say anything. He didn't trust Marik, but considering the past hour or so, he really didn't have much of a choice, did he?

"I dunno man," Joey whispered under his breath to Yugi. "If we let him go up there, shouldn't we go up there, too?"

Yugi seemed torn; Téa explicitly said she wanted to be left alone, but maybe Marik's intentions were... pure. Or as pure as they'd get for _him_, anyway. Surely he wouldn't try to throw Téa off the roof or anything. Still, Yugi was positive he couldn't be trusted. Not completely, anyway.

Almost immediately, a plan formed in his head, and he gestured toward the door, much to Joey and Tristan's astonishment. Marik glared at the both of them, and soon enough they stumbled away from the opening. Marik didn't bother looking back as he opened the door, and calmly walked up the stairs.

"Come on," Yugi whispered, motioning to Joey, Tristan, and even Kaiba. "We've gotta follow him."

* * *

She heard the door open without even turning her head.

Téa sighed to herself, wishing that her friends would keep to their word once in a while. But they probably had the best intentions in sending Seto up here-

"I want to be by myself for now, Set-" Her eyes widened when she realized it was not Seto who'd come upstairs to intrude on her night-time solitude, but Marik. Immediately, she stood up straight and stiffened; she couldn't run- the roof wasn't a very large place to begin with, and Marik was blocking the only door.

"What do you want?" she breathed quietly, her pulse beginning to race. Damn Marik for scaring her like this. Damn her own self for not being able to believe in herself the way she believed so easily in everyone else. Why was it so easy to be strong when she was already in the thick of danger, but when it skirted about her, tracing her skin and giving her goose bumps, she just stood stock-still, frozen and unable to move?

__

'I just can't... take care of myself the way I want to. I want to be strong, really I do, but... Why, then, do I need everyone else so desperately?'

"Just to talk," Marik stated quietly, raising his hands in a 'surrender' fashion, palms out and facing Téa. Her gaze was still suspicious. "Really." He even stepped away from the door as a gesture of good faith; if she wanted to, she could run right now, and he wouldn't stop her. He didn't **want** to let her go, but... if she wanted to, then... so be it.

"Five minutes," Téa whispered, looking toward the open doorway. She stepped toward it hesitantly at first, waiting to see if Marik would abruptly lunge toward her and attack her. But he made no move; he didn't even flinch. "Ten if you're on good behavior." Once in the doorway, Téa kept one foot behind her, ready so she could turn and run if necessary. Out of the corner of her eye, she spotted the door jamb, which meant she could lock Marik on the roof if the need really arose.

"I know what you're thinking," Marik began, earning a surprised stare and a raised eyebrow from Téa. He shook his head, ignoring her expression that clearly said 'Oh, really?' and he continued. "You're wondering why I'm back. If I'm here for the God Cards, or the Millennium Items, or to get my revenge. Well, I can tell you the honest truth right now: I'm not."

Téa's expression didn't change any, indicating that she still didn't believe him. Of course not; after everything he'd done last year, why would she trust him at all?

"I've actually been here for two months or so now. And you haven't heard anything about evil Rare Hunters or priceless artifact thefts now, have you?"

Forced to answer, Téa reluctantly admitted, "Well, no... not exactly."

"I couldn't stay in Egypt any longer. There is no reason for me to remain there and guard the ruins of a palace that holds no meaning for anyone yet. I couldn't stand being confined in the desert, away from the sun, away from civilization. I came back to the only place where I truly felt **free**\- here." Marik chose his words carefully, but he strongly doubted that Téa would understand the true meaning behind them.

Marik's words struck a chord in Téa. They were... ironic. She'd spent almost all her life in Japan and thought of it as a prison. The monotony, the mundane life she lived... it was all so average and boring, and for the longest time, she'd wanted nothing more than to break away. Even magical life-or-death duels offered nothing new to Téa. But with the death of her parents, everything changed.

Was it really possible that she and Marik were... alike?

"I'm here with the Egyptian Gaming exhibit from before- now it's here in Domino on permanent display," Marik frowned slightly as he continued, "on my sister's orders."

"Isis is here too?" Téa questioned. At least the older Ishtar, likely accompanied by Marik's surrogate brother Odion, could keep a close eye on the younger freedom-seeker, if need be.

"No," Marik began, watching the play of emotions flit across Téa's face. Surprise, disbelief, and finally- fear. "She insisted on remaining with Odion back in Egypt. She will not leave the ruins unattended. Too much happened the last time the Tombkeepers neglected their duty."

Téa hadn't the slightest clue what Marik was referring to; maybe he meant Pegasus, and the time he first invaded the ancient ruins, and instead of discovering necromancy magic, he found Duel Monsters?

"During the day, I supervised the exhibit set-up. At night, I attended a cram school in order for me to take the Spring semester entrance exams to this school. Thanks to my above-average history score," Marik allowed himself a coy smirk, "I was allowed entrance, with enough credits to put me in second-year standing."

"Then why haven't I seen you in class?" Téa challenged him, a fraction of a second later. She crossed her arms over her chest, quickly tiring of Marik's strange 'explanation.'

"I'm not in class 2-B," Marik responded just as promptly. "Few students seemed to recognize me from last year's tournament- but the school administration certainly did. They said there were already 'far too many celebrities' in 2-B, and so assigned me next door- to Class 2-C."

Téa looked slightly relieved, but she didn't say anything; it was obvious she was waiting for him to get to the point.

Only two minutes left.

"I hope you can understand me when I say that I have changed, Téa. I bear you and your friends no ill will, and I hope that one day, the same will be true in reverse."

It all seemed just a bit much to swallow. Marik, reformed? It was too good to be true.

"That can't be the only reason why you're here," Téa finally said, her eyebrows drawn together. Even Isis, with her first exhibition of the ancient Egyptian games, had an ulterior motive- she wanted to force Kaiba into starting Battle City. All that in order to lure duelists from around the globe to Japan to compete with one another, so Marik and his Rare Hunters would show up. In turn, Isis would enter the tournament herself and duel Kaiba in the hopes of saving her brother from the darkness.

Téa shuddered, remembering the icy, distorted voice of Dark Marik, with his throbbing veins and flashing eyes. He was even more terrifying than his other half, who hadn't been borne of hatred, but only wanted revenge for something he didn't fully understand.

"No," Marik said after a moment, breaking his gaze from Téa. "It's not." A minute later, he sighed and continued speaking, though in a softer tone. Telling her was against his better judgment, since she was directly involved -and aside from the reasons he'd already told her about, she played a major role in his coming back to Japan.

"There is a prophecy that Isis and I never told you about- inscribed upon the stones now housed at the museum. I am here to ensure," he winced, though Téa couldn't begin to fathom why, "that it comes to pass."

"What prophecy? The one about Yugi and Seto dueling to the end? Seto **is** the other person in the tablet, isn't he?" It was something never explicitly stated -not to her, anyway- but she'd always had that gut feeling.

Marik shook his head. "He is, but... it's more complicated than that. In truth..." Marik looked pained. He wanted to tell her, but doing so would only put her further down the path of danger. He couldn't reveal anything- not to her, not to anyone. Not yet. "I cannot tell you."

Téa's almost-hopeful expression deflated immediately, hurt and suspicion returning.

"I-" Marik started.

__

'I want to tell you. I want to warn you that you're in danger, but in saying so, that might cause things to happen even sooner. Unexpected events have already set the stage for things to come, and... I cannot take any further risks. I'm sorry.'

"It's... it's okay," Téa finally mumbled. "Besides, I'm guessing like all prophecies, it's not one I'd want to hear, right?"

Marik contemplated whether to be blunt and honest, or wry and humorous. Either way, she'd get the truth. "No, you would not."

Though he'd been direct about it, Téa still let out a brief chuckle, but one without any humor.

Téa finally stepped away from the doorway no longer inclined to run. Maybe... just maybe Marik was here to live the life of a 'normal' teenager. She could definitely understand his desire for freedom, even if she'd never lived under the stands of Egypt for her entire life.

She breathed in the icy December air, staring up at the cloudless, star-studded sky. Night fell on Domino, tinting the sky in rich hues of blue and violet. Briefly, Téa wondered if views like this meant anything to someone like Marik, or if he placed any stock at all in the moon, the sun, and the stars. Even when they were both dead and gone, the stars would still remain...

"Once," Marik started again, a puff of his breath appearing amidst the chilly air, "I was inside your mind."

Téa winced; she'd hoped that subject would never come up again, as it was painful enough recalling it in her own memory, let alone having her abuser stand at her side, just as changed as she was, hoping for a new lease on life.

"Though I was... ill-intentioned at the time," Marik grinned wryly, "you did leave quite a lasting impression on me. Though you were unwilling to relinquish control, while inside you, all I saw were pure emotions- worry for your friends, kindness toward others..." Marik trailed off. Initially, he'd posed as 'Namu,' and befriended Téa and the others. He suspected that she was the one most deeply wounded by his betrayal. "Even when your own life was in danger, all you thought of were your friends. I admire that, Téa. I hope you believe me when I say so."

Admiration, from a reformed killer? Sure, why not? She was in love with Kaiba, after all. Surely there were bigger things out there to surprise her.

Téa would have said something, but Marik continued, unaware that she'd even opened her mouth to speak. "All my life, I ran away- from my family, my duties, from the truth. That... **fear**," Marik grimaced, far from liking any admission of weakness he made, "led to hatred, and..."

"And the rest is history," Téa finished with a wry smile and a sigh. "I get it."

Marik glanced up at her, the beginnings of a feeble smile curling his lips. "You do? I mean- I really **do** want to try here, as strange as it sounds. I couldn't just keep living in Egypt. The Tombkeeper's lifestyle has never been the one for me."

"...I kinda figured that out, what with all the technology you were obsessed with while you were here last," Téa chuckled, remembering Marik's yacht, motorcycle... and everything else he either "borrowed" or took control of, one way or another.

"But you," Marik changed the topic abruptly. "I thought you and the Pharaoh-"

"No!" Téa interrupted him swiftly, briefly glancing toward the doorway. For a moment, she thought she saw Seto. On closer inspection, all that was there was darkness. Just a trick of the light, probably- she'd been imagining things. "I mean... you know as well as I do what has to happen to him..."

Marik favored Téa with a surprised stare. "I didn't think you knew."

Téa sighed resignedly. "I figured it out the hard way, after Battle City." After Battle City, everything changed. After all the duels, the supposedly-prophetic visions, and more than her fair share of close-calls, Téa decided once and for all that it was no use loving someone who didn't truly exist- someone who didn't even have a body to call his own.

No, Yami wasn't there to star in Téa's daydreams. He was there to solve the mysteries of his past, to give Yugi the true friend he'd never really had, and then... to get the closure he never had in life.

"He is still here, though. For a time. Why didn't you-"

"That's like asking 'why didn't you try and take over the world where duelists like us didn't exist, and you'd get no resistance?' I mean... it's in the past, okay? And... even if we'd known about other possibilities, I doubt we would have changed our minds, you know?"

Marik nodded in slow understanding, realizing what Téa was trying to say. It was pointless to reflect on actions committed to history- to the past. They could not be changed, regardless of what either of them willed. Within both of them, there'd been a shred of recognition -of acceptance and admission- that what they truly desired could never come to be, despite any few circumstances in their favor.

Despite Yugi revealing he loved her, and likely giving Téa a chance with Yami as well... Téa still couldn't imagine herself going back to that time and hurting her best friend in that way, and openly pursuing a Pharaoh who she knew belonged not to her, but to the ages.

Despite Marik having had a true brush with power and glory, he knew that if he could go back, nothing would change- the darkness in himself still would have destroyed his sanity, his very mind. He never would have known true revenge... he never would have recognized who was truly responsible for his father's death.

"I guess this is our own way of coping, huh? We lose everything, and start all over again."

"Yes. It is the same for us both."

_'How strange.' _Both of them thought it at the same time, but neither said anything aloud.

"Well, welcome to Domino High, I guess."

"...Thank you."

* * *

Téa and Marik walked downstairs together, though Téa, ever the cautious one, allowed Marik to go in front of her. She wouldn't take any chances.

"Why the Ghost of Christmas Yet to Come, anyway?" she finally asked. "I mean, why call attention to yourself like that? If you weren't in this play, it probably would have taken all of us a lot longer to notice you even came here."

"The part is fitting, is it not?" Marik asked her after a moment. trailing his hand along the metal banister. To his surprise, Téa laughed genuinely, nodding her head in agreement.

"I guess that's true. Did you know Chieko said you were-"

Suddenly Téa bumped into Marik, and she froze where she stood. Marik had stopped, staring at the shadows. Dimly illuminated by the lower stairwell, Téa caught sight of two shadows, doing their best to remain still. One was smaller than the other, but was topped with spiky hair going in several directions. The other was ridiculously tall in comparison, with a perfectly trimmed haircut and an obvious part cutting down the center of his head. Téa sighed to herself, shaking her head in resignation.

"Yugi, Seto- we can see you. And I'm okay, so will you please stop hiding?"

The shadows moved a moment later, immediately followed by a holler, "Ow, that was my foot, you nimrod!" and then a "Well, **that** wasn't my face, you idiot!" A second later, the florescent light that normally flickered in the stairwell blinked on, revealing a quartet of sheepish boys. Seto looked the least embarrassed of the bunch; his face was turned to the side with his lips set in a thin line. It was plain that he thought he was perfectly justified in being there, crammed in the tiny opening near the lower stairwell, eavesdropping on Téa and Marik.

Téa turned to Marik, ignoring the boys' antics as they tried to worm their way out of the small space they'd crammed themselves into.

"We **are** going to make this the best play Domino has ever seen, right?"

Marik smiled and then nodded firmly. "Indeed we will!"

Moments later, the other boys joined in their own hoots and hollers- all except Seto. He only stared at Téa, his expression unreadable to all present but her. She could read his eyes the way no one but Mokuba could.

_'I forgive you and... I'm sorry,'_ she mouthed in response. Seto seemed to exhale deeply, and then he turned away, opening the door back out to the hall. Téa smiled warmly, and led her pack of friends back into the auditorium for the last of their dress rehearsal.

* * *

"I'm home!"

Téa sighed. She was exhausted and hungry, and wanted nothing more than to collapse on the couch... Dance Club practice wore her out that afternoon, and she wanted to relax as much as she could before she, Mokuba, and Seto headed back to the high school for that evening's dress rehearsal.

"Seto?"

Sure enough, there he was, sitting there quietly reading a book. He didn't even blink as Téa approached- he just kept right on reading.

Téa's left eyebrow twitched. _'I don't even get a "hello" from him? That **better** be one good book.' _

Téa sidled over to the couch, sliding over the arm and edging slowly toward Seto. He still gave no indication whatsoever that he even saw her. Téa noticed with mild amusement that the book in Seto's hands was 'A Christmas Carol,' and he didn't seem to be having any trouble whatsoever with the 19th century English.

_'You've read it a hundred times before, Seto, I'm sure of it. Come on, it can't be more engrossing than me!'_ A bit jealous, Téa smirked, deciding to do whatever it took to distract her boyfriend from his reading.

She leaned closer, closer... she could smell his cologne now, but he still didn't move a muscle. Téa made to nibble on Seto's earlobe and shock him out of reading, but to her absolute astonishment, the second she leaned forward, she toppled straight **through **him!

Téa let out a scream that could have been heard around the world, if the Kaiba mansion didn't have soundproof walls. Much to her surprise, Seto flickered -a hologram- and started laughing.

She back pedaled as fast as her legs could take her, until she was panting and flushed on the coffee table beside the couch. She glanced about wildly, looking for any sign of the perpetrator- the _real_ Seto.

A few moments later, he appeared from behind the staircase, laughing in synch with his holographic self.

_'He must have been hiding in the hall heading down to the basement and the gym. He probably saw me come in and plotted this whole thing! Why that-'_

"Jerk!" Téa squealed, her face still hot. "Do you have any idea how much that scared me!"

"Hardly enough," Seto responded, still chuckling. "Consider that payback for not telling me you rewrote Scrooge's ending. You know how embarrassing that was, getting to that final scene with you last night?"

"You mean the great Seto Kaiba _gets_ embarrassed?" Téa retorted sarcastically, still clutching her chest. Her pulse was still racing, but at least her face cooled down some. She glanced sideways at the hologram. Now he was translucent- visible, but you could see the couch cushions right behind him.

"Hah." Seto pressed a small, pen-like device in his hand, signaling the holograph to disappear. "So what do you think? It's the prototype of my Active Response Holographic system."

Téa eyed Seto critically, finally relaxing as he approached her. "It was very... realistic."

"So I noticed. Were you going to bite his neck or something?"

Téa flushed scarlet again, though not because she was scared.

"No..." she mumbled quietly. Seto only smirked and leaned in closer, as though couldn't hear her.

"Speak up, please!"

"No..." Téa repeated through gritted teeth, her cheeks growing ever-redder and burning warmer. '_Stupid Seto...'_

"Then what _were_ you going to do?" Seto asked, a hint of mischief in his voice. Téa could tell by the smirk on his face that he was enjoying this far too much.

_'I'm going to shut you up, that's what!'_ Téa smiled privately to herself before bounding forward and suddenly wrapping her arms around Seto, pressing her lips against his in an unexpected, warm kiss. When she pulled away, she noted with a measure of delight that now Seto's cheeks were red, and _his_ eyes were wide.

"Just that." Téa smiled impishly, sauntering back to the table. She picked up the hologram's discarded copy of 'A Christmas Carol' and walked off with it, heading toward Seto's office. It took him a moment before everything started processing in his brain once more, and he hurried after her.

* * *

"We're going to be using the hologram in the play- just so you know," Seto smirked, obviously implying that Téa would be terrified of another twin of him appearing alongside her on stage.

"Wow, Shunsuke will be impressed. Honest-to-goodness special effects, hmm? But I didn't know you'd been working on anything for the company lately..."

"Well, there was no other way to have me be present at the same time as my past self for those scenes with Tristan," Seto reminded her. "We always had a stand-in for the rehearsals, but you know the kid who did it is terrified out of his mind of actually being on stage. Actually, I think he's part of the lighting crew. And as for work, I've cut down on my office hours- I spend more of them at home- for you and Mokuba."

Téa nodded solemnly. "How sweet of you. But you're right about the stand-in guy. The technology though- you said it's a prototype?"

Seto nodded. "It's similar to the same sort of holographic technology we use for dueling, except it's more readily programmed. It can respond to a wider variety of commands and prompts, as opposed to 'attack' and 'defend.' But so far, I've got the only one projector."

"So," Téa quirked a smile"you turned yourself into a Duel Monster?"

Seto dropped his head, sighing in resignation. "You're hopeless, you know that?"

Téa only bobbed her head in a happy nod. "Hopelessly _in love_ you mean!"

Seto looked at her with a small smile, and moved forward to embrace and kiss her- this time, of sound-enough mind to kiss her fully, and prolong the moment for as long as possible.

* * *

Five, ten, twenty- no wait, thirty-

"There's so many people..." Mokuba whispered, peering through the thick scarlet curtains.

The night of the performance had arrived at last, and the auditorium of Domino High was quickly filling up with all sorts of people.

Téa walked by him, straightening her skirt and blouse. "Got stage fright?"

Mokuba shook his head vehemently, catching sight of his brother adjusting his tie in a nearby mirror. His older brother was watching him like a hawk, and no doubt listening in too. Mokuba had to prove to his brother that he could take care of himself- and that meant not being scared of a crowd in a school auditorium. Of course, he'd always need his big brother- but he couldn't be entirely dependent on him.

Seto smiled, still glancing at Mokuba out of the corner of his eye. It was just the reassurance the younger Kaiba needed.

It _was_ his first big performance, and he had an awfully important role. Plus, he wasn't attached to Seto's character at all. He was simply playing Mokuba, the youngest brother of Yugi, with an unfortunate sickness that crippled him. As if his ragged, dirty clothes weren't enough, Mokuba made sure to practice his puppy-eyes to their fullest degree- he'd win the audience over no matter what!

He shuddered, goose bumps racing up his arms and legs. At least he wasn't in the first few scenes. He didn't come in until Seto came to Yugi's house with Joey, acting as the Ghost of Christmas Present. His next and last scene would be toward the end, when Seto had his change of heart and started treating Yugi like a human being, rather than an android to do all his bidding.

"Okay, everyone- curtain in five minutes, so get to your places!" Shunsuke called, fixing his own bow tie. He placed his top hat on his head, quirking it at a jaunty angle. He winked once at Mokuba before ushering everyone off-stage.

Not long after, Shunsuke stepped out from behind the curtain, his form highlighted by a lone, bright spotlight. With his introduction, the play began.

* * *

  
_'Darn, I'm late. Hope I haven't missed much.'_

It had been a last-minute decision on Mai Valentine's part to attend Domino High's 'A Modern Christmas Carol,' but once she arrived on the campus, she was flooded with an overwhelming sense of nostalgia. Despite knowing that the curtains opened at six o'clock, she couldn't help herself from touring the darkened, almost hallowed grounds, tracing her fingers over every bench top and stairwell banister. She even found her initials inscribed on a bench just outside the school, beneath the shadowed limbs of a leafless tree.

The branches of the frozen plum tree shuddered when an icy wind blew through them, curling through Mai's golden hair.

_'Brr- cold. Guess I better get inside.'_

The young boys working at the box office gaped at her, either stunned by Mai's beauty, or recognizing her as a famous duelist. It was more likely the former, though- after all, Domino High had more than its fair share of champion duelists within its classes.

"Why _did_ you get married?"

Mai blinked in surprise; what was Seto Kaiba doing onstage? She expected Téa to have some role in this production, being the type to seek the spotlight, but...

The blonde peered at her program in the dim lighting of the auditorium, her violet eyes widening as she caught sight of many more names besides Seto and Téa's that she recognized. Namely, that of the other person on stage with Seto...

"Why? Because I fell in love!"

_'Joey...'_

"You fell in _love_!" Seto asked incredulously. "That's just about as ridiculous as 'a merry Christmas!' Honestly, Joey!"

"Come on, Kaiba!" Joey protested. "You haven't even met Chieko! Besides," Joey straightened, putting his hands on his hips, "_you_ used to believe in love."

Mai edged her way to a seat in the rear of the auditorium, but Joey's line stopped her dead in her tracks.

_'Chieko?' The blonde girl Téa introduced me to at the festival?'_

Mai knew it was only a play, but she couldn't help the jealousy that abruptly surged through her.

Seto stopped typing on his laptop -which looked entirely too real to be a prop- and glared at Joey. "Don't even start." Seto cast a sideways glance at -was that _Yugi_\- as if ensuring that the smaller boy was busy working, and not listening in on their conversation.

"It's the truth!" Joey retorted. "Back in college, you used to be _fun_! I kept tellin' Chieko all about you, and now she wants to meet you- come on, Kaiba, we're still buddies, aren't we?"

Mai had to stifle her laughter by putting her hand over her mouth. No one else in the audience was laughing, but that was probably because they didn't know Joey and Kaiba as well as she did.

_'Seto Kaiba and Joey Wheeler- friends? Yeah, right- when pigs fly.'_

It was all very amusing. This certainly wasn't the version of 'A Christmas Carol' that Mai once read in Miss Ninomiya's English class so many years ago.

"Joey- look, I have to work. Would you just go?" Seto seemed to be trying his hardest to mask the exasperation that was plain on his face.

_'Hmph. Never thought Kaiba had it in him to be an actor.'_ But he wasn't half-bad, really.

Joey's hopeful expression deflated, and he shoved a hand in his pocket. He grabbed a gift bag he'd tossed on a nearby chair and sighed.

"Well, if you change your mind- you know where I'm at."

Seto only grunted in response, waving Joey goodbye without saying a word.

"Merry Christmas, Yug'!" Joey called to Yugi, who was still busily filing stacks upon stacks of papers into a nearby cabinet. Yugi was supposed to be freezing, judging by the way he shuddered and trembled, but he was a far warmer character than Seto's Scrooge-like persona; he warmly offered a 'Merry Christmas' in kind to Joey, even if the two weren't best friends in the play, as they were in reality.

_'Merry Christmas... hmm.'_

* * *

A few minutes later, the scene transitioned to later in the evening, with Yugi propositioning his employer for Christmas Day off. After much arguing and rationalizing -the latter entirely on Yugi's part- Yugi was given the time off work. He excitedly finished his work, and brightened even more when Téa stepped on-stage.

"Ready to go, Yugi?"

At that moment, Kaiba stepped back onstage, as though he'd been working in another office and walked back out to tell Yugi something. His eyes widened as he froze, regarding Téa with surprise.

"What are you doing here?"

Téa looked up at Kaiba, her expression calm but her eyes narrowed. "I _did_ have a life and friends before meeting you, Kaiba," she responded icily. "Now if you'll excuse me- my _friend _Yugi and I are going out for dinner."

The two of them walked off stage while Kaiba stood and stared- until he too, finally sighed and exited in the opposite direction.

The curtains closed at last, signaling the end of the first scene.

* * *

He'd let his other remain in control for the entirety of the first act, but Bakura knew the story of 'A Christmas Carol' well enough -ironic, really- and immediately suppressed his other self at the start of the next act.

Téa would be back on stage soon, and this time for more than a brief, three-minute appearance.

_'Hmph. Tristan as the Ghost of Christmas Past? How pathetic.'_ Tristan also doubled as a charity clerk appearing sporadically in the first and final acts- the point of which was to jolt Seto Kaiba's 'Scrooge' character into recognizing aspects of his life that were sending him down the spiral of desolation. If he didn't make any changes, he would end up like his dead and chained business partner 'Marley,'- ironically, a ghostly figure bearing a striking resemblance to the Dark Magician.

Now Kaiba watched as the Ghost of Christmas Past led him through many scenes of his life- from childhood, when he was the most studious one in a crowd of his more playful peers, up until his young adulthood, and his first job working at a toy company known as "Fezziwig's." More ghostly reflections of the past- causing even Bakura himself to wonder. It was simply not possible for there to be multiple Seto Kaibas, but there they were.

But the fool didn't believe in nor possess any magic, so that left only one possibility: technology. The other young Setos had to be holograms or something similar. Each and every one of them artificial, from the child with wide blue eyes, to the young man only a few years short of the real Kaiba's performance-only post-college age. He wore a deep blue trench coat and an teal shirt with matching slacks- an echo of the outfit that he'd worn when Bakura first saw him in this lifetime. It was the same outfit that Kaiba wore to Duelist Kingdom...

_'Fitting, in a strange way.'_

This younger Seto Kaiba was speaking to a nicely-dressed Téa, who was sitting on stone park bench with her hands clasped together and her faced turned away. The rest of the park was empty, frozen-over and colored in shades of decay: brown, black, and icy blues and grays. A building sporting the Kaiba Corporation logo towered in the distance. The stage quite literally seemed to be set for Seto's future as a leading businessman- and one of the most known greedy, workaholics of his time. Or so the story went.

"Téa, we just have to wait- it's impossible for us to be together right now."

"Only impossible because you want it that way," Téa responded quietly. "I've been replaced."

"What are you talking about?" the holographic Seto demanded. "Replaced by what?"

When Téa finally looked up, the whole audience could see tears shimmering in her eyes, wholly authentic. "A golden idol- or maybe a bank full of yen."

_'You should know better than to get involved with him, Téa,'_ Bakura smirked to himself. _'In every lifetime, power will be his priority- no matter how he has to attain it, or at what cost.'_

The irony of his own thoughts were lost on Bakura; his gaze remained fixed on Téa and her every move. It hardly mattered that she couldn't see him- it was probably better that way. All Bakura cared about was that the odd connection he'd felt with her- it had returned once more, and his only goal was to explore it completely. But the question persisted- did she feel it too?

"That's not true," Seto argued, his voice startlingly soft. Further to stage-right, his older self watched with an expressionless face. He was obviously trying not to be moved by the scene- watching himself make what was undoubtedly the biggest mistake of all his years.

"It is so!" Téa cried, rising. "You loved me once- you made time for me. Now, everything is about your business, about _money_!"

"How can we possibly be happy if we have no way to support ourselves, Téa? I-"

"Just don't!" Téa whispered harshly, though loud enough for the audience to hear. "All I needed -all I ever wanted- was you." She turned around, her back to both Setos, and a soft piano intro filtered in. Hushed whispers filled the auditorium as the young girl began to sing.

"There was a time when I was sure that you and I were truly one... that our future was forever, and would never come undone. And we came so close to being close, and though you cared for me, there's distance in your eyes tonight, so we're not meant to be."

Bakura hadn't even realized that his jaw had dropped -just a few centimeters, really- but once he did, he quickly snapped his mouth shut.

A strange connection, and a beautiful, haunting voice. A familiar dance...

"The love is gone... the love is gone. The sweetest dream that we have ever known! The love is gone... the love is gone. I wish you well, but I must leave you now alone." Téa danced alone while Tristan and the two Setos watched, an artificial snow drifting down onto the stage in light flurries.

"There comes a moment in your life -like a window- and you see your future there before you, and how perfect life can be!" Téa sang in her soft soprano. A gentle smile blossomed on her lips, but quickly faded as she continued to sing and sway across the stage. "But adventure calls with unknown voices... pulling you away. Be careful or you may regret the choice you made someday..."

Téa repeated the chorus, additional instruments filtering into the song from the orchestra pit at the base of the stage. The audience sat enraptured, all of them watching in awe. For his part, Bakura couldn't tear his eyes away from her- he felt so insanely close to solving the mystery of his bizarre connection to Téa... but what _was_ it?

"It was almost love. It was almost always. It was like a fairytale, we'd live out: you and I! And yes, some dreams come true" Téa moved toward the younger Seto, gently laying her hand on his before moving away. "Yes, some dreams fall through... And yes, the time has come for us to say goodbye!"

Now. Téa stopped dancing, and the snow ceased falling. The older Seto, watching from the side, watched brokenly, amazingly looking as though he were about to cry. It was an expression Bakura never imagined he would have seen on Seto's face- not in thousands of years. He mouthed the final words of the song right along with Téa, his gaze never leaving her, even as she moved off stage.

"Yes, some dreams come true... Yes, some dreams fall through. Yes, the time has come for us to say goodbye..."

"Spirit, remove me from this place," Seto muttered to Tristan, the former boy doing an awfully good job pretending that he was on the verge of tears.

Tristan just shook his head, his bizarre gray suit draped with filmy fabric glowing with an odd light. "I told you- these are the shadows of things that have been. They are what they are, do not blame me!"

"Spirit, _leave_ me!" And then the stage went black.

* * *

Seto awoke, once more in his bed. He bolted upright for a split second and then, feigning exhaustion, slipped back into sleep once more. The stage was dimly lit for only a few moments before a brilliant light and a booming, chuckling voice sounded from the darkest side.

"Haha, come on in, and know me better!" It was Joey's laugh all right, but he was concealed by thick, gauzy curtains illuminated from behind. When Seto, still clad in pajamas, threw back the curtains, he gasped.

"Joey, what the heck!"

"I am the Ghost of Christmas Present. Like the Spirit who appeared ta ya before me, I take the form of someone in ya life who touched ya heart in some way. Come in, and get ta know me better!"

So it wasn't really Joey- but it was, in an odd sense. This time, he wasn't wearing a suit, but a fuzzy green bathrobe trimmed with white fur. As if that ridiculous outfit weren't enough, he wore a garland of holly and ivy twined in his hair, tangling in and out of the dirty blond locks as if the wreath grew from his head.

The curtained-off area resembled Seto's bedroom, but it was decorated with bright candles and holly berries, plates of glistening food heaped high on ornately carved tables, and colors shining from every direction. Seto seemed a bit reluctant as he stepped forward and observed his re-decorated room with a measure of awe.

"You've never seen anyone like me before!" the Sprit exclaimed jovially. "That is to say, not one that can do as I can!"

"Never," Seto responded with a brief nod.

"Have you never met any of those who came before me, my brothers who have come to this place?"

"I'm afraid not," Seto responded. "How many brothers do you have?"

"Over two thousand!" the Phantom responded proudly with a nod of his head. He then rose to his feet.

"Spirit, take me where you want. I-I learned a lesson from the Ghost of Christmas Past, a lesson which is working even now. If you have something to teach me, then let me profit by it."

The Ghost broke out into a wide, pleased grin, and moved forward. "Touch my robe."

Seto did so -hesitating just a bit, much to the audience's amusement- and held fast. Quite abruptly, everything that once decorated Seto's bedroom vanished in a great burst of light, the authentic smells drifting away with the images. The audience gasped in awe and surprise, amazed at the display of special effects- or perhaps, a touch of genuine Christmas magic.

Another moment later, the stage darkened and then brightened again, revealing Seto standing with Joey in the middle of Domino, with people milling about. A light snow fell on the town, but everyone seemed deliriously happy and excited despite the cold. It was Christmas Day.

They walked around the town, observing merry revelers everywhere, from the poorest homeless person to the most fur-swathed woman, tottering by in stiletto heels. Eventually, they made their way to a part of the stage with a set designed to look like the Turtle Game Shop, complete with the tiny residence just above the store.

When they stepped inside, Seto was astonished- a beautiful older girl hunched over a meager stove, while a girl just a bit younger than her set the dining table. From off-stage, two rambunctious twin girls came in, hollering and giggling that 'Big Brother' was on his way back with the Christmas goose, and that they'd smelled it cooking in the butcher's, and known that it was their goose, without a single doubt in their minds. Another young man appeared on-stage, straightening a collar a few sizes too big for him. He kept fiddling with his too-big collar and sleeves, trying to assist by blowing on a pudding cooking on the range.

When another young lady appeared, the wide stage set as the insides of Yugi's house suddenly seemed cramped. Already, there were five people bustling about, and Yugi and Mokuba weren't even on stage yet.

"Big Brother's coming!" one of the twins squealed"Hide Big Sister, hide" The newest party member ducked behind a large, old chair draped with fabric, invisible to the side of the stage from where Yugi was expected to appear.

Yugi entered, with Mokuba amazingly hoisted on his shoulder, the two of them draped with a tattered blanket. Yugi himself wore the same suit as before, though with him standing up and facing the audience, it was easier to see how worn the suit was in places- though it had apparently been mended to look nice for the holiday.

The second-eldest girl appeared prematurely from behind her hiding spot, greeting Yugi with a happy hug.

The two twin girls squealed once more and picked up Mokuba, barely giving the boy a chance to put down his small crutch. They all hurried off-stage, claiming that he had to wash his hands before they had dinner.

Akane, playing Yugi's dutiful girlfriend, smiled. "How was he at the volunteer center, today?"

"As good as gold and better," Yugi responded softly. He glanced at his other 'siblings,' busying themselves by readying the house. "Akane, you don't have to do this."

"I want to, Yugi" Akane responded in a happy whisper.

"But you could be spending Christmas with _your_ family."

"You _are_ my family!" Akane hugged Yugi, unaware of the scarlet blush that covered the shorter boy's cheeks. "You and all your brothers and sisters. Ever since your grandpa passed away, all of you have been having such a hard time. I want to help out because I can- because I should. Because I love you, Yugi. Isn't that enough?"

Yugi was still blushing, but he nodded by bobbing his head twice.

"Mokuba gets thoughtful, sitting by himself while we prepare dinner over there..." Yugi went back to telling Akane about their time at the volunteer center. "He says the strangest things sometimes. He said he hoped that everyone saw him, because he's a cripple, and would remember on Christmas Day, who made lame men walk and blind men see." Yugi's voice trembled when saying this, the pride for his 'little brother' evident.

"I keep wondering if Mokuba has your mother's religious spirit," Akane whispered. "She was always a very active church-goer."

Yugi nodded solemnly, then shook his head a moment later. "Mokuba never met Mother. She died when he was born..." Akane only nodded in silent agreement.

A second later, the twins came back with Mokuba, and shortly thereafter, they rushed off to fetch the goose. When they came back, there was a great to-do, so much so that anyone watching would have thought that a goose was the rarest of all birds, even more phenomenal than the black swan. But in the meager household of the Motos, the goose was exactly that- a rare and very special treat.

Mokuba sat in the smallest chair at the table and beat on the table with the handle of his knife, issuing a feeble 'Hurrah!' when Akane cut open the goose and allowed the applesauce and stuffing mixture to gush forth.

Akane passed out plates with meager portions of mashed potatoes, divided up as evenly as possible given that there were seven of them. There was a precious china boat in which steaming gravy simmered; Akane kindly reprimanded any of the siblings who poured more than their fare share over their slice of goose. Between the lot of them, a single person barely got more than a wing or a leg, but no one seemed to take notice or have the heart to complain. To them, it was a royal feast!

Sage and onions to their eyebrows, pudding up to their ears- though to Seto, watching the proceedings with the Ghost of Christmas Present at his side, noted that he'd seen pigeons peck at more food than the family had on their plates.

At last the dinner was finished and cleared away, and a piping hot jug of cider was brought forth, poured into small plastic cups. Yugi held up his cup in a toast, ignoring the burning heat pressing against his palm through the plastic. "A toast! A Merry Christmas to us all, every one" Yugi's siblings all cheered, and Akane raised in own cup in silent agreement. Once the cups were suitably tapped together, they all took a sip, hissing at the spicy heat that assaulted their tongues.

"To Mr. Kaiba!" Yugi announced, raising his cup once more. Seto blinked, edging forward, thinking for a moment that Yugi could hear him. But the Ghost of Christmas Past told him explicitly- no one could see, hear, or otherwise sense him, not in the slightest. "The founder of the feast!"

The table went quiet, the siblings looking uneasily from Akane to Yugi and back again. If the expression on Akane's face was any indication, it was clear she didn't agree with Yugi's toast.

"The founder of the feast indeed!" Akane cried, her face growing red. "I wish I had him here. I'd give him a piece of my mind to feast on- and I hope he'd choke on it!"

"Choke!" The twins echoed before bursting into a fit of giggles.

"Toasting a man so revolting, heartless, stingy, and unfeeling," Akane continued, her voice growing louder with each word. "You know Kaiba is just that, Yugi- you know better than anyone else!"

"A-Akane... the kids... Christmas Day!" Yugi began hesitantly.

Akane dropped into her seat once more. She busied herself by primly adjusting her worn skirt prettied up with some old ribbon. "I'll drink for your health and the Day's," Akane murmured. "But not for his. Long life to him! And a Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year! He'll be very merry and happy, no doubt!"

"No doubt!" The twins repeated once more, imitating Akane's staunch expression. She raised her cup and drank from it, taking only the tiniest sip in favor of Seto Kaiba. The other children followed suit, but not Mokuba- he raised his cup and drank the whole of it, toasting Mr. Kaiba in the loudest voice he could manage, given his role as a feeble youth.

"Spirit," Seto began in a low voice, "tell me if Mokuba will live."

It took a great deal of practice to say that line without getting choked up by the slightest bit of emotion. Considering that Seto Kaiba was, in reality, known for being rather emotionless and hard-shelled, asking such a question about his own brother took a vast amount of resilience. But in this performance, Mokuba wasn't his brother at all- he was his own person, and a cheerful, hopeful young man, despite all that life had thrown at him.

"I see a vacant seat," Joey responded gruffly"in the corner near the stove, and a crutch without an owner- carefully preserved. If these shadows remain unaltered by the future, Mokuba will die."

"No!" This time, Seto was allowed to let emotion come through, his voice breaking at the right moment. "No, Spirit, say he will be spared!"

"If these shadows remain unaltered by the Future," Joey repeated, "then no more of my race will find him here. What then?" Joey shrugged. "If he's gonna die, he'd better do it- and decrease the surplus population!"

Seto fell back, stunned- his own words thrown back at him by a once-jolly Ghost. In the first scene, he'd said those very same words, speaking to Tristan, a representative of a charity seeking donations. Seto, being the 'miser' he was, turned him down flat, claiming there was enough space in homeless shelters and prisons to prevent him from _needing_ to donate a single yen. When Tristan countered by saying that most would rather die than go to such horrible places, Seto only shouted the same words as the Ghost of Christmas Present now repeated to him.

They suddenly sounded so much more awful than they ever had before.

Seto looked about, inspecting the tender Moto family once more. They weren't much- a feeble group in a tiny house. They weren't particularly handsome or pretty in any respect, nor were they well-dressed or well-fed. Judging by the pots and plastic tubs on the floor, they were far from being water-proof, and their garments had probably seen more owners than Seto had- and he was someone who owners of everything great and small turned to, for any sort of monetary loan.

"Come." Joey had only to say a word, and the set darkened once more, the slightest of clatters indicating a change of location. When the lights brightened once more, there was a puffy couch situated on the far left of the stage, Joey returned to his suit, though he'd disposed of the jacket by draping it over the sofa's back. Surrounding him were other people, all smiling gaily, while Chieko sat prettily at his side, wearing a fancy velvet dressed trimmed with rhinestones.

Beside Seto, the Ghost of Christmas Present remained- though only those in the cast were aware that the Ghost was merely a hologram, programmed with a certain set of functions and commands.

"So, we'll play a game, okay?" Joey suggested, ignorant of his other self and Seto, standing on the right of the stage. Everyone around him laughed and nodded in hearty agreement.

"Twenty Questions?" Chieko suggested, and everyone agreed. All decided that Joey should go first, though a sly smile crept up the host's face as he thought of something.

"Is it an animal?"

"Yep," Joey responded. During previous rehearsals, he'd teased Seto by naming him a 'vegetable,' and alternately accusing him of being as hard-hearted as a 'mineral,' but since his playful jokes only served to frustrate Shunsuke, he ceased to crack them during this final performance.

"A live animal? One that still exists?"

Again, Joey nodded. His guests pounded him with question after question- was it a disagreeable animal, like a bat or a rat? Yes, it was awfully disagreeable, but it was no bat or rat. Was it savage? Indeed, very much so, but no, not a cat or feline of any sort. Only sometimes did this animal growl and grunt and speak, and yes, it could be found within Domino. But it walked about the streets of its own accord, not led by anyone, or made a show of. It didn't live in a zoo, was never killed in a market, and wasn't a horse, donkey, cow, bull, dog, pig, bear or cockroach.

With each new question Joey looked closer and closer to bursting at the seams with laughter, his face reddening so much that he started to resembled a tomato. Whatever the true answer was, it obviously amused him so much that he never went a round without laughing heartily. At one point, he toppled off the backside of the couch and started to hit his hand on the nearby table, howling with laughter.

"I've got it!" Chieko exclaimed, at last understanding the source of her 'husband's' amusement.

"You do? What is it?"

Chieko grinned, "It's your old friend Seto Kaiba!"

Howls of laughter erupted from the gathering and the audience alike, with some of Joey's revelers pointing out that the "Is it a bear?" question should have been answered in the positive, and they may have thought of Kaiba before Chieko.

"He's given us plenty of amusement today, despite refusing to be here. A toast to my old pal Kaiba's health!" He raised a glass with some warm cider in it, toasting his friend.

"To Kaiba!" the rest of the guests cried in jest, raising their own glasses and downing them.

Kaiba, who'd dared to participate in Joey's game for a few moments, fell silent once it was revealed that he was the butt of their jokes. But he couldn't hate Joey for it, nor his beautiful wife or any of their friends.

"I deserve it," Kaiba mumbled, though the Spirit beside him seemed to disagree. During the course of the game, the Ghost had been programmed to age, and now Joey's hair fell to his shoulders, streaked with white and gray. A five o'clock shadow washed over his face, giving him quite the appearance of a haggard old man.

Soon enough, they were back outside in the cold, and with the help of blue lighting, it seemed as though night had fallen on Domino. The set glowed with phosphorescent paint, glowing where neon city lights normally would have twinkled in Christmas celebration.

"Are Spirits' lives so short?" Seto asked of the holographic Joey, noting his aged appearance.

Joey nodded solemnly, the wreath on his head quickly decaying into dead leaves and rotting berries. "It ends tonight- at midnight."

Seto noted something odd protruding from underneath Joey's long, and now tattered bathrobe.

"Forgive me if I'm not supposed to ask this of you, Spirit, but I see something strange and not belonging to yourself, coming from your robe. Is it a foot or a claw?"

"It might as well be a claw," the Spirit responded sorrowfully, beginning to fade, "for there is flesh on it. Look here."

From the fold of the clothes, two holographic children appeared, just as faded as he, but with vastly different faces. They were wretched and hideous, with wrinkled skin spread taut over visible bones, and deep, lightless eyes sunk deep into the caverns of their skulls. A boy and a girl both, with tattered clothing and yellowed nails, stringy hair and pale cheeks.

They both clung to the Ghost, prostrate in humility, clinging as if desiring something only the fading Spirit could give.

Seto tried to say something, but his voice came out choked; it would have been a complete lie if he'd said they were fine children, and after all he'd learned with the Spirit at his side, he could say nothing of such falsehood. Instead, he said, "Spirit, are they yours?"

"They are humanity's," the Ghost responded. "They cling to me, beggin' on behalf of their fathers. The boy's Ignorance, and the girl's Want. Beware them both in all their power, but most of all beware this boy, for on his brow I see written the word 'Doom,' unless it somehow be erased."

"Have they no resources- no refuge?" Seto asked softly. Though he'd created the holograms on his own, staying true to both the original story and Téa's bizarre adaptation, the two phages never ceased to amaze and disgust him.

"Are there no prisons? No homeless shelters?" The Ghost again echoed words Seto himself once spoke, shaking his head as he did so. Ivy leaves and holly berries began to fall off his head, disappearing into nothingness.

A sounding of deep chimes ringing twelve rose from the Orchestra Pit, and when Seto looked about again, the Ghost and its children were gone.

* * *

The echoes of the final tolling of the bell continued to resound throughout the auditorium, even as deep fog covered the floor of the stage, signaling the entrance of the Ghost of Christmas Yet To Come. The lighting changed from a light, bright blue offset by white light to an ominous dark light, filtered onto the stage through various materials. The whole area appeared quite like an empty, solemn graveyard, with Seto standing alone and tall amongst the dead stones at his side.

It was then that Seto truly grasped what Akane had told him earlier- that Marik had the ability to stand there and somehow emanate an aura of intimidation. Only in that moment, surrounded by dim light and cold, artificial fog, did Seto possess even the slightest amount of fear toward his co-star and once-rival. Supposedly, Marik was a different person- with new goals in life, new aspirations to reach for. So why did he still make Seto so uneasy?

Seto wasn't the only one- hidden by the darkness of the audience, Mai felt her heart clench. It suddenly became very difficult to breathe, her chest feeling as though it bore the weight of an entire building on it. But she couldn't look away. Something about this rewritten 'Christmas Carol,' something about Téa, Yugi, Joey, Tristan... something about the Ghost of Christmas Yet To Come...

A few aisles up and to Mai's right, Bakura sat- his eyes narrowed. He knew who stood cloaked underneath the graying, shredded robes of the Ghost. He knew without Marik so much as showing a single inch of skin, or his unusual lavender eyes. Other people might have been able to make the connection, based on the shining chain marked with the Eye of Horus on its pendant. But Bakura knew...

_'Another obstacle to remove.'_

Not in the least bit aware of Mai's discomfort or Bakura's resolution, the audience continued to watch the proceedings of the second-to-last scene, enraptured.

"Am I in the presence of the Ghost of Christmas Yet To Come?" Seto finally uttered, his voice low. The Spirit, as expected, did not answer, but lifted a hand and pointed onward.

Those in the first several rows of the audience could easily see the hand didn't look the least bit human- it was far too large, far too long, and a nasty mixture of gray and green- the color of decayed flesh. What the audience didn't know was that it was a perfectly healthy human beneath those robes- simply wearing stuffed gloves smothered in oil paints and petroleum jelly.

"You are about to show me the shadows of things that have not happened, but will happen in the time before us," Seto persisted. "Is that so, Spirit?"

The one thing Marik had to be good at for his role as the Ghost was giving silent answers- indicated only by slight gestures. His character embodied fear, mystery, and the unknown. He had no voice, only movement. Marik moved slowly, the hood of his robe contracting. To the audience, it seemed as those he had just barely inclined his head- and that was the only answer Seto Kaiba received.

Though he'd already encountered two Spirits, this one seemed to instill a greater sense of fear in Seto than either of the previous ones. His legs seemed strangely unsteady, so much so that he found himself unable to move when the Ghost started to move forward. The Ghost glanced back momentarily, noticing Seto's condition, and he paused, allowing the young man behind him time to recover.

Seto swallowed hard, his face a mix of determination and fear. What he didn't say was plainly expressed on his face; though hidden by the dusky shroud of the Spirit's robes, ghostly eyes peered at him intently, examining his every move and expression. Not being able to see the Ghost's eyes put him at an unnerving disadvantage, and it showed in Seto's body movement.

"Ghost of the Future," Seto exclaimed, his voice unnaturally loud, "I fear you more than any other specter I have yet seen. But I know you're here to do me good, and as I hope to change and become another man from what I was, I am prepared to accompany you, and do so with a thankful heart." Seto paused, sucking in a breath. "Will you not speak to me?"

The Ghost only pointed once more, remaining silent.

"Lead on," Seto said, swallowing the lump in his throat. "Lead on, for I know that time is against us."

The Ghost moved slightly, Seto abruptly standing in its shadow. In that moment, darkness swallowed the stage, broken only by speckles of bright light moving faster than anyone could imagine.

Momentarily, the two stood amidst the gray city, the once bright and neon background blurred and faded. The light sounds of rain echoed in the distance, presenting a more dismal scene than any before. People milled about, but not at all like the jovial crowd the Ghost of Christmas Present had showed him. Salarymen in suits rushed back and forth, some of them rolling up their sleeves to inspect gold watches. A few of them clumped together beneath a lamp-post, toward which the Ghost pointed.

Seto noted that the Ghost's hand pointed in the general direction of this first group, and so he edged forward to listen to their conversation.

"No," said one of the salarymen, "I don't know much about it, either way. All I know is- he's _dead_." The last word of the man's sentence was spoken in an ominous voice, one that prompted his companions to chuckle lightly.

"When did he die?" asked another.

"Last night, I believe," the first man responded, staring off at the audience as though waiting for a bus to come rolling down the aisles.

"Why, what was the matter with him?" a third man inquired, looking surprised. "He always seemed pretty healthy to me. I thought he'd never die."

"God knows," said the first with a yawn.

"What has he done with his money is the more important question!" pointed out a fourth, red-faced one, who sounded awfully congested.

"I haven't heard," the first man replied once more. "Left it to his company, I suppose. He hasn't left it to _me_, that's all I know." This earned a general laugh all around, but filled with only wry humor.

"It's likely to be a very cheap funeral," the first man continued. "For the life of me, I don't know anyone who'd go to it."

"Especially not after that tabloid incident with that young man and that lady. I suppose they may have had something to do with him at one time, but they certainly won't now."

"We could always make up a party and volunteer," the first man put in.

"I don't mind if lunch is provided," the congested man said. "But if I'm going to show my face at _his_ funeral, I'd better be fed."

Another laugh.

"Well despite it being my suggestion, I'm probably the least interested out of this whole bunch- I never wear black if I can help it," he gestured to his light gray suit and blue tie, "and I never eat lunch. But I'll offer to go, if anyone else will. Now that I think of it, I suppose I might be the closest thing to a friend- whenever we spotted each other on the street, we did stop and speak."

"If you can call his one-word comments 'speaking'," one of the other men put in sarcastically. The men laughed once more, and parted ways, leaving an obviously confused Seto Kaiba standing in their wake. He recognized most of those salarymen- none of them worked for him directly, but he'd had business dealings of various sorts with them, or else respected them as fellow businessmen. But their words made no sense to him, and it seemed as though the Ghost of Christmas Yet To Come was no more inclined to speak on the matter than he had been before.

The Phantom glided down the street, his movements carefully choreographed so as to appear as though he were drifting through the masses, instead of between the people. Though Seto knew he wasn't part of this world, this future, he still couldn't rid himself of the habit of dodging jostling shoulders and pushy arms.

The Ghost pointed to two more people speaking -these quite familiar to Seto. They were the heads of two prestigious companies with whom he'd made major deals- so said Seto in soft observance, knowing that he would get no reply from the Ghost.

"How are you doing?" one said to the other. The greeting was repeated; it was all just a matter of formality between businessmen.

"So did you hear? The brat finally gave in."

"He bit off more than he could chew, that's for sure" the second man returned. "He's really dead then, hm?"

"Hm." The first man nodded, then buttoned up the last few buttons on his coat. "Cold, isn't it?"

"Seasonable for this time of year," the second man responded. "You're not a skater, I suppose?"

The first businessman laughed sharply, his voice coming out as a husky bark. "No, no. Something else to think off. Well, I'm off."

There wasn't another word. That was the extent of their meeting, their conversation, and their parting.

Seto turned a quizzical gaze toward the Ghost; why would the spirit attach such importance to such trivial conversations? But no, they had to have a hidden purpose. There was simply no reason else why the Ghost would have pointed the salarymen and business brokers out to him. So that meant Seto had to figure out the meaning behind their words on his own. The first clue he had was that someone had obviously died- but it couldn't be Marley, since that happened in the Past, and this Spirit's domain was that of the Future.

After much low musings under his breath, Seto realized he didn't know anyone to whom the conversations would apply. But maybe it didn't _have_ to be anyone he knew immediately- perhaps it was simply a matter of taking in the moral of this man's death, and treasuring every word he heard, in order to learn from them.

Perhaps if he saw his future self and how he acted, it would solve all these riddles floating around in his brain.

Seto searched for himself amongst the crowds; if the clock on the nearby tower was any indication, he should be in the area any moment now. But minutes passed, and still Seto saw no sign of his future self.

"Maybe I've come to my senses in this time and gotten away from that godforsaken stuffy office," Seto grumbled to no one in particular. For a while now, he'd been contemplating a change of life, and so maybe these shadows of the future represented his newborn resolutions achieved.

It was then that Seto realized that the Spirit was again pointing, still standing as quiet and dark as ever. Seto dared to look up toward the mass of black that concealed Marik's face; he shuddered visibly, unnerved by how well his once-rival was concealed by his hood and robe.

The stage dimmed and blackened again, the setting now that of a less-than-favorable part of Domino, replete with dank alleys and dirty, abandoned buildings. The Ghost and Seto moved toward one building in particular, the curtains in the window faded, stained, and torn. The paint on the door was chipped, and graffiti covered every square inch of rotting brick that made up the rest of the place.

The lights brightened on this new set, a tiny room cluttered up with an assortment of things ranging from old tea sets to worn furniture. A student dressed up like an old man shuffled from corner to corner, occasionally returning to a disheveled desk to glance at some paperwork. Only moments into observing the place, a woman carrying a heavy bundle slunk into the shop, followed by another woman similarly laden and finally, a man wearing faded black.

The three of them seemed briefly astonished to be meeting one another in this place and this time, but their blank astonishment disappeared soon enough, replaced by jovial smiles and dark laughter.

"I'll be going first," said the women who'd entered before the others. "Sarako with her laundry will be second, and Mr. Undertaker will go third."

"Moe, I wish you'd just call me Yahiko," the undertaker grumbled under his breath, his chin just about touching his chest. The first woman didn't pay Yahiko any attention, and instead grinned strangely at the old man, the apparent owner of the cluttered pawn shop.

"Well come in, come in, then," the old man exclaimed. "None of you are strangers here, you all know that! But close the door behind you- how it squeaks! There's no rustier piece of metal in this world than those hinges there, and no bones older than mine!" The old man gave a barking laugh, and moved further into the tiny space. He brushed aside some moth-bitten cloths hanging from a bar- poorly serving as curtains that divided the store from the man's sad excuse for an entertaining room.

Moe threw her bundle on the floor and sat on a nearby stool with a measure of defiance gleaming in her eyes. She stared boldly at the other two, silently challenging them to present something better than what she had. It was obvious that they all sought to exchange their goods for money, but the only thing that mattered was who got the most money for what.

"Well, every person's got a right to take care of themselves," Moe pointed out, defending herself though no accusations had been made. "_He _always did."

"That's true," Sarako echoed. "No man more so than him."

"Well don't stand there looking afraid!" the pawn broker chided Sarako. "No one's the wiser for you bringing his old goods here, and it's not as if _we'll_ be picking holes in each other's coats, correct?"

"No, indeed!" exclaimed Yahiko and Moe at the same time.

"Fine, then!" Sarako burst out at last, exhaling deeply. "That's enough. Who's the worse for the loss of a few things like these, anyway? Not a dead man, I suppose."

"If he wanted to keep them after he was dead, then why wasn't he more personable in his lifetime? He'd have had someone take care of him or something, and maybe he wouldn't as stubborn and alone as he was."

"But he _was_ stubborn and alone," Moe persisted, "and it's all the truest words ever spoken. It's a judgment on him."

"I wish it was a bit of a heavier judgment," Sarako sighed.

"Maybe then we could have all laid our hands on something better than what we three got away with, hmm? Well, open that bundle, Jogen. We all know what we were doing before we met here. Tell me if it's worth anything- I'm not afraid to be the first, or to let the others see it. It's no sin. Go on and open it, Jogen."

But Moe's words incited an odd sense of bravery in her companions; Yahiko the Undertaker presented his bundle first, revealing a small scattering of objects: a musical snow globe with a good third of its water evaporated away, a few sets of cuff-links, and a brooch of no great value. That was all.

Jogen examined each of the items carefully, and then scribbled the amount he'd pay for them -non-negotiable- on a corner of recycled brown paper.

"Funny, this," Jogen held the brooch up to the light. "It's a woman's."

Moe and Sarako exchanged a surprised, then thoughtful glance. It was Sarako who spoke first. "Do... do you think it was _hers_?"

"Most likely. I don't know any other woman who was ever close enough to him. But don't you worry, Yahiko," Jogen smiled widely, revealing blackened and yellowed teeth. "After that last row the two of them had before he died, I doubt she'll be coming to reclaim this. It's not worth much anyhow, but then again, she was never a very rich girl."

"So you don't think he bought it for her and took it back after they- you know, went Splitsville" Moe queried with a raised eyebrow.

Jogen shook his head in the negative. "Highly unlikely." And that was all he said on the matter before moving on to Sarako's bundle.

As Moe observed earlier, it was indeed laundry that Sarako carried with her- sheets and towels, to be precise. Bundled up amongst them were silk pajamas, a few pieces of silverware, and a portion of a tea set, with china cups and saucers.

Jogen held the pajamas in his hands momentarily before turning an astonished glance toward Sarako. "They're still warm." A pause. "I don't pay extra for warmth, you know."

"You should!" Sarako snapped in an uncharacteristic display of boldness. "It was the only warmth he ever had!"

They all laughed, but Jogen wrote Sarako's account on another corner of paper, tearing it off and handing it to her. He sighed melodramatically while he did so. "I always give too much to ladies. It's a weakness of mine, and the way I ruin myself. But I warn you, Sarako, if you ask me for another yen, I'll knock off a thousand from my asking price."

Sarako smiled weakly and nodded, gratefully accepting what she could get.

"Now open my bundle!" Moe declared, thrusting her bundle forward. Jogen did so, his eyes widening. "Bed curtains? You mean to say you took them off, rings and all, with him still lying there?"

"Yes I do," Moe responded smugly. "Why not?"

"You were born to make your fortune," Jogen sighed with a smile. "And you'll certainly do it."

"I'm not one to hold out my hand for anyone- not when I can reach out and grab something. I most especially wouldn't help out a man such as he, and you know it, Jogen."

Jogen continued to rifle through Moe's package, staring at the soft wool blankets he found folded up. "Ironic," he muttered, holding them up. "It's not as though he can catch anything now, but were he a bit more bundled up..."

"He did die of pneumonia, didn't he?"

"Some thought it was suicide through poison," Moe nodded firmly. "Say what you want. Those blankets would have been wasted if it hadn't been for me."

"Wasted?" Yahiko ventured. "How?"

"By having him buried in it, no doubt! Those are the best blankets available- not a single hole or worn spot in the whole of them" Moe crossed her arms over her chest, defiant once more.

"We were going to bury him in it," Yahiko murmured under his breath. "So it was you who took the blankets off the second time."

Moe's expression fell for just a second, before she regained face and scowled at the undertaker. "And why shouldn't I have? Cotton is just as good for him as it is for anyone else, and becoming enough for a body such as his. He can't possibly look any uglier with different blankets."

Seto listened to this all with horror slowly creeping its way onto his features.

"They're demons," he murmured to the Ghost. "They might as well be marketing the corpse itself!"

"Ha!" Jogen laughed, snapping Seto from his thoughts. "He frightened every last soul away from him while he lived, only to let us profit by him when he was dead! Ha ha!"

Seto shuddered from head to toe, moving toward the Spirit once more, hoping that by simply standing in its shadow, he would be moved away from this awful place and this dreadful conversation.

"I get it," Seto grumbled. "I get it. The fate of this man might as well be my own. My life is heading that way, isn't it? I- Good god, I..."

The scene abruptly changed, lights dimming and furniture and props shifting. When the lights rose once more, Seto found himself in a darkened room with an odd sense of familiarity about it. Whether it was his bedroom or not, he could not tell; the light was too dim to make anything distinctive out. Only slight shapes and shadows could be made out: that of a bare bed, covered only in sheets. A lump lay across it, and it was then that Seto realized with bile growing in his throat that it was the body of the man in question.

Unwept, uncared for... alone.

Not even the coroner bothered to take his body away.

The Phantom pointed toward the head of the corpse, motioning to the sheet covering its head. It would be so easy for Seto to brush it aside and reveal the face of the man, but there was one problem- nothing in this world of the future was material or tangible to Seto. He had no more power to reveal the face of the man than he did to dismiss the phantom beside him.

An echoing, mysterious voice sounded from off-stage, calling out. "This place is Death's altar, Death's home, dressed with horrors and draped with terrors. But of those loved, revered, and honored, Death cannot turn one hair to ash or make a single feature odious. It's not that the hand is heavy and will fall down when released; it is not that the heart and pulse are still, but that the hand was open, generous, and true. The heart was brave, warm, and tender, and the pulse a man's. Strike, Shadow, strike! See the man's good deeds spring from the wound, and sow the world with life immortal!"

"If he could be brought back," Seto mused aloud, "what would his first thoughts be of? Money? Business? They've certainly brought him to a rich ending." His tone was bitter and sarcastic.

Scratching noises replaced the pitter-patter of rain- a cat howling at the door to the place, and the shadows of mice and rats skittering about the floor.

"This place is fearful," Seto told the Ghost. "In leaving it, I won't leave its lesson behind. Spirit, let us go!"

The Ghost kept pointing at the head of the corpse.

"I understand you," Seto responded, tearing his gaze away from the body"And I would do it if I could, but I have not the power! I have not the power." Only in this dream world, in this fantasy, in this play, would Seto Kaiba ever admit to not being able to do something. But there was something to be learned from his archetypal character, his miserly, greedy self who saw no point and purpose to things if they didn't begin or end with a yen symbol.

The Ghost seemed to incline its head again, staring in that black, unfathomable way.

"If there is any person in Domino who feels emotion caused by this man's death, show that person to me, Spirit! Please!"

The Ghost spread out the folds of its robe out like a wing, darkening the stage further. When the lights came on, brighter this time, a young woman paced about the stage nervously, waiting for someone.

When that someone -the woman's husband, no doubt- finally came onstage, Seto observed that he looked depressed and hard-worked, despite appearing no older than himself.

There was a prolonged silence, and then she spoke. "So, what is the news? Good- or bad?"

"Bad," the man responded.

"We're ruined, then," the woman responded dismally, playing with her fingers.

"No. There's hope."

"If he allows-" the woman began, an amazed expression on her face. "Nothing is past hope, if he allows-"

"He's past allowing us anything," the man responded tiredly. "He's dead."

The woman paused, but then a relieved smile spread across her face. "I'm thankful for it, as horrid as it is for me to say. When I went to his office last week to get a week's delay, some old, half-drunk woman stopped me. I didn't believe what she said, but now I know it was true- he was dying, even then."

"Who will our debt be transferred to?"

"I don't know," the man responded grimly. "But we will be ready with the money before then. And no matter how tough things have been, we can't have the bad fortune of finding anyone so ruthless as him in his successor! So we can sleep easy tonight."

And so it was- the couple seemed happier on news of the man's death. Pleasured.

"Let me see some tenderness connected with a death?" Seto uttered. "Or else that dark room will constantly haunt me." He was referring to the dank, stripped room of the corpse, of course.

The Ghost raised the edge of his robes once more and the stage shifted, this time shifting Seto through many familiar streets. He looked about for his own self, but there was no sign of his future self. Soon enough, Ghost and Kaiba found themselves on the step of Yugi's little house.

But once they entered, Seto found the place nothing like it had been when he visited before with the Ghost of Christmas Present. Instead, Akane sat with the girls, sewing in a corner, while the oldest boy aside from Yugi sat in a corner, quietly reading a book.

Quiet- too quiet.

"'And He took a child, and set him in the midst of them.'"

"Where have I heard those words before?" Seto mused. He couldn't recall. It must have been the boy by the fire reading them out; there was simply no other explanation for the voice he'd just heard, or the words just spoken.

He glanced around the room, but the boy remained silent. A moment later, Akane put down her sewing and sighed. "The color hurts my eyes," she whispered.

"The color..." Suddenly, it dawned on him who'd said those words before. "Mokuba!"

"They're better now, again. They just get weak in this dim light," Akane murmured. "I won't show weak eyes to Yugi though, not for the world."

"It's past his time to come home," the older boy observed, closing his book. "But I think he's walked a bit slower than usual, these past few nights."

Silence, broken only a few moments later by strained laughter; Akane's desperate attempt to be cheerful, though she faltered. "I've seen him walk fast- even with... with Mokuba on his shoulder."

"So have I!" the older boy nodded.

"And I!" the others chimed in, one after another. The five of them all had...

Akane resumed her sewing, "But then again, Mokuba always was very light. And Yugi always loved him so much, even though Mokuba's birth meant his own mother's death. Caring for Mokuba in any size, shape, or form was never any trouble to Yugi- no trouble at all."

From the glowing pride on her face, mixed with flushed cheeks and falling tears, it was plain to see that this was why Akane loved Yugi so much- because he cared even when he didn't have to. He cared more than necessary, and she loved him all the more for it.

The locks in the door clicked, and Akane stood up, rushing across the tiny set to greet Yugi as he entered. Yugi was shivering madly as he walked in, so his brother immediately wrapped him up in a nearby comforter, leaking cotton stuffing from the sides. Akane grabbed the tea kettle from the range and poured Yugi a piping hot cup of tea, which he drank slowly, with careful sips.

It was plain he was straining against himself, despite protests from his younger brothers and sisters. But Yugi remained cheerful, and appraised Akane and his sisters' work with a smile on his face. "I've never seen a group so industrious and speedy," he praised them. "You'll be done well before Sunday, I'm sure."

"Sunday?" Akane queried. "So you went today?"

Yugi nodded solemnly, "I wish you would have gone. It would have done you good to see how green the place is. But you'll see the place often. I-" Yugi's voice started to falter, but he sucked in a breath and resiliently continued, "I promised him that I would walk there on a Sunday. My little brother- M-m... Mokuba!" Yugi broke down altogether, sobbing. If noises from the audience were any indication- he was not alone.

Off-stage, Téa, Tristan, and Joey watched Yugi with admiration plain on their faces. Their friend had admitted to them that this was the hardest scene of all. It was hard conjuring the sort of emotions he was supposed to have- grief and loss beyond description, defying all healing. But Yugi did it- with each and every rehearsal, his performances grew increasingly realistic, and exceedingly emotional. At one point, Téa found herself crying, though she'd resolved after her last bout of tears to make it a long while before she cried again.

Once Yugi regained his composure, everyone gathered around the artificial fire -made of a bright orange lamp and a fan with dyed chenille tied to its frame. The audience thought it looked real enough, and that was what mattered.

"I ran into Mr. Wheeler on the street today," Yugi spoke. "Even though we've only run into each other once or twice at the office, he remembered me- he even said I looked 'just a little down,'" Yugi chuckled shortly. "When he asked why I was so, I told him," Yugi swallowed as though making a great effort to continue. "And I tell you, he's the most pleasant-spoken man I've run across in ages."

In the audience, Mai hurriedly licked away a tear that had somehow escaped her eyes. She couldn't help but grin despite the melancholy scene; there were just too many lines she and other duelists close to Yugi could misinterpret. Joey, pleasant-spoken? Well, maybe in Brooklyn...

"He told me he was heartily sorry to hear it, and sorry for you, too, Akane. He called you my 'beautiful and good fiancee. How he ever knew that, I guess I'll never know."

"Knew what?" Akane asked, an eyebrow raised in playful suspicion.

"That you're a good fiancee," Yugi blushed shyly, "and a beautiful one at that."

"Everyone knows that!" Yugi's younger brother put in with a grin.

"Well said! I hope they do!" Yugi smiled for just a moment. "Mr. Wheeler said if he could be of service in any way, he'd be glad to help- he gave me his card." Yugi produced the small card, forced print handwriting outlining an address on the back side. "It wasn't for the sake of his being able to do anything for us, so much as how kind he was- that's why this was such a great meeting, I guess. It seemed as though he really knew Mokuba, and felt with us."

"I'm sure he's a good soul," Akane breathed, wiping away a single tear.

"You would be surer of it if you spoke to him," Yugi said. "I shouldn't be at all surprised -and you can quote me on this- if he got you a good job." He gestured to his younger brother, who he'd hoped could intern at Kaiba Corp. But that wasn't much of a possibility now, was it? Maybe it never had been.

"But it's just as likely as not," Yugi finally sighed dismally. "But however and whenever we part from one another, I'm sure none of us will ever forget Mokuba- or this, the first parting among us?"

"Never!"

"And I know that we'll remember how patient and mild he was, and we won't fight each other and forget Mokuba in doing so."

"Never!" Yugi's little brothers and sisters echoed again, to which Yugi smiled.

"I know," Seto spoke at long last, though he couldn't tear his eyes away from the scene at hand"Spirit, that our time to part ways has come. I don't know how I know, but I do. Tell me- who was the man we saw lying dead?"

The Ghost inclined his head again, regarding Seto. Both he and Seto knew there appeared to be no order to the visions- those of businessmen, of thieves and pawn brokers, of relieved couples and broken families. The only thing they had in common was that they were in the Future.

The scene changed once more, Seto and the Spirit moving through streets and squares. The Spirit didn't waste any time; he went straight on to whichever destination suited him, waiting only when Seto dared to tarry behind.

"We're not far from where my office is, and has been for years," Seto uttered in a rushed voice. "I can see it from where we are. Let me see where I'll be, in these days to come."

The Spirit stopped; his hand was pointed in the opposite direction.

"We're so close to it," Seto exclaimed. "Why do you point away!"

The finger didn't change direction.

Seto dared to break away from the Spirit's side, and rushed through the crowds of people and countless doors until he found himself in an office. It should have been _his_ office, but it was not. The furniture was familiar, but the placement was all wrong. Little things that Seto had once recognized about his top-floor, city-viewing office were now altered, and it unnerved him mightily. At last, when the figure in the chair at what should have been Seto's desk turned around...

It was not him.

It was a stranger. No one that Seto knew, but here he was, sitting in his chair, in his office...

Wasn't it? Wasn't this his?

Seto turned to his side, finding the Phantom there, rather than below on the streets. It pointed once more, the scene fading and stretching until they returned to the place where Seto first met the silent Ghost of Christmas Yet To Come- a graveyard.

"Hardly a worthy place for the man we saw lying earlier," Seto mumbled. The fog lessened, revealing a papier maché set of graves, choked with dirt and rot, weeds growing everywhere. In the background, houses surrounded the place, giving it a very walled-in, closed atmosphere.

The Spirit stood among the graves, pointing to a single one.

The ghost hadn't changed shape or form any, but a renewed sense of terror instilled itself in Seto's bones, and he dreaded this new meaning he saw in its shape- that of Death.

"Before I get any closer to the stone you're pointing at, answer me one question. Are these the shadows of things that Will be, or shadows of things that May be, only?"

The Ghost kept pointing down at the grave marker.

"The path a man takes in life will foreshadow a certain end, no doubt," Seto murmured, mostly to himself. "But if a man diverts from his path and chooses a new course, a different end may be achieved." Seto turned wild eyes on the Spirit. "Say it is so with what you show me!"

The Spirit didn't move.

Seto moved toward the stone, hesitation plain in his posture. Finally, he stepped away from the stone, revealing to the audience what he saw- his own name engraved in thick, bold letters: SETO KAIBA.

"That's it then- I'm the man who lay in that bed..." It wasn't really a question, even though Seto's voice raised a bit toward the end of his sentence. He knew- and he feared that in reality, he'd known all along, and had just been unable to admit it.

The Ghost pointed at the grave, and then at Seto.

"No, Spirit! No, no!" Seto gave in, falling to his knees and clutching at his robe. While Yugi could have his difficulties with crying scenes, this was Seto's most difficult scene. He never prostrated himself to anyone, never begged for _anything_. But if acting in this play as the miserly Ebenezer Scrooge-archetype had taught him anything, it was that sometimes, necessary sacrifices of pride had to be made, for the greater end.

"Spirit, hear me! I'm not the man I was! I won't be the man that came about to this end- I _have_ changed, have I not? Why show me a scene such as this, if I am past all hope!"

The hand pointed still, but now, for the first time, it trembled.

"Good Spirit," Seto continued, "You're here to intercede on my behalf, because you pity me, or sympathize for me. Please, assure me that I may yet change these shadows you have shown me, and I can alter my life!"

The hand trembled more.

Beneath the heavy robes and hood, Marik squeezed his eyes shut. Now was the worst possible time for him to be feeling hot and faint- for him to be having the visions bestowed upon his family from ages past. Perhaps it had something to do with the apparent sincerity with which Seto begged- something familiar?

No, Seto Kaiba never begged for anything.

But _Priest_ Seto...?

Marik tried to will the images away. It didn't matter that he didn't have to worry about having any lines to speak; he wasn't done with his final scene yet, and he'd sooner return to the catacombs than make a fool of himself in front of so many of his peers.

In this time and place, he was as normal a teenager as he could possibly be- and he was determined to be free, and live out his dream. He would not return to Egypt, not until it was time...!

"I will honor Christmas in my heart, and try to keep it throughout the year. I will live in the Past, the Present, and the Future; the Spirits of all Three shall live within me! I will not shut out the lessons they have taught. Tell me I can sponge away the writing on this stone!" Appearing agonized, Seto grabbed the Ghost's hand. The hand struggled to free itself- while internally, Marik fought his own mental battle, trying to escape the plaguing of images and sensations flooding through him.

_'Sponge away this stone... return me...'_

Something was wrong about all this.

Marik struggled again, though Seto gripped harder. Just as the lights went to black, the visions plaguing Marik stopped abruptly.

When the stage grew light once more, Seto's bedpost stood where the Spirit once had been, Seto gripping it as though it were a lifeline.

* * *

The bedpost was his own- and slowly but surely, joy spread across Seto's features.

"I will live in the Past, the Present, and the Future!" Kaiba repeated, scuttling to get up. His blankets, his sheets- his bed curtains! All of them there, all of them intact and clean and perfect and just as he'd left them when he'd retired...

"The Spirits of all Three shall live on within me! Oh Marley! Heaven and Christmastime be praised for this- Marley, I say it on my knees, on my knees!" And indeed, he was on his knees, half on his mattress and about to topple off. But before he could lose his balance, Kaiba bolted out of bed, touching each and every one of his possessions in sight, as if to make sure they were tangible, if they were real.

Everything... even his pillows, though they were wet with tears. He'd been so desperate in his encounter with the Final Spirit that Seto Kaiba had actually cried- but no one need know that. Kaiba always put his all into everything he did, and that included this performance- all because there was simply no excuse for mediocrity.

"The shadows of things that would have been are faded- or may be dispelled. I know they will be, I know they will!"

"I don't know what to do!" Kaiba exclaimed, quickly growing short of breath as he briskly moved about. "I'm as light as a feather, as happy as an angel- as giddy as a drunken man! A Merry Christmas to everybody, and a Happy New Year to the world!"

And then, Seto Kaiba did something that astonished almost everyone, cast and crew alike. He laughed. A real, true, genuine laugh- amazing, since all those laughs preceding it tended to be those of caustic sarcasm or his ego-fueled desire for victory. And it was the father of many more genuine laughs to come in that play alone. People gaped. In dress rehearsals, they'd always heard a faint laugh at best from Seto Kaiba- but it was obvious he'd been saving his best performance for last.

Only Téa smiled as Kaiba stood there, laughing loudly. She'd heard him laugh genuinely before, and the sound warmed her to her very soul. Her cheeks were a faint shade of pink, her lips curled into a slight smile. It was little things like his laugh -his real laugh, his real smile- that reminded Téa of why she loved Seto, despite all their disagreements or obstacles they had yet to face.

"How long have I been with the Spirits?" Kaiba mused after he'd regained his breath. "It doesn't matter- I feel like I've been born again! I might as well be a baby, and all the better for it!"

Kaiba marched toward a prop designed to look like a window, throwing flakes of fake snow about when he opened it. The lights grew brighter, revealing a clear sky free of thick fog or mist. It was a glorious day!

"What's today?" Kaiba called down to Hiroshi, the young man who'd first suggested to Akane and Shunsuke that they adapt one of Miss Ninomiya's student's stories in the first place. He wasn't much for big roles -he preferred to work behind the scenes- but this was his time to shine, and he was going to make the most of it.

"Eh?" Hiroshi called back, looking astonished.

"What's today, young man?" Kaiba called again.

"Today?" Hiroshi blinked. "Why, today is Christmas Day!"  
"Christmas Day!" Kaiba murmured to himself. "So I haven't missed it. The Spirits have done it all in one night- but of course they did! They can do anything they like! Of course they can. Of course they can." Once again, Kaiba called to Hiroshi.

"Do you know the gourmet poultry store around the corner, down the street?"

"I sure do!" Hiroshi called back with a lopsided, inquiring smile.

"An intelligent boy! A remarkable boy," Kaiba exclaimed, heaping praise on the young man who'd once caroled on Kaiba's doorstep and been tossed to the street. "Do you know whether they've sold the prize Turkey that was hanging up in the window? Not the little prize Turkey, but the big one?"

"The one that's at least half my size, if not bigger?" Hiroshi called back, excitement filtering into his voice.

"What a delightful boy! A pleasure to talk to him- yes, that one!"

"It's hanging there now!" Hiroshi responded.

"Is it? Go and buy it!" Kaiba said, retreating into his room to grab out a leather change purse. He stuffed some large yen bills into the opening, and tossed in a handful of 500 yen coins while he was at it. He tossed it down to the boy, who gaped at him in surprise. "Have them come here to arrange a delivery, and I'll give you all the change in that purse. Come back in five minutes, and I'll double it."

Hiroshi's jaw dropped a good five centimeters, eyeing the heavy change purse and then the street down which the gourmet poultry store was open for business. He was off like a shot, the curtains rustling as he bolted out of sight.

"I'll send it to Yugi's," Kaiba mused thoughtfully, grinning in a way that was either malicious or insanely happy. Or perhaps some twisted combination of both. "It's twice the size of Mokuba, I'm sure. Jogen can make all the jokes he like- there will never be one as great as this!"

Soon enough, the young boy came back with the poulterer's man, turkey in tow. The turkey was so fat and huge, it never could have stood on its own two legs, so fat and plump it was. A bird of that size would have snapped its own legs right off.

"It'll be impossible to carry that to the other side of Domino," Kaiba told the poulterer. He reached into his robe pocket and withdrew his ever-present cell phone; a few blips and beeps later, a black sedan with tinted windows pulled up to the curb, with a uniformed chauffeur opening the door for the astonished delivery man. He paid the boy what he'd promised and double, for the boy only took three minutes to get to the poultry store and back- a miracle, to be sure.

When Kaiba returned to his room to clean up and change, the audience laughed- Seto's hands shook horribly as he tried to shave himself, and several girls squealed in delight as he undressed- only revealing his chest before he disappeared behind his heavy bed curtains and finished changing into costume. As he completed this task, he noted Téa standing between the curtains stage left- grinning like a hyena. Kaiba winked at her, and continued on with the scene.

The play called for Seto to be dressed in his 'very best,' but considering Kaiba's wardrobe -of formalwear, that is- consisted of the most prestigious and high-end Japanese and French, and Italian designers, everything seemed to be the 'very best.' But it was Téa who chose the winning suit- the same one he'd worn with her and Mokuba when they'd gone to the Kaiba Corporation 50th Anniversary Ball, back in August.

Once Kaiba left his house, he ran into many people, startling them by greeting them with a pleasant "Good morning and Merry Christmas!" accompanied by a delighted smile. It wasn't long before Kaiba spotted Tristan- though no longer guised as the Ghost of Christmas Past, but instead, as the charity worker striving for just a few more thousand yen.

Kaiba swallowed; he never was one for apologizing even when he knew he was wrong, but he knew what path he'd be on if he didn't. Seto strode across the stage to Tristan's side, catching his attention and grasping his hands in one swift movement.

"Sir, how do you do? I hope you succeeded yesterday. It was very kind of you. A Merry Christmas to you, by the way!"

"Mr. Kaiba?" Tristan blinked. He almost bit his lip to prevent himself from laughing- he was used to calling Kaiba merely by his last name, without any honorific attached. But in this play, they weren't enemies or rivals- they were two strangers that had the ability to change one another's lives.

"Yes, that is my name, and I fear it may not be pleasant to you. Allow me to ask for your pardon. And will you have the goodness-" Kaiba bent down and whispered something in Tristan's ear.

Tristan's eyes widened considerably, his jaw dropping. "By the gods- are you serious?"

"If you please," Kaiba nodded solemnly. "Not a single yen less. And a great many back-payments are included in it, I assure you. Will you do me that favor?"

"Mr. Kai-" Tristan stopped, reassessing his words. No, 'Mr. Kaiba' was not enough. "Sir, I don't know what to say!"

"Don't say anything, please," Kaiba retorted. "Come and see me. Will you come and see me?"

"I will!" Tristan cried jubilantly. "I- I only wish there was something I could give to you."

Kaiba was about to protest, but Tristan silenced him by slowly removing the knit scarf from around his neck and holding it out to Seto on open palms. Seto stared at the gift with surprise and silent joy written on his face; his eyes asked if it was truly okay if he accepted. Tristan nodded with a grateful smile, practically shoving the scarf into Seto's arms. After a moment, the young tycoon took the scarf with a smile, and he wrapped it snugly around his neck.

"Thank you," Kaiba murmured. "Thank you- fifty times!"

And Kaiba continued to walk about, encountering people of all sorts, conversing with people he never would have even looked at before. Soon enough, the lights changed to indicate the bright afternoon, at which point Seto found himself before Joey's household once more. After pacing back and forth, he finally gave in and rang the doorbell. Joey answered, but he didn't say anything when he opened the door and saw Kaiba's face- in fact, the only sound he made was something like a balloon running out of helium.

When Joey finally regained his senses, he shook Kaiba's hand madly, to the point where Kaiba thought his arm might fall off. He was pleasantly surprised to find everyone just the same as when he'd encountered them with the Ghost of Christmas Present. Everything the same- a delightful arrangement of foods and snacks, a brightly decorated home, and a gathering of joyful, surprised people.

Though it was far from his first time meeting Chieko in reality, Kaiba had to pretend for this instance that he'd never encountered the blonde before. He greeted her formally, obviously impressing her with his charming ways, later nudging Joey in the ribs that he'd done well. Joey's only response was to chuckle and grin.

Soon, evening fell, and Kaiba excused himself from Joey's festivities to make his way to Yugi's household. Once there, he put on his best serious look, practically expressionless. He rapped on the door once, twice, three times.

The door creaked open, revealing Yugi- whose eyes widened as he saw his employer looming over him at his very own door.

"So here you are!" Kaiba said in his best growl. It was hard trying to impersonate the cold, callous businessman he had been only a day before; straining on the throat even. Perhaps it had something to do with all the fun he'd had at Joey's, and the spiced cider he'd drunk glass after glass of. "You didn't come into work today."

"B-But Mr. Kaiba- w-we arranged-" Yugi stuttered, his fingers trembling on the door frame.

"I? I? I'll tell you what, Yugi. I will not stand for this sort of thing any longer. And therefore-"

"What's going on?" Akane appeared beside Yugi, her eyes narrowing upon sight of Kaiba in her doorway. "YOU. What do you want!"

Instead of answering the obviously angered young woman, Kaiba continued, "And therefore, I'm about to raise your salary!"

"And I'm about to raise you off the-" Akane started, but then she stopped. She, like Yugi, obviously understood his words- though the tone behind them had been entirely vicious at first. Quite to both their surprises, Kaiba smiled, sending a flood of both relief and uneasiness through their veins.

"Merry Christmas, Yugi. And a merrier Christmas than I have given you for many a year- I'll raise your salary and endeavor to assist your struggling family, even if it means buying you a prize Turkey every day of the week."

"T-That was you?" Akane gaped. "You..."

"Does it meet with your standards? I admit, I probably could have done better, but there was only the one store open today..."

Akane's cheeks reddened as she tried to come up with a response, but none would come. She stared at Kaiba, even as Yugi gestured for him to please, please come inside and join them for Christmas dinner.

And then, his eyes met hers.

There she sat at the far end of the table, Mokuba sitting on her lap and chattering away with the other children... Téa. She looked at him, her eyes searching his... and then, slowly but surely, a smile crept up on her lips. She nodded her chin toward the fat Turkey roasting in the oven, and mouthed a genuinely grateful 'Thank you.' Seto only nodded.

"And so," Shunsuke stepped on stage, allowing the scene behind him to continue in soft tones and dimmed light "Seto Kaiba was better than his word. He did it all and infinitely more, and to Mokuba, who did _not_ die-" the audience burst into cheers, applause, and loud sniffles, "he became as good a friend, as good a man, as good as Domino knew, or any other prefecture, ward, city, or province in all of the countries in all of the world. Some people laughed at his change, but Seto Kaiba let them laugh. He knew full well that nothing ever happened in this world for good at which some people did not have their fill of laughter of at the outset. His own heart laughed with them, and that was enough."

Shunsuke stepped off stage, allowing there to be one final scene- the reunion especially written for Seto's 'Scrooge' and Téa's 'Belle.'

The party since increased in number, swelling to include Joey, Chieko, Tristan, and countless others. The party was loud and merry, and the little Moto family was happier than anyone had ever seen.

Seto tugged Téa away from the festivities, eager to amend the one part of his heart still left wounded. But it could be no coincidence that she was here, in this time and this place...

"Téa, will you- could you give me a second chance?"

Téa blinked up at him, her eyes still searching his. She reached a hand up and stroked his cheek gently, smiling as he closed his eyes and nuzzled against her. For a moment, he was ignorant of the cast members behind and to the sides of him; he was unaware of the orchestra or the audience... all he saw, all he felt was her.

What a strange sensation...!

"You _have_ changed, Seto," Téa whispered, calling him by his given name for the first time during the course of the play. "I can see it. I never thought I would, but..." she shook her head, laughing privately to herself. "Yes, I'll give you a second chance." She let these words register in Seto's mind, his expression changing from pleading to pleased. But then Téa's face turned into a warning, a single finger separating her face from Seto's. "But not a third. Fool me once, shame on you, but fool me twice, shame on me. I won't do it, Seto. I can't!"

"I don't think you'll have to, Téa. I'm not going to mess this chance up."

Téa smiled brightly, hugging Seto in a short, warm embrace. At this point, they were supposed to turn around and rejoin the party, and allow the play to come to a close. But Seto wasn't trailing after her; instead, his hand shot out and grabbed her arm, twirling her back into his arms.

"Téa."

Were the curtains not still open and the stage lights still burning brightly overhead, Téa might have thought Seto was just talking to her normally. He fixed her with a gaze that easily could have, were she a wax woman, melted her into her shoes.

"Wh-What is it?"

The play was coming to its close, and it was time for the 'happy ending' Téa had written. But even a year ago, when she'd dared to tinker with the idea of she and Seto being involved with one another, even in a story, she'd left the end peculiarly un-sappy. There were no kisses, no smothering hugs, no sensual dances. She'd left it innocent and almost playful, though it felt just a bit... wrong.

But it seemed that now, despite the conversion of Téa's story into a sold-out musical, Seto had another idea in mind.

Seto didn't say anything, but there was a sly curl to his lips and an odd twinkle in his eye; he knew he was improvising, and that Téa would have to as well- but oddly enough, he didn't seem to care about the gazes of hundreds of people, staring at them in mute shock.

The truth was, he'd been grappling with his feelings throughout the play- through each and every rehearsal, and each and every hour after that. Maybe, he decided, it was time to try and figure out how he felt, by purposefully putting himself in a situation he couldn't make excuses for, by doing something he couldn't take back.

In front of an audience of hundreds...

Téa's eyes shifted, staring at him in surprise and insecurity. _'What are you thinking?' _she asked him mentally. They were supposed to transition to the next scene, and end the play with a big fanfare and great hurrahs. But...

Seto didn't waste another second before sweeping Téa up into his arms in quite the gallant fashion; one arm supported her lower back, while his other hand gripped her shoulder. Téa barely had a moment to adjust her own arms accordingly before Seto's lips came pressing down on hers in a burst of sudden and quite unexpected passion.

The audience cheered wildly, audience members standing up from their seats; boys whistled and girls sobbed. Some of the older audience members let out a chorused "Aww," while still more simply applauded as loud as they possibly could.

It was only a few moments later, but it felt like hours to Téa; the curtains came crashing to a close, and the audience cheers and applause thundered louder. Seto finally stepped away from Téa, releasing his grip on her and allowing her to regain her balance. However, it took her a second, and she stumbled slightly back into his arms, her cheeks bright red and her pupils dilated into an abyss of black.

"Seto..." she murmured breathily, but before she could say anything further, Shunsuke came rushing out from stage right, quickly ushering everyone to get into their positions for the true finale scene, and after that, the curtain call.

And so, Domino High's emergency, last minute musical production of 'A Modern Christmas Carol' came to a stunning and smashing close.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Credits to **Charles Dickens** for the slightly-adapted 'A Christmas Carol' used in this. You might also want to go to the **Official WDKY Page** and check out the nitpicky Research Page; you'd be surprised how many references there are to _other_ great works there are in this chapter. I'm sorry it took so long...
> 
> THANK YOU to **Mamono** and **Guardian Kysra** for beta'ing this chapter!


	17. Decisions, Decisions…

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> It's Christmastime at last, but there seems to be a cold spell between Seto and Téa that's got nothing to do with the weather! Will Téa get the White Christmas she's always dreamed of, or will this just be a bad ending to a horrible year?

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> **What Doesn't Kill You  
> Chapter 16:** Decisions, Decisions  
> A Yu-Gi-Oh Fanfiction  
> **By:** Azurite  
> **Site: **seventh-star DOT net  
> **Conceptualized/First Written:** 12/21/04 (Ow. I know. Ow.)  
> **Completed/Final Edit: **4/23/05  
> **Posted: **5/7/05
> 
> **Don't Forget!** If you'd like to know what I have to say to your reviews, check out the official WDKY page at Darkness Rising, and click on 'Review Replies.' Alternatively, you can check my LiveJournal and go to my Memories/Azurite's Fanfiction section. I'll eventually add a Review Replies section as well, so if you see that, check there!
> 
> **Ladies and Gents** you all remember this delish little (hah) fic is rated **R.** That means if you can't handle the heat, get the heck out of the fireplace. This chapter is rated R not because of violence (like Chapter 10 or 14) but because of sexual situations. You are hereby forewarned.
> 
> **Mamono**, thank you for putting up with my insanity. You're a saint.

"It is choice, not chance, that determines your destiny," Malik mumbled under his breath. He paced about the almost-finished exhibit within the Domino Museum, completely on edge.

It was a quote from Jean Nidetch that Malik picked up a while ago— during his first trip to Japan. It was supposed to emphasize that his role in this whole 'destiny' thing was just as important as the key players— Kaiba, Yugi... and Téa.

But getting so deeply involved in their lives was never part of Malik's plan. He wasn't even sure he could pull it off.

And so he was faced with a difficult decision: throw away everything his life had ever stood for and run away— live his own life, somewhere else far from Duel Monsters and ancient Egyptian relics, or stay, and be committed to his duty...

But if he did that, he wouldn't be able to tell them.

They would all suffer, and...

Malik cast two lavender eyes up toward the massive stone tablets, on which the ancient prophecies were inscribed. Most of them, anyway. There was still no clue as to what the third tablet used to say, even though Isis remained in Egypt, still searching the ruins for clues.

All he knew was that nothing good could come of future events— how else did an epic duel end? People dead, their sanity bent beyond recognition— or gone altogether. Great threats were approaching, and though Malik knew it, he couldn't tell them.

It wasn't as if he really had any choice.

Truly, choices and chance had nothing to do with the destiny of the Pharaoh, his once-priest, and...

"I'll make sure they see it through," Malik whispered under his breath. Unknown interference or no, that was his duty. _His_ destiny. _His_ choice.

* * *

"...continued showers are expected to last throughout the holiday weekend..."

"Oh, great," Téa groaned, turning off the television. She scowled at the now-blank screen as if it had something to do with the rain pounding on the windows.

Rain— not snow, but _rain._

"Eighteen years I've been on this great green Earth, and not once have I seen snow. Isn't that against some cosmic rule or something?"

"Who're you talking to?" Mokuba appeared from around the corner, a package of cookies in hand. He munched on one while staring up at Téa, an eyebrow raised in query.

"Oh, no one," Téa sighed dejectedly. "I'm just mad at the world for messing up my Christmas yet again."

"Huh? But it's not even Christmas Eve yet!" Mokuba blurted, accidentally spewing cookie crumbs everywhere. Téa couldn't help but chuckle at the mess Mokuba made, so she bent down and wiped the corners of the younger boy's mouth off, picking the few crumbs in his hair out.

Mokuba smiled somewhat hesitantly at Téa when she was done, daring to speak despite Téa's uncharacteristic sense of pessimism.

"What did the world do?"

"It rained on my Christmas," Téa muttered darkly as she stood. She took a glance out the window— endless streams of rain poured down the glass, the entire outside world covered in a gray haze. You couldn't even see as far out as the main gate. Even the front gardens were covered in a thick, cold fog.

"Better than snow," Mokuba responded, licking the cream filling out of his cookie.

Téa wailed loudly, "No, it's not! I _wanted_ snow! I've_ always_ wanted snow! I think I could suffer below-freezing weather for a few days if it meant I could have a White Christmas!"

Mokuba peered at Téa with a surprised expression on his own face. "You've never seen snow?"

"Not once," Téa sighed, flopping down on the couch once more. As a result of the bad weather, there was nothing to do and nowhere to go. Normally this time of year, she would go out ice-skating with the guys, or maybe drag them along on a shopping spree. It was all just one big excuse to give into commercialization, but Téa loved it all the same.

But now, with the endless rain...

"Why don't you go to Sapporo? They have the snow festival..." Mokuba asked. "Seto and I went there one year and we saw this HUUUUGE igloo made all out of ice, and they had all these reindeer ice sculptures and—"

Téa's expression slowly became more hang-dog until she at last dropped her head into her hands, trembling as though she were crying.

Mokuba, afraid he'd really upset Téa by bragging about Hokkaido's annual winter festival, stopped talking, unsure whether to approach Téa and try to offer some semblance of comfort, or just back off and let her be.

He opted for the first one, because he couldn't stand seeing Téa upset— especially if it was his own fault.

"Uh, Téa... I'm— I'm sorry. I didn't mean to—"

Téa abruptly lifted her face and sighed. "I wasn't crying Mokuba, if that's what you were thinking."

Mokuba exhaled deeply, glad that his fears had been allayed. It was one thing to feel guilty for making a girl cry— it was a whole other platter of fish when that girl happened to be your older brother's live-in girlfriend! Mokuba had no desire to see Seto's reaction if he found out Mokuba made Téa cry...

"I'm just... bummed, is all," Téa mumbled. She tried to smile, but it was a crooked smile, twitching at the corners and revealing timidity in her eyes.

"Well..." Mokuba tried a different tactic. "You've gotta have hope! You never know— the rain just might let up and it'll snow!"

Téa wanted to laugh— here was Mokuba who, when she first met him, hadn't an ounce of hope in his own body. He resorted to theft and sneaky behavior in an attempt to get his brother's dueling deck back... and in the process, he got himself captured by Pegasus. All of that and then some brought Seto out of a coma and all the way to Duelist Kingdom for some cutthroat strategies to get to Pegasus and win back his brother's soul.

Now he was the one in her role— the role of the cheerleader, who gave pep-talks and reminded people to have hope, to have faith.

How ironic.

"That'd be nice, Mokuba but... well, I guess I'll keep on dreaming of sugar plum fairies until Santa comes my way, hm?"

"Santa!?" Mokuba exclaimed loudly. "Snow's one thing, Téa, but Santa!?"

Téa blinked in surprise. "You mean you—"

"Don't believe in him? Of course not! I've known the truth since I was six!"

Téa blinked, utterly shell-shocked. The one child she knew and was close to didn't believe in Santa Claus? True, Mokuba was nearly 13, but...

"Come on, Téa— when you think about it, it's a totally silly thing to believe in. Some fat guy manages to make it around the world in one night, go down everyone's chimneys —and by the way, not everyone _has_ chimneys— and leave them presents, out of the kindness of his heart? Yeah, right. 'Sides, the whole holiday's over-commercialized... I only like it 'cause I get to spend time with Big Brother, and usually the food's better. Oh, and the movies are pretty cool."

_'What a cynic!'_ Téa thought to herself, surprised. Well, that killed most of her Christmas ideas— at least, where Mokuba was concerned.

"I guess you're right..." Téa mumbled, scratching behind her ear. She didn't dare say that she'd believed in Santa until she was fourteen.

She doubted Seto had _ever_ believed in Santa, and that was probably why Mokuba had found out at such an early age. Then again, they'd both lived such a rough life, losing their parents at very young ages, and then living in an orphanage...

How could you possibly have faith in a person like Santa when things like that happened to you?

_'How can _I_ have faith in anything this Christmas when I've lost so much?'_

It was already turning out to be a disastrous Christmas.

* * *

Téa was sitting in the kitchen, thumbing through a magazine when the phone rang.

And again, and again...

_'Well, if Seto's not going to answer it, then I might as well...'_

Téa had only answered the house phone once —when Crump had called— and look where _that _had gotten her. Now, it seemed awkward for her to answer the phone while living in the same household as the Kaiba brothers— when she had no relation to them whatsoever. What was she supposed to say, anyway 'Kaiba and Gardner household?' No, that sounded far too...

A blush covered Téa's cheeks just as she picked up the phone.

"Hello, Kaiba residence!"

"Téa?"

She sighed deeply. It was Yugi.

"Yugi! Gosh, I'm surprised— how did you get this number?" She knew it wasn't listed in the school directory, and as far as she knew, she'd neglected to give it out to her friends— even after her birthday just a few short weeks ago, when they'd found out the truth.

_'Yugi's known for a while, actually, but...' _

"It took a couple of hours," Yugi admitted with a short laugh. "But you didn't answer your cell phone the first few times I called, so—"

"I'm sorry!" Téa exclaimed, dropping her head shamefully. "I've got it charging upstairs in—" she stopped. She was about to say 'our bedroom,' but then Yugi would know she and Seto were sleeping together, and if he knew that, then he might assume—

_'Augh! Bad Téa!'_

"In my room," Téa finished lamely. She hoped Yugi couldn't detect the embarrassment in her voice. It was just good he couldn't see how red her face was!

"Uh, anyway," Yugi rushed, "I was wondering if you'd like to go to the museum later tonight." He paused for a moment. "Malik said you can bring Kaiba."

"Huh? What's at the museum?" She knew to ask, simply because previous excursions to the museum usually resulted in _something_ going wrong.

"Well, it's funny you ask that," Yugi started, immediately signaling Téa's defenses. "Malik invited all of us to some advance screening of his exhibit at the museum. You know, the permanent one..."

He meant the one with the tablet that clearly indicates Yugi was the reincarnation —or at least the host— of a 3,000-plus year old pharaoh. The one that indicated Seto was his ultimate rival, and that the Dark Magician and the Blue-Eyes White Dragon were meant to face each other in epic battle...

A destiny that had no end. The third tablet that supposedly told the end of the tale was damaged beyond all recognition.

That was all Téa knew of the exhibit— at least, the one she had seen prior to Battle City. She hadn't gone back to the museum since then. And that first time, she'd gone with Yami Yugi, so Yugi hadn't really seen anything...

"Oh... really..." She couldn't think of anything more to say. Did she really want to deal with Malik? Did Yugi _really_ want her to invite Kaiba, when they both knew he placed no stock whatsoever in 'Ancient Egyptian fairy tales' and the idea that he was some reincarnated priest from the past? It didn't matter if the Millennium Rod had called out to him during Isis's duel with him back in Battle City. It didn't matter how much he resembled the priest in the picture.

He wouldn't want to go...

_'But my friends will be there,'_ Téa reassured herself. Even though she'd agreed to start over with Malik, and not assume he was out to take over her mind or destroy the world, it was still strange being around him. The moment Yugi told her about Malik's invitation, Téa was immediately suspicious. Surely the Tombkeeper had some ulterior motive... right?

Besides... Egypt was still so fascinating to Téa, though she didn't express her interest in it all that often. Thinking about it too often would mean thinking about Yami, thinking about how if he was a pharaoh out to discover his past, then at one point, he'd have to _return_ to that past— and even if she was no longer in love with him, it was an idea Téa didn't like thinking about too much. But with Seto in the equation, it made things even worse.

The two most important men in her life, reincarnated from the ancient past? And what was her role in all that?

"All right. What time?"

* * *

Yugi put the phone on the cradle softly, long after the dial tone signaled that Téa hung up.

"Yug'?" Joey poked his head into the room, not having heard a word of the phone calls from the past ten minutes. "What's up?"

The smaller boy remained silent, his hands still on the phone.

To go... or not to go? To anyone else, it wouldn't seem like such a tough decision, but...

_"I'm sorry! I've got it charging up in—"_

Téa abruptly trailed off, but Yugi had the sickening feeling it had nothing to do with something interrupting her. It was the kind of pause you made when you suddenly realized you were saying something you weren't supposed to, to someone who wasn't supposed to hear.

_'In...'_

Hadn't he decided not to do this to himself? Hadn't he decided not to mourn? Wasn't it his **choice** to move on, and treasure Téa as a friend, rather than as...

_'I still love her!'_

The feeling wouldn't —couldn't!— go away so easily. He could pretend —he could choose to ignore the palpitations of his heart and the clamminess of his hands— or he could choose to give into it, and possibly lose himself to the jealousy and heartache that came so easily these days.

"Nothing. It was just some people calling about cards— hey, you wanna watch a movie tonight?"

* * *

"You still want to go?" Seto queried. The rain had only let up recently, lightening to a drizzle. But it was still dark and cold outside— and visiting a museum after-hours, late at night didn't seem all that appealing.

But Téa seemed oddly insistent. Seto briefly wondered why she even wanted him there, but it occurred to him he wouldn't want her going alone anyway— not if she'd be left alone with Malik. Regardless of what the Egyptian had said during rehearsals of the play, Seto still didn't trust him— not one bit.

"Yeah, I— I don't know, I just want to see why Malik wants us there. Why would he invite all of us specially there, before the exhibit officially opened? Why not try to get a few hundred yen out of us by asking us to come when the exhibit opened formally?"

So she was suspicious of him too. Seto couldn't help but smirk— Téa was picking up some of his better traits.

"Fine. Hopefully Mokuba won't mind being alone for a while..."

"I already asked him," Téa smiled lightly. "He said he didn't want to go. He's absorbed in some new game you've got him playing."

Kaiba smirked once more, allowing his smile to become visible. "A console version of Capsule Monsters. Mokuba was the reigning champion before it lost popularity."

"Well then..." Téa sucked in a deep breath. "Let's go."

* * *

"Welcome," Malik greeted Seto and Téa as soon as they stepped out of the elevator. Seto seemed just a bit startled— but he quickly masked his surprise by donning a cool expression. Téa stepped forward hesitantly, noting that Malik stood alone in the wide, marble halls of the Domino Museum.

"Where is everyone else?" Téa asked, just a bit wary. She knew that Yugi and the others were invited— Yugi, after all, was the one that had told her about the whole thing.

"Yugi's grandfather called just a bit earlier— they all decided to stay in, in lieu of the weather," Malik explained. He was still suspicious about that excuse— but he knew better than to counter an old man, let alone one affiliated with the Pharaoh. Yugi's grandfather probably had a closer connection to the whole 'destiny' plot than anyone could fathom.

Téa scowled. Count on Yugi to let a little thing like rain to stop him. Actually, no, that didn't sound like Yugi at all— but Joey and Tristan probably helped convince him. They probably still didn't trust Malik, no matter how well-intentioned the Egyptian seemed. He could extend as many invitations as he had fingers and toes, but Joey and Tristan —especially Joey— would never like or trust Malik. At least, not as far as they could see.

Well, there was nothing she could do about it now. She sighed deeply and glanced at Seto— but he was staring up at the ceiling. There didn't appear to be anything of interest there, which meant he was purposefully ignoring her— or Malik. More than likely, the latter, but Téa didn't like being ignored, either. Why had Seto insisted he come anyway, if he didn't believe in any 'Egyptian hocus-pocus?' He could have as much of it shoved into his face as he wanted, and even encounter ghosts and dark halves of long-dead pharaohs, but...

_'Some things never change.'_

"Right this way," Malik smiled oddly, his arm gestured down toward a dimly-lit corridor.

* * *

It wasn't long before they reached an opening— but the room they entered was pitch black. Téa could barely make out Malik's face as he smiled at her— the shadows playing off his face in such a way that a spark of doubt illuminated her mind, suddenly giving her pause.

Maybe Malik had just honed his acting skills all this time, and she and Kaiba were walking right into a trap.

"You're the first members of the public to see this new exhibit in its entirety," Malik explained, his hand sliding along the righthand wall. His fingers found a lightswitch panel, and he slowly pushed up a dimmer that brightened the room.

"Oh, wow..." Téa breathed in awe, stepping forward.

The room was massive, seeming to stretch on forever. She'd never seen so many Egyptian artifacts in her life— and she'd been to plenty of museums on the subject since she first met the enigmatic Pharaoh trapped in Yugi's puzzle!

To the left, row upon row of cabinets, filled with everything from canopic jars to slate platters used for cosmetics. At their ends, mannequins stood in towering glass cases, decorated with ancient clothing, headdresses, and jewelry of all sizes, shapes, and colors. The only thing noticeably missing were mummies. Rather, the exhibit promised something of a much more original nature...

"A big box of sand?"

Malik laughed at Téa's confused expression, and moved toward the great glass enclosure in the center of the room, which had a rather large expanse of sand scattered on its floor.

"Not quite. It's a to-scale replica of the Sahara and Egyptian lands, from ancient times."

Téa peered closer and realized Malik was telling the truth— the points of pyramids stuck up from the sands, with the Great Sphinx not far away. But the last of the Great Wonders looked different than Téa knew it was supposed to: buried in a dune and chipped away —quite literally— by the sands of time.

"It's not completed as of yet," Malik continued as he removed a key from his pocket and opened up a door in the glass enclosure. "I'm still waiting for the people to install the final lights and connect the water system to the museum's piping." Malik indicated the area where the sand receded into a half-cylindrical pipe, devoid of water.

"Come on." Malik gestured for Téa to follow, and she did, an excited smile spreading across her lips. She glanced backward at Seto, but he just crossed his arms and stood stubbornly outside of the door, his gaze averted. Téa frowned briefly and shook her head, ignoring his antics.

_'If he wants to be immature, let him! He'll probably stare at the wall so long he'll bore a hole in it.'_

So Téa stepped inside and stared at the miniature replicas surrounding her. From pyramids to tiny cities, the entire Sahara was spread out around her, and she was a giant, looming above it all.

"It feels... warm in here," Téa commented, gazing around. Four brilliant lights in the upper corners lit up the entire diorama, with smaller strips of lights tucked away in the edges of the walls.

"Once the exhibit opens, no one will be allowed in here except for repairmen," Malik explained. "But I did add a few... special features."

Much to Téa's surprise, Malik took off his shoes. The sound of them hitting the ground outside the exhibit briefly captured Seto's attention, and the two men locked gazes— but Malik only blinked and turned away. Seto's scowl deepened and he looked away once more— but only for a moment. In truth, Seto's gaze remained locked to Téa and Malik in their sandbox, his stare firm and steady out of the corner of his eyes.

Malik squatted down on the dunes and picked up a handful of sand, letting it slide between his fingers and back to the floor.

"Imported Egyptian sand. It's so fine, it packs itself together, even after a massive sandstorm. But the soil and bedrock below are much more aerated, and since heat rises, the sand gets hot. That's why you can't walk around on desert sands the way you would at a beach."

Téa picked up a handful of sand herself, murmuring with pleasure at the warmth that spread from her fingers to her wrist up her whole arm. She scuttled quickly over to the door and disposed of her own shoes and socks, much to Seto's surprise and annoyance. He turned to her to say "You're not actually going to—" but Téa turned back before he could finish.

In the blink of an eye, Téa dashed across the warming sands and flung herself out on the dunes, lying down right on the sand as if she hadn't a care in the world.

"Okay," she said in a laughing tone, "it's not exactly snow, but I've always wanted to do this."

She then proceeded to shift her arms up and down and her legs open and closed, pushing the sand back and forth away from her body until grooves in the shape of her body appeared. Téa sat up and moved away carefully, revealing her 'sand angel.'

"What is it?" Malik asked curiously.

"A snow angel. Or a sand angel, I guess," Téa laughed. "I've never actually seen snow before— call it horrible luck. With the way my luck is, I don't think I will this year, either. So I decided to take a chance and make myself a sand angel. After all, when am I going to get another chance to do something like this, hm?"

Malik nodded slowly, trying to understand. "I've never seen snow myself, either. The one time it snowed in Egypt, I wasn't anywhere near the site. I was a few kilometers underground," he groused. "It's always so hot and dry in Egypt. And underground is worse— it's so humid down there, you can hardly breathe."

Téa smiled, "Well, you've lucked out— Tokyo's got more weather patterns than most any other place in the world. It even rains cherry blossoms here!"

Malik laughed and threw himself back on the sand himself. He experimented making his own sand angel for a moment, sitting up and realizing he'd created a rather lumpy and disfigured one, but a sand angel nonetheless.

"If this exhibit were completed, these sand angels of ours wouldn't last a minute. The whole point is to simulate the passing of time in ancient Egyptian times— so we have timers controlling the lights and fans, and they create everything from sandstorms to the annual floods of the Nile."

"A scale model of the Nile, too?" Téa asked, unable to hide the awe in her voice. She knew Malik had a strong connection to his homeland —one that probably seemed too strong to ignore at times— but never to the point where he would become so dedicated and determined to bring its landscape all the way to Japan.

"From where it empties to its source in what is now called Lake Victoria," Malik nodded. "The Blue Nile and the White Nile."

"Kemet and Deshret," Téa murmured, earning a surprised stare from her tour guide.

"Where did you hear that from? I never knew you spoke Egyptian."

An embarrassed blush spread across Téa's cheeks, much to Seto's displeasure. He still refused to set foot in the 'big box of sand,' as Téa originally termed it, though now she looked more enamored with it than she ever had with him.

_'It's a sandbox! What is she so fascinated with?'_

"I-I'm not sure where I heard it," Téa mumbled, her head low to her chest. "I probably read it in a book somewhere."

"Well you're right," Malik said, leaving no room for further comment. "The Black Lands and the Red Lands. The ancient Egyptians used those words to describe where the river valley met the desert."

"Oh wow..." Téa breathed.

"If you think** that's** amazing," Malik allowed himself a proud smile, "then watch this." He brought out a small, thumb-sized black remote and pressed two buttons on it. Abruptly, the lights in the exhibit hall dimmed to black, the corner lights in the exhibit following. Bile crept up Téa's throat ever so slowly, but the moment she saw a sparkle above her, surprise washed over her once more, erasing any doubt.

One sparkle, then another, and then... hundreds —no, thousands!— more. Countless stars appeared on the sandbox's ceiling, enveloped in rich blues and violets. A great pearl of a moon swung across the sky in an ever-changing arc, the stars shifting and moving...

Somehow, everything seemed so much more special now— so much more fragile. If she spoke, it would ruin the moment completely. So instead she stared, watching the seasons of ancient Egypt change before her very eyes. If she let herself go —just a little bit— she could pretend to hear the rushing of the Nile River nearby, or the soft rushing of the breeze.

_'And... voices? Singing...?'_

No, she had to be imagining things. But it was still so amazing...

Malik coughed, breaking the silence. He apologized quickly, and added something about the entire box being made of a special tempered glass that could reflect and disperse light in this unique manner.

"There's even a bit where we can show the ancient constellations—" he pressed another button, and immediately lines shot from the hundreds of stars, revealing familiar —and others not-so-familiar— constellations. There was Sirius the Dog-Star, Polaris, or the North Star, and countless others— parts of vast constellations of animals and gods alike.

"It's all rather silly, I suppose," Malik mumbled.

Despite it being still ridiculously dark in the box, Téa's eyes had since adjusted to the lack of light, and she easily found Malik's silhouette. She touched his shoulder gently, startling him and capturing his attention.

"It's really not," she smiled. It didn't matter that her other friends couldn't make it tonight, or that Seto was being a grouch, or even that she wouldn't have a White Christmas with her mom and dad this year. She'd seen something amazing, something that resounded inside her and stirred her heart like nothing else ever had. And of all people to show it to her— a former enemy, and someone she'd been so intensely afraid of, not all that long ago.

Malik swallowed abruptly and forced himself to look away. If he didn't, he was afraid she'd see right through him— and that would mean the end of everything.

_'I— I can't!'_ Malik sunk his hand into the sand and clenched his fist tightly. Blast his role in all this! It wasn't fair to keep a secret from someone like Téa...

"Are you quite finished?"

Téa turned around and yelped, finding herself practically nose-to-nose with Seto, who decided that Malik and Téa were getting all-too cozy in their little sandbox diorama. Téa stood up and made to leave, but abruptly squeaked once more and whimpered, stumbling away from a darkened dune.

Malik rose to his feet, shaking off the remnants of the unsettled feeling that had only moments ago pervaded his mind. He quickly brought the exhibit lights back on, and realized with a short smile what had happened.

"You must have stepped on the Well of the Souls," he chuckled. "One of many entrances to the Tombkeeper Clan's underground home."

Téaa nursed her foot while Seto got her socks and shoes. "You mean you put those in here, too?"

Malik allowed himself a toothy grin, "I pride myself on being accurate."

Seto only rolled his eyes, holding out his arm so he could take Téa out of the box— and away from Malik. Unfortunately, his jealousy wasn't hidden too well, and what was supposed to be a gentle, escorting arm assisting Téa turned into a harsh yank. Téa yelped once more and tumbled face-first into Seto's chest, startling her and Malik, who paused in the doorway with a curious expression on his face.

Once Téa regained her balance, she scowled at Seto, her eyes saying more than enough: _'What do you think you're doing, you dummy?'_

Malik only chuckled. "It still seems a bit... strange. You two...? I never would have thought you'd get together. Not in three thousand years."

* * *

The ride home was quiet.

Seto sat in the furthest corner of the car away from her, his arms crossed tightly across his chest.

Téa kept looking back at him, but his gaze never wavered. He just stared out the window, as if fascinated by the sight of the street lights blinking by.

She wanted to ask him what was wrong, or why he was being so stubborn and quiet all of a sudden.

_'No, that's not the way to say it...'_

It was still a bit much to take in— Seto Kaiba, her boyfriend. Could she really handle it? Sure, he'd been a challenge when they'd first met, and even more of an adventure once they'd moved in together... and then, when those feelings started coming into play, things got even more complicated. Weren't things supposed to get easier, now that they were together?

There was much more to Seto Kaiba than Téa ever imagined. Somehow, she doubted it'd ever be easy between the two of them. Even if all the obstacles in the form of former enemies, jealous friends, or wild adventures suddenly disappeared, there would still be problems. If not tension between them, then something else.

_'Isn't variety supposed to be the spice of life?'_

Maybe if Seto was a food dish, he'd probably be the hottest curry available. He didn't need more spice.

Téa shook her head and sighed resignedly. If this was how her Christmas was going to end up, so be it. Better her boyfriend be all stubbornly quiet on his own accord then she instigate a fight with him.

* * *

Once the couple got home, Seto strode right into his office, as if he had a pile of important work waiting for him. Téa trailed after him, tossing her coat over her arm. She cast a sidelong glance at the glowing Christmas tree in the living room, and the rest of the entryway decorated with holly, ivy, snowflakes, and other assorted ornaments. But even with all the decorations, it still didn't feel very much like home. Not at the moment, anyway.

Snow or no, it felt awfully cold...

"It's almost midnight, Seto."

"I'm not tired," he responded just as promptly, tossing his jacket over his chair and rummaging through his desk drawers. He didn't even look at Téa. This lack of a gesture —any gesture at all!— suddenly hit home, stinging Téa right in her heart.

"Try to come to bed eventually, Seto. There should be at least a little something the both of us can look forward to this Christmas, even if it's only when we dream."

And with that, she padded out of Seto's office, closing the door with a quiet click.

* * *

Seto exhaled the moment Téa left his office. He knew he was upsetting her —again!— but he couldn't explain why. He couldn't even explain it to himself, if he had to. It was just... something in his blood boiled any time someone else got close to her. It made him clench his fists and grit his teeth whenever she smiled at someone else, and he always had to restrain himself whenever she took a step toward another man.

It was bad enough she already put so much stock into Yugi and Joey, because of everything they'd been through and all that they'd done for her, but... Malik!?

From the look on her face in the car —when Seto pretended to be looking out the window, when in reality, he was looking at Téa's reflection in the glass— she knew he was jealous, too. He knew jealousy was a completely idiotic feeling, but he couldn't seem to quell it.

And... there was something else.

There was the odd, almost itching desire to have been the one in that silly sandbox with Téa, the one lying down on piles of imported sand, making angels that were silhouettes of their figures. There was the desire to be the one —the only one— that awed and amazed Téa. He wanted to be the one to make her gasp lightly and cause her cheeks to flush, the one to—

_'What am I thinking?'_

Being foolish, that's what. Or so Seto told himself, over and over until the idea echoed constantly in his head. Whatever was that confused him so couldn't be of any consequence, right...?

* * *

A shuddering breath shook its way through Téa's body once she reached the bedroom.

_'Some Christmas.'_

So far, nothing was turning out right. Her parents were gone, the weatherman predicted yet another year of cold sunshine and no snow, Seto was acting ridiculously jealous of Malik, of all people, and now he wasn't even responding to her. Mokuba was the most cynical child she'd ever met, and not only refused to believe in Santa Claus, but thought Christmas was entirely too commercialized.

His detachment from the other connotations Christmas had saddened Téa. Did Mokuba really think that way? Like... his brother?

So it was another Christmas Eve where she couldn't expect much. Ever since Téa could remember, every holiday always ended in disaster. A fight with her parents, losing presents, forgetting friends...

She'd always harbored a secret, almost silly wish to make up for all of that— for once, she'd like a white Christmas, with the whole of Domino covered in a blissful, thick sheet of snow. But it never happened. In the eighteen years of her life, there wasn't a single year she could remember a white Christmas.

Only gray winters filled her memory— clouds, rain, and snow that never fell.

Why couldn't she have the kind of Christmas like in movies, with snow so thick you could make snow angels in it? Why not snow she'd have to dig her way through, or snow she could use an excuse to stay inside cuddled by the fire with a mug of hot cocoa in hand? Why not the kind of snow that could cancel school for weeks, or the kind snowmen could be made of?

_'Only in your dreams, Téa. Only in your dreams.' _

Resigned to this as fact, Téa slipped into a two-piece pajama set and snuggled deep under the covers of the bed. Maybe in her dreams, she'd be in a different place, a different time... without commercialization, cynical children, reticent boyfriends, or slushy brown snow.

* * *

  
_'What am I doing?'_

Not sleeping, that's what Seto Kaiba was doing. It was already a few hours into Christmas Day, but his eyes were still wide open. Yet, he hadn't had any coffee, and he was fairly sure no one spiked his egg nog with caffeine.

No, the reason why he couldn't sleep had nothing to do with caffeine at all. What was on his mind kept him wide awake.

Out of sheer boredom and a strong lack of any better ideas, Seto moved toward his always-on computer and sighed. Most of the programs on there were for designing things related to his company, or for simulating duels. Of course he had Internet access, but he'd never really used it for personal entertainment.

But, being as wide awake and confused as he was, he clicked on the browser icon and connected to the internet via his wireless satellite connection. The homepage was set at the default: something called SHOOT! Japan, and held no real interest for Seto— until he spied a small box in the lower right corner, reading 'Chat Now!' in bold, fanciful letters.

It listed a few of the names of chat rooms currently open, along with a number in parentheses that he didn't understand. One room was labeled 'AskAnything,' with a small (2) beside it.

_'Anything, huh? How about, "why the hell am I awake at this time of morning, when I could be sleeping in my warm bed with my beautiful girlfriend?" What is __**wrong**__ with me?'_

Of course, he wouldn't really say that.

Feeling particularly uncreative that night, when Seto was prompted for his username, he just typed in his old initials followed by his birth date— SH1025. Hardly awe-inspiring, but what did he care about screen-names, anyway?

"Welcome, welcome, welcome!" the screen shrilled, the chat room bursting on screen. Seto irritably turned his speakers off, not wanting to deal with the beeping or ringing or whatever noises his computer made whenever he sent or received a message.

"Finally, a fresh face!" V10leteyes exclaimed. Judging by the deep purple background and cerulean font color, Seto promptly guessed that the user —'Violet eyes?' was female.

_'Maybe this wasn't such a good idea after all.'_

"What can you help us with?" The other user, LuckyChance777 asked, finishing off his query with a devilish-looking icon.

"Stop being an idiot, Chance," Violet typed in before Seto could even move his fingers. "He means, what can **we** help **you** with?"

"Er..."

In all honesty, Seto had never been in a chat room before. He had no idea where to begin. Sure, the place was called 'AskAnything,' but what did he need —or even **want**— to ask?

"First off, I insist you answer one question before we say another word," LuckyChance777 declared. "ASL?"

Seto Kaiba stared blankly at the screen for a minute, wondering what 'asl' was supposed to mean. When Violet realized that the newcomer didn't understand Lucky's request, she filled him in.

'What Lucky boy here means is 'age, sex, and location.' I'll start if you don't mind: I'm mid-20s, 100 female, and in Domino, Tokyo."

Seto Kaiba blinked. Someone... local? It had to be a coincidence.

"18/M/Tokyo," Seto finally typed, unwilling to reveal the fact that he, too, was in Domino. He had the briefest of thoughts— what if he was actually talking to one of Yugi's other friends?

But no— they were all probably curled up in their comforters waiting for 'Santa.' Seto scoffed.

"Ditto," Lucky responded. "That is, same as you. So what can I do you for?" Lucky followed this new query with a string of widely-smiling happy faces, each one of them baring their teeth to Seto in an all-too-disconcerting fashion.

"...Can't sleep. I guess..." Seto paused, not pressing Enter just yet; could he really tell complete strangers what he couldn't even tell Téa? "I guess I'm wondering where I'm at with my girlfriend."

"Ooh, romance questions! I love these!" Violet exclaimed, creating a heart with an angular bracket and the three digit.

"This coming from the girl who wouldn't say anything about whether she was with anyone from the get-go? Miss Clam-Lips?" Lucky responded wryly. The emoticon following his sarcastic question was that of a very bored-looking smiley, with only a line for a mouth and slits for eyes.

"Hey, that was when I first started chatting with you," Violet responded indignantly. "But right now we have someone else to talk about, okay?"

_'Sly,' _Seto chuckled._ 'She's still Miss Clam-Lips, and she just changed the subject to shut Lucky up.' _Maybe these chat rooms were just a little bit interesting...

"So, what's the deal with you and your girlfriend?" Lucky asked bluntly.

"..." Seto couldn't think of anything to say. After all, why was he even in a chat room in the first place? People were prone to lying about everything online— not just their age and location, but likely their gender, too! For all he knew, he was talking to two prepubescent girls looking for a good laugh. Or worse, he could be talking to two hackers looking to steal every bit of vital information off his computer.

True, his computer was more than secure enough to deal with any security compromise, but still...

"Are you gonna make me guess?" Lucky typed after Seto's wordless response. "Are are you afraid I'm gonna hack into your computer and steal your credit card information?"

"If it makes you feel any better I'm on a public computer, so I can't do jack with it. If that's not enough assurance for you, I don't know what is."

"Lucky's right, SH. You don't have to tell us anything if you don't want, but we're all just here because we've got nothing better to do this Christmas," Violet typed.

"...Except wonder about strange guys and their girl problems. And since he ain't gonna tell us— I'm gonna guess!"

"Don't bother," Seto finally typed as he sighed. "She loves me. I don't know if I feel the same."

Well, there it was— he'd made the choice, and now he couldn't take it back. He'd said what was truly on his mind —something highly unprecedented for a private individual like himself. But... ever since he'd been with Téa, everything had been one change of heart after another.

He'd forgiven Gozaburo... discovered his own brother was growing up beyond his control... and above all else, he'd taken the girl who he'd once dubbed as an insignificant cheerleader into his home, and into his heart.

There was no going back from any of that, was there?

"Ah, one of **those** cases," Violet typed in. Seto imagined a faceless woman sitting nearby, her back to him as she nodded sagely. "Well, it's always best to begin at the beginning, right?" She typed in a cute smiley to make her point.

"The beginning, huh?" Seto murmured aloud. Well, the beginning was... trying to figure out if whatever he felt was 'love.' Seto couldn't be sure— he'd never been **in love** with anyone before. All he knew was what he'd told Téa that first night —her birthday, some weeks ago. He wasn't sure what love was, but it probably wasn't the same for everyone— and regardless of what they have to go through to be together, he wanted to find out what love was with her by his side.

That was still true, but a part of him strongly recognized Téa's unspoken need for Seto to vouch some feelings —any feelings— for her. Hence his problem.

"What IS love, exactly, anyway?" he finally typed, hoping that the other two in the room could give him a definition like other teenagers or young adults would think of it. These two regulars in a late-night chat room had to be normal people, living normal lives, right? They probably had a better idea of what it was **supposed **to be like— being 'young and in love.'

"Well," Violet began with a winking smiley, "the dictionary defines love as 'a powerful emotion felt for another person, manifesting itself in the form of deep affection, devotion, or sexual desire... a great liking, or fondness'."

"Thank you, Webster's!" Lucky typed, though he added far too many exclamation points than was really necessary. Violet only shot him an unamused smiley emoticon, not bothering to dignify his remark with words.

"So, do you feel 'affectionate' toward your girlfriend?" Violet asked seriously, leaving out all emoticons and other strange online emphasis.

Well, yes... but then, he also was affectionate toward Mokuba, right?

"Yeah, but I'm affectionate toward my brother, too." Sort of, anyway. Truthfully, things were a bit... rough between them as of late. First with the ghosts and Seto's being framed for murder, then with him and Téa finally getting together... and most recently, with Mokuba putting Téa in danger by keeping her meeting with Crump of the Big Five a secret from Seto— and worse, trying to distract him while it happened! But... they **had** talked, so things were supposedly on their way to getting better.

"Okay, but what about devoted?" Lucky put in. "It's a given that you're devoted to your brother too, so don't even say it."

"Well of course I'm devoted to her!" Seto typed before really thinking about it. He considered his words once they were on the screen. Devoted meant he wasn't going to pay attention to other girls, and he was going to care for her no matter what. But then, it wasn't as if many females truly expressed an interest in him to begin with— not a strong, lasting one, anyway. Fangirls aside, he rarely dealt with any girls besides Téa, and her occasional classmate or friend.

"Don't get your briefs in a twist," Lucky snarked, inputting an icon with its tongue sticking out.

Violet responded by typing in "LOL," though Seto didn't understand what it meant. "You're not online much, are you SH?"

Seto shook his head in reality prior to typing his reply, "This is actually my first time... I'm usually working. "

"Oh-ho, a virgin!" Lucky laughed, adding even more smilies to his sentences now. Seto groaned. For someone that was supposed to be his age, couldn't this 'Lucky' guy act a bit mature? Seto paused, reassessing this thought. He was 'friends' with people like Yugi and the mutt. Maturity was highly overestimated for their age bracket.

"LOL means 'laughing out loud'," Violet explained kindly. "I guess we'll just have to define any weird acronyms we use from here on out."

"That is, if we don't scare him away first," Lucky responded.

Seto chuckled under his breath, "I'm still here."

"Miracle of miracles."

"So we covered the affectionate part, and the devoted part. NOW..." Violet trailed off, and Lucky took his cue.

"SEX!" he exclaimed in big, bold, capital letters. "Not including your GF, you're affectionate toward your brother and devoted to your work. But do you wanna have sex with your job?"

Seto stared at the screen in disbelief, his cheeks colored a brilliant scarlet. Lucky was being an idiot, but at least he spoke his mind.

Violet typed in LOL three times, followed by a face that looked like it was about to explode with laughter and tears. "Good one, Lucky! But I guess if he did, that job would really BLOW, huh?"

Lucky laughed himself, "Good one, V."

"I try."

Seto, meanwhile, rolled his eyes. The truth was, he hadn't considered the topic of sex in regards to his relationship with Téa— at least, not since that first night, when they'd almost—

"Do you want to have sex with... this girlfriend of yours?"

His face still hot and his fingers now feeling strangely clammy and trembling, Seto began a reply. "I..."

"Might be too heavy of a question for our virgin here," Lucky snarked.

"Okay, so let's figure out if what he's got is 'the love bug,' then. For some people, it's really not that easy to know right off the bat if they're in love," Violet stated. "So how about this: do you notice something like... the scent of her perfume?"

_'Love's Baby Soft,'_ Seto answered mentally. It was one of those timeless, schoolgirl scents— not too strong, but not too muted, either. He'd only recently discovered the name of the stuff when he spotted Téa's palm-size pink bottle in their now-shared bathroom.

And whenever she wore it, he knew. The soft, wafting aroma of talc mixed with gentle flowers...

"Yeah," he responded simply, unable to come up with anything else to say. Memories of the scent reminded him of the touch of her skin, and the first time he'd really been close enough to smell it.

"Me next!" Lucky exclaimed, once again using a devilish emoticon that had Seto on edge. What was this 'Lucky' going to ask now?

"How about how she moans when you kiss her?"

"Ooh, we're getting into dangerous territory now, Lucky!" Violet winked at him using yet another one of the smilies, waiting for Seto's reply.

Seto only blinked, suddenly thrust back to the night of December 8th. He'd just blurted without thinking that he wanted to kiss Téa. and her startling reply came in the form of a simple, soft-spoken question: "So why don't you?" Seto hadn't thought of a reply to that, and in the moment he hesitated, Téa had grabbed and kissed him.

Minutes later, she proclaimed that THAT kiss didn't count— and neither did the one that Seto still had difficulty remembering: their first kiss after the Kaiba Corp. 50th Anniversary Ball. So once again, their lips met in tender union, and this kiss felt deeper and warmer than the last. And then one thing had led to another, and in a haze of warmth and touches, they'd ended up spawled on the couch, him kissing whatever skin he could gain purchase on, her writhing beneath him and making those little noises —moans being just one of them— that only served to entice Seto more.

His cheeks still burning, Seto managed to type out a simple, "Yeah."

"I think we got him a bit flustered. Let's stick to some other topics, huh?" Violet grinned. "How about... do you notice the softness of her skin, or the way her neck curves when she turns a certain way..."

Lucky responded before Seto had the chance, "Damn V, I'm getting turned on!"

In a darkened apartment complex far from where either Lucky or Seto were, Mai Valentine smirked to herself. She sighed deeply, glancing at her bed, and the darkened picture frame on the endtable beside it. The 'violet eyes' that made up her screen-name narrowed sadly; she turned back to the screen with her lips painted in a slight smile.

"Sorry sugar," she murmured aloud while typing the same thing, "I'm spoken for."

By this, she meant Joey had captured her heart... she just had to be willing to hear him out, and apologize for her lies. Hopefully... hopefully Joey would be willing to listen to her side. But those were her problems, to be dealt with at another time, in another place— not in a chat room with two hormonal teenage boys.

Aside from Seto, the other teenage boy laughed to himself. In a dark internet café in a run-down part of Domino, Joey Wheeler sat before a glowing computer monitor, occasionally sipping out of his paper cup of hot cocoa. He was in a good mood, and unwilling to go home just yet. It wasn't as though he had any high hopes for Christmas, what with his dad always being drunk. The holidays offered just one more excuse to the elder Wheeler to drink until he threw up, or at least ended up in one of those stupors where not even family mattered.

So he was out at a 24-hour internet café, chatting it up with a girl he didn't even know, and a virginal guy with love problems.

_'Heh, some Christmas. This is one for the books!'_

The chat continued, with both 'Lucky' and 'Violet' throwing out their definitions of what love was, and how one could recognize when they were "in" it. Seto scrutinized each and every one of their messages, asking for further definition when he needed it. It was odd— Seto Kaiba prided himself on being well-versed in a variety of areas of academia— but love wasn't exactly part of school curriculum. Here, he actually **needed **help, and oddly enough, with these two characters throwing back and forth advice and their own experiences, it wasn't as bad —or as humiliating— as Seto would have thought.

"Look," Violet stated, abruptly changing her font and background to a plain black-and-white, "the long and short of it is, no matter what we tell you, you have to decide if what you're feeling is 'love' or not."

"And whatever you **are** feelin'," Lucky added, "make sure to tell your girlfriend, all right? Don't let the good ones slip away. Trust me man, it sucks."

"And not in the good way," Violet added with a winking smiley.

Lucky typed in a sole shocked emoticon, followed by an exclamation mark. A moment later, he added a blushing one, exclaiming "V!"

Violet only laughed. "Yeah, I'm hilarious and I know it. Look, I'm logging for the night boys, but SH?"

"Yeah?"

"(Man of many words, ain't he, V?)" Lucky typed sarcastically.

"I'm right here, CHANCEY!" Seto shot back, making fun of the last part of Lucky's user name, comparing it to one of the more girly Pokémon his brother had once been obsessed with.

"He speaks!"

"ANYWAY," Violet continued in exasperation, "TELL YOUR GIRLFRIEND."

"What V said," Lucky added. "My time's just about up here anyway, so catch you both later, maybe?"

"You bet!" Violet winked, and signed off. Seto nodded slowly before he logged off and shut down his computer.

_'Tell her... huh?'_

Something told him it wouldn't be that easy. But... they were right. Even for a pair of strange online chatters, up for some bizarre reason on Christmas Day, talking about love, sex, and relationships... they were right.

Seto trudged up to the bedroom he now shared with Téa, contemplating everything that Lucky and Violet said.

"Do you know what shampoo she uses?"

_'Pomegranate and Persimmon fusion,' _Seto answered. She always smelled divine, and whenever he was near enough to her, it took a great deal of resistance not to bury his face in her hair and wrap his arms around her as tightly as he could manage.

"How about what hand she writes with?"

_'Right, but she's stubborn and she still tries to write with her left hand every now and then. It looks like chicken scratch when she does but... her face is awfully cute while she's trying.'_

Her nose would wrinkle in this frustrated way, and she'd fumble with her pencil or pen until it was caught in a left-handed death grip. Her eyes would narrow and darken ever-so-slightly, and she'd try scrawling for a good five minutes before she'd give up and switch to her usual writing hand.

"How does she like her chocolate?"

_'Milk chocolate, preferably with almonds. She's not fond of dark chocolate, but she loves fudge brownies. And she thinks white chocolate is made from tapioca.' _

For a girl that had taught him how to cook, she sure had some interesting beliefs about sweets. She had a killer sweet-tooth too, from what Seto remembered— frosted cookies, fudge cakes, and chocolate parfaits? Oh, and raw cookie dough.

_'I still haven't tried that stuff,' _he thought with a smirk. He now stood in the doorway of his bedroom, staring at Téa curled up warmly in his bed. Her back was to him, her body just a slender lump amongst his fluffy comforter and many blankets. A single stream of moonlight filtered in through the thick, navy curtains, highlighting the bright auburn of her hair and the perfect complexion of the side of her face.

_'So I do know. I know... more about her than I ever thought I would. I know her habits, her scent, the way she laughs, the way she cries. But... does she still love __**me**_

People could change. Feelings could change. Both he and Téa were physical proof of that. But shared bedroom aside, it had been weeks since Téa admitted her feelings— and as usual, so much had happened to throw a wrench in what would otherwise be a 'normal' teenage lifestyle. Maybe in those few weeks, her feelings for him lessened... or maybe she'd changed her mind altogether.

Seto sighed as he closed the door to his room, shucking off his clothes and trading them for a simple blue thermal top that he wore with his boxers. With all his blankets —and Téa right beside him— he had no need for a full pajama set, no matter what he'd told Téa about wanting his silk ones back.

He slid into bed, edging his arms around Téa's waist when she turned around and faced him, her blue eyes half-open. She smiled sleepily and twined her arms around his neck, bringing him in for a warm, toothpaste-minty kiss.

_'Silly Seto. It's about time.' _If he wasn't going to make her Christmas dreams come true, then she'd just have to make them happen herself._ 'If only in my dreams,' _Téa thought sleepily.

But for Seto, it wasn't a dream at all. Somehow, the simple realization that yes, he was in love with her made this kiss wildly different from all the rest. Everything seemed magnified tenfold— her lips warmer, softer, her touch electrifying his skin and sending tingles all the way down his spine. The sensations amazed Seto so much that he hungrily kissed her back, to which she responded with a delighted murmur mid-kiss. His lips trailed to the corners of her mouth and then down her chin to the base of her throat; Téa's breathing turned into a series of short gasps. Fingertips wound into his hair, urging him in the direction she wanted him to kiss.

"Gosh," Téa whispered breathlessly, suddenly realizing they were **both** wide awake, "what's gotten into you?"

Seto smiled to himself barely raising his head to fix her with a devilish smirk, "Nothing in particular." He cocked his head to the side, examining Téa lying underneath him, looking for all the world like she couldn't get more comfortable. Her hair fanned out in a halo on the pillow beneath her, andf her eyes shone a bright cerulean due to the moonlight streaming in through the small gap in the curtains.

"Have I ever told you how incredibly beautiful you are?" Seto murmured, lowering his lips to gently nuzzle Téa's cheek. She really was amazing, and he was surprised he hadn't realized it before.

Téa laughed softly, running her fingers deeper through Seto's hair. "Not in so many words, no," she whispered, moaning a moment later when Seto pressed a hot, open-mouthed kiss to her neck and daringly licked at her skin.

"Seto, I—"

She didn't have the chance to finish— Seto kissed her warmly, resisting the urge just to pin her to the bed with his body and—

Well, with the way she was kissing him back, they probably **would** get to that point sooner rather than later. However, for the fraction of the moment that Seto thought about that as opposed to being focused on what he was doing, his attention on Téa waned. He'd already torn open her night shirt, not giving a damn if he broke a button or two. That was when she noticed what she wore beneath her pajama top— a silky camisole lined with lace. The vision sent his thoughts careening into even more dangerous territory, and he was already deep enough in to begin with.

Téa pressed cool hands to his own a moment later, but instead of stopping him from continuing, she wriggled out of her pajama bottoms, casually tossing aside the flannel drawstring pants as if they were nothing. Seto stared in mute astonishment, his cheeks coloring as he watched her writhe, and then as she withdrew her pants from under the blankets. His gaze trailed back to her once the pants were safely on the floor, his gaze straying past her navel...

His gaze snapped up almost immediately, his cheeks red. She was still wearing panties, but the fact that he'd looked at all suddenly embarrassed Seto, and he froze.

"Wh-Wh—" he began in a soft stutter.

"Hot," she explained with a flushed face and twinkling eyes. She didn't say anything further before yanking Seto back down to her, kissing him eagerly. It barely took another minute before Téa was fumbling with the hem of Seto's thermal shirt, easing it up over his broad shoulders and up to his arms. He raised himself away from her momentarily, finally understanding the heat that caused Téa to dispose of her pajama set, leaving her clad only in a camisole and panties. Téa grinned saucily as she practically tore the shirt off Seto, once his arms were in the air and able to slide out of the sleeves.

Skin met skin as Téa once again drew Seto down into her embrace, with him caressing her neck and shoulders with kisses of varying pressure and length. She was starting to shift underneath him again, and suddenly, everything in the room became startlingly clear and vibrant.

"God Téa, I'm so in love with you..." Seto whispered as he kissed the shell of her ear, his breath hot on her skin.

Téa froze her ministrations of Seto's back, tracing the natural curves of his spine and shoulderblades. Had he really just said—?

Seto's kisses continued for only a few more moments, before he rose up and looked at Téa's face— she was crying. She wasn't sniffling or hiccuping; tears were just slip-sliding from her eyes down to the pillow.

"Téa?"

For a moment, Seto wondered if he'd screwed things up somehow— and considering the track record of their 'relationship,' it wouldn't come as much of a surprise. He'd upset her so much earlier...

Maybe... maybe his worst fears had been right all along, and she was no longer —or never had been— in love with him. Maybe theirs was a relationship purely based on desire and complicated entanglements.

Before he could ask Téa what she truly felt in that moment —whether she wanted him to stop and leave her alone— she tugged him down abruptly, and wrapped her arms tightly around his broad shoulders and neck. Her chest trembled with the way she was crying, and her breathing came in ragged gasps.

"You don't know how long I've been waiting for you to tell me that," she whispered brokenly. "I love you... so much, Seto."

Muffled against her breasts, Seto could only manage out an "Oh" of surprise and relief— though it didn't exactly come through in his voice. Realizing she practically had Seto in a half-naked stranglehold, Téa released him, an embarrassed grin spreading across her lips.

Seto smiled once he'd caught his breath. "I'm glad. For a minute there, I thought—"

Damn, she was distracting. Radiating warmth like that, her shirt rumpled and exposing her smooth stomach, her face flushed and damp with tears... how could he be expected to resist her, let alone finish his sentences when she was lying there like that?

Téa laughed softly. "Stop looking at me like that."

"Can't help it," Seto replied immediately, still smirking. He wanted to be kissing her again, but he was well aware of what would happen if he did. And part of him also realized that if he started, he might not want —or be able— to stop.

"We don't have to... you know," Seto murmured, his smile melting away into a serious expression.

Téa looked away, her cheeks still pink. "I know. As much as I want—" her eyes met his, just for a moment, before her cheeks flushed again, and she turned away. "We can't. I don't... we don't have any protection," she blurted at last.

Seto masked his surprise; that was the only thing stopping her? Not thinking that it was too soon, or that she didn't want to be with **him** for her first time (and Seto was inexplicably positive that it was her first time, too)?

But he didn't dare question if she had any other motives behind agreeing with him; he just shifted to Téa's side, lying beside her on the bed. He tugged her close to him, wrapping his arms tightly around her waist. Téa snuggled further into his embrace, then wrapped her own arms around his and sighed deeply.

"I just needed to know that you could love me," Seto said after a moment.

"I can, and I do, Seto," her voice became leaden with tiredness, "Always."

* * *

Hours later, Seto bolted upright in bed, his skin covered in a thin sheen of sweat. He felt concurrently hot and cold at the same time, with a wave of nausea reminding him of why it wasn't such a good idea to sit up abruptly.

Had it all been a dream? Just a dream?

Seto turned a wavering gaze toward the opposite side of the bed, where Téa had to be— after all, she was no longer sleeping in his arms. The blankets and comforters were piled up on her as high as they could go, covering everything of her from the neck down. Seto reached a trembling hand toward her, wondering if he really had dreamed everything.

_'And if I did?'_

Why was he shaking so badly? Why was he sweating, even though it was cool in his room, and decently warm under the blankets? He wasn't sick. He never got sick. Why... was he so afraid of pulling those blankets away from Téa, and getting the confirmation he needed?

_'If it was all just a dream...'_

But his mind couldn't process the thought. Maybe it was late at night, or else too early in the morning. Maybe he'd eaten something that disagreed with him. But he doubted any of those were really the reason why— the reason why he couldn't wrap his mind around the idea that it had all been a dream. His senses felt alive, his nerves raw. Every little sound, every little image ingrained itself into his head for permanent storage.

Seto sucked in a deep breath, forcing himself to stop shaking. All he had to do was move the blanket a few centimeters away from Téa's shoulder, and he'd know.

But...

_'I— I can't...'_

The dream still flitted on the outskirts of his mind, like the memory of something he'd done only hours before.

But it was impossible.

There was no way it could have happened, no matter how achingly hot or cold he felt. Despite the sweat that covered his skin or the residual stickiness he felt in every joint and corner of his body, there was just no way.

But he couldn't tear his gaze away from her.

The longer he stared, the more vivid his memory of the dream became... the more real it seemed.

Burning kisses, restless touches, and unfathomable desire...

"I can't do this." Seto grumbled. He was out of bed like a shot, taking several quick strides to the bathroom and flicking on the light. He closed the door just as abruptly, once again letting his bedroom fall into darkness.

* * *

It was dark, but there was an odd sense of comfort that surrounded Téa completely.

It felt as though she were lying on a cloud, enveloped in the night sky. But there weren't any stars, just a single ray of light that didn't seem to have any definable source. And... the sound of running water?

The darkness parting, becoming just a bit lighter, until Téa realized she was in bed.

Her lips parted and curled into a dry smile as she realized it wasn't any bed— it was Seto's bed to be precise. Well, their bed, since they'd been sharing it for nearly a month now. Every night...

The thought warmed Téa to her toes, giving her the urge to curl up against Seto and pull him against her. She'd done that for the past few nights, and Seto hadn't protested in the slightest. In fact, he'd snuggled closer against her with a little groan, much to Téa's delight. These past several nights, she'd discovered a whole new side of Seto that couldn't be seen while he was awake.

He was awfully adorable while he slept...

But he wasn't.

Sleeping, that is. He wasn't in bed at all, and this fact caused Téa to suddenly sit up in bed, and take a good look around.

Once she noticed the shaft of light coming from under the bathroom door and the sound of running water, she put two and two together.

_'So that was where the light and running water sound from my dream came from.'_

But what was Seto doing taking a shower at... 2:56 a.m.?

He wasn't one to wake up at ungodly hours and shower just because he **could**. Seto was a rational, sensible man. Where was the sense in showering at three in the morning?

Throwing the blankets aside, Téa resolved to find out.

_'No more secrets, Seto. You __**promised**_

* * *

The heat racing through his veins was fading at last. His once-tense muscles relaxed slowly, taking fragments of his dream away with them.

"Seto?"

And suddenly, the heat came rushing back. He had to find his voice, and fast, lest Téa get suspicious.

_'What the heck is she doing in here, anyway?'_

Wasn't she supposed to be sleeping soundly, curled up on her side? Hadn't it all been a dream? Hadn't it?!

"What is it?" Seto managed hoarsely, straining to regain control of his senses. Before, Téa only complicated matters— made things confusing. Now she made it downright impossible to even think straight or act sanely. Now he was battling his very consciousness just to keep control.

"A-Are you all right?" Téa asked, her voice quavering slightly. In the back of her mind, she feared that she'd said or done something wrong earlier, and he was in the bathroom now as an excuse to get away from her.

Maybe she'd slept on him and caused his limbs to go numb.

Maybe she'd fallen asleep while he was talking.

Maybe...

"I'm fine," Seto gritted out, pushing his hand forcefully against the tile wall.

Damn it... he didn't even need to see her! Her voice alone sent his blood rushing to every part of his body, the whole of him locked in a dizzying wave of raw sensations.

_'He doesn't sound "fine." What isn't he telling me...?' _But she couldn't push it. She knew if she forced the subject, he'd only get angry with her, and frankly, Téa didn't want to deal with that at three in the morning. Maybe for once, she had to be patient, and wait for the right time...

Still, something was odd about all this.

"Oh... okay." Téa turned to leave, casting a sideways glance at her unsure reflection in the mirror.

_'My reflection...?' _

If Seto was showering, why weren't the mirrors steamed up?

Téa stepped quietly as though she were leaving the bathroom. She heard Seto exhale deeply and continue showering— while she snuck around the corner and gently pressed a few fingers to the stall door.

It was ice cold.

_'Seto...'_

* * *

The next morning, Téa once again awoke to a cold and abandoned bed.

_'Some Christmas' _was her first thought— and decidedly uncharacteristic of her, since she always forced herself to be bright and cheery, even when she'd gotten into arguments with her parents on Christmas Eve. But now, they were no longer here, and she was in a brand new home, with an almost-brand new life. Except it wasn't new and wonderful, because something she'd done or said last night sent her boyfriend —who'd finally admitted he loved her!— into an ice cold shower.

_'I will never understand men,' _Téa groaned to herself as she got up, tossing the blankets aside and not bothering to replace them neatly.

Where was Seto, anyhow? Where was her good morning kiss under the mistletoe, her trail of gifts leading down to the tree, and the smell of steaming hot chocolate to lure her downstairs?

Téa sucked in a deep breath, wondering if maybe she'd dreamed Seto's confession last night. But if it had been just a dream, why was she just wearing her camisole and panties? She wouldn't dare sleep like that under any other circumstances— unless it was sweltering hot, and that was highly unlikely in Seto Kaiba's dark and open room.

_'I need some light in here.'_

So Téa took three brisk strides over to the grand windows and threw open the heavy windows.

Suddenly, her jaw dropped.

"It's SNOWING!" Téa squealed, unable to help herself. Everything outside was covered in a thick blanket of endless white, from the tall trees to the stubby bushes. The fountains were frozen over and the walkways were covered in a gray-blue sheet of ice. Tiny white flakes, each unique, fell from the sky in a soft rain.

_'There's enough snow out there to make twenty snowmen!' _And plenty of ice castles, and endless array of snow angels, and hundreds of snowballs!

"IT'S SNOWING!" Téa didn't even bother putting a sweater on— she just fumbled into her pajama pants and dashed downstairs as though Father Winter were nipping at her heels.

* * *

Mokuba was busy poking into the closet nearest the kitchen when Téa rammed right into him. Mokuba rubbed his nose and stared up at Téa in surprise— where had the graceful dancer gone?

"It's snowing!" Téa grinned from ear to ear, as if to explain herself.

Mokuba stared at her blankly. "Okay...?"

"I've never seen snow in my entire life, Mokuba!" Téa practically shouted with delight. Her face glowed pink from how happy and excited she was— and Mokuba had to admit, he'd never seen her quite so thrilled before. But wasn't it his job to be the ridiculously excited one on Christmas Day?

But then, he didn't believe in Santa Claus or anything, and that had nearly broken Téa's heart. Christmas was just another holiday to Mokuba Kaiba, but he still had fun— but what was so special about snow?

"Eighteen years and I've never seen snow! Come on, don't you want to go outside and make snowmen or something, Mokuba?"

Mokuba eyed Téa up and down suspiciously. Unless she was wearing one of those skin-tight thermal suits that those athletes in the Winter Olympics wore, it looked like she was wearing pajamas. And nothing BUT pajamas.

"Seto and I went to Sapporo last year. It was cold."

"Oh, but that's half the fun! Besides, you warm up real quick when you do something!"

"But I thought you just said you'd never seen snow in your life!" Mokuba pointed out, confused.

"I haven't!" Téa smiled broadly. "And I'm not going to miss out on this chance today! Come on," she leaned down and whispered conspiratorially in Mokuba's ear, "haven't you ever wanted to pelt your brother with a huge snowball?"

A devilish grin slowly crept its way across Mokuba's face, and he glanced around, as if to make sure there were no security cameras trained on him. He nodded slowly, and grinned.

"I'll do it— if you help me."

"What are you up to?" Téa asked, smiling widely.

"Looking for my Christmas presents!" Mokuba grinned. He held a small scrap of paper in his hand, a hand-written note with an odd riddle on it.

"That's strange. I thought you and your brother didn't do the Christmas present exchange thing."

"What would give you THAT idea?" Mokuba asked incredulously, sweeping a stray lock of ebony hair from his face.

"Well, there weren't any presents under the tree—" Téa began. When she'd noticed, disappointment filled her stomach like the ocean rushing in at high tide. She was hoping to get just a little something for Seto, because she had her own gift that she hoped he'd like...

"You mean he didn't tell you?" Mokuba asked, astonished. He dragged Téa by the wrist to the living room, and practically shoved her over toward the mantleplace, where a stocking hung. Much to Téa's surprise, she noticed her name —sewn in silver thread!— embroidered on the top.

For just a moment, she felt like crying. She'd come so close to moving out earlier this month— but her desire to finish high school in Japan and leave no loose ends hanging kept her in place. She pushed through even more obstacles to get into a relationship with Seto at long last, and despite their many quibbles, he really did seem to think of her as one of the family.

And not like some 'sister,' like Téa pressed on him when Chieko first showed up. No, he thought of her as something much closer than that.

The thought warmed Téa to her toes.

"Look here!" Mokuba plunged his hand into Téa's stocking, pulling out a small envelope. He handed it to Téa, who opened it curiously. Within the envelope was a small scrap of paper not unlike Mokuba's. There was nothing else.

The paper read simply: "At night I come without being called; at day I am lost without being stolen."

"More riddles..." Téa mumbled. She didn't really mind— she missed her father's daily quizzes, in fact, but it just seemed a bit ironic.

"So let me guess— your brother's going to 'riddle me this, riddle me that' until I find something?"

"A bucketload of presents, that's what!" Mokuba grinned. He pointed toward the couch, where he already accumulated quite a pile.

"Once you find one present, there's a riddle inside that leads to another. It's fun!"

"I'll bet," Téa smiled. But then she realized something —rather, someone— was decidedly missing from the fun.

"But where's your brother?"

Mokuba laughed. "He never shows up on Christmas Day. You have to find him."

Té_a _stared in disbelief. "So Seto's the final present?"

Mokuba grinned, his lips curving into a sly smile. "Something like that."

* * *

"I come without being called... and I am lost without being stolen," Téa murmured, as she paced about the living room. She was alone now, Mokuba's exploits having him taken to the other side of the house, where he continued to hunt for presents.

"For once, I have no idea where to start," Téa sighed. "Maybe today just isn't my day for riddles. I was so excited to think about snow, I couldn't concentrate on anything else. Plus I haven't eaten," Téa murmured.

The staff that normally had the littlest things ready for the Kaiba household was off— just to show that Seto Kaiba wasn't a heartless employer, after all. Aside from Mokuba —and somewhere within the grounds, likely glued to his laptop— was Seto. And that was it. Just the three of them, in this big house. Everyone else was off until after New Year's.

So no help there.

"Maybe if I have some breakfast I can concentrate better." Téa shuffled toward the kitchen and opened the cabinets, reaching in and grabbing out a pair of raspberry-filled cereal bars. She tore one open, admiring the pretty reflection of the Christmas lights on the magenta foil wrapper.

One light was larger than the rest, casting a rainbow-colored glow over Téa's fingers and hand.

When she glanced over at the Christmas tree, the answer came to her. The bright glowing came from the brilliantly-lit star topping the tree off— and if one looked closely, they could see a tiny scrap of paper, tied with a ribbon, at the very top.

"How the heck am I supposed to get that down!?" Téa exclaimed. Her voice echoed off the high ceilings, but Téa didn't care. This was Seto's idea of fun? Was he trying to kill her?

Téa examined the tree carefully. It was several meters tall— far beyond her reach, or the reach of any ladder or stepstool. The tree was still in one piece though— imported from one of those pine farms in the mountains. Seto accepted nothing but the very best, from the trunk of the tree up to the star at its peak. So... how did he manage to get that paper up there?

'The stairs!' The massive staircase wound just behind the tree, which meant the middle landing would have been the perfect place for Seto to lean over and stealthily tie a riddle to the top of the tree. Téa scuttled up the stairs and leaned ever-so-carefully over the banister, fishing the ribbon and scrap with trembling fingers.

"'Did you think I would make it that easy to get a present already?'" Téa read with a frown. "Seto, you goofball."

The next riddle was longer than the first, and it made Téa cringe: "I am bacterial waste, oh yes, But just what type, can you guess? Some put me on their fish and chips, others on floors to prevent slips, some on salads, some in stews, some on windows, even shoes. So I'm bacterial waste, oh yes, But my name can you guess?"

_'Seto, you are __**so**__ gross.' _But there was no way he could have written a rhyming poem like that. No way... right?

Then again, he was a genius. He probably delighted in forcing others to bend to his immeasurable IQ.

"Bacterial waste that people eat, put on their floors, and on windows," Téa mused. She tried to remember her mother's "five easy ways to keep a house clean." There was something about five things in your home that can do every job you can think of... but what were they?

"Bleach was one, but no one eats that... and I think more people would slip on bleach than not. There's ammonia— but that'll kill you, so no. I'd say detergent's probably one of them, right? No one eats that either, and I nearly broke my ankle that one time in the laundry room..." Téa stared at Seto's fine print, wondering if there was some sort of trick in the wording.

Her father had always been fond of word puzzles and cryptography, but Seto didn't seem to be using any of that here.

_'He couldn't use anything __**Christmas**__-related, could he? Geez.' _

That left two more possible 'everyday household items' that could clean anything— and would more likely than not fit Seto's riddle. But even then, would that really lead her someplace, or to another clue, even harder than before?

Well, she couldn't exactly say her Christmas wasn't stirring, that was for sure.

Téa flung open the cabinets and stared hard at their depths, wondering if perhaps she'd stumble on another clue tied to a bottle of cider or a canister of sauce. Instead, she was rewarded with the answer.

"Vinegar!" It made perfect sense, in retrospect— plenty of people put vinegar on their fish and chips, it was used to clean all sorts of things in the house, prevent slipping on shoes, and when wine went bad, the bacterial waste left behind was vinegar!

"You know, Seto," Téa murmured aloud, "no one in their right mind would have guessed that. So you know what that means— your girlfriend isn't exactly SANE!"

He was probably somewhere laughing his butt off.

Téa flipped the vinegar bottle upside down and found another clue, marching back to the living room to read it.

* * *

Nearly an hour later, Téa found a series of more riddles— and finally, some prizes to reward her labor.

The first was a beautiful charm bracelet, decorated with ballet shoes, bows, stars, and hearts. Each of them were covered in array of what had to be rhinestones —_'But what if they're real?'_ — from the twelve birthstones.

Three more riddles led Téa upstairs and into what had once been her room— and hidden under the bed was an ivory-white box containing a beautiful ice-blue jacket lined with soft artificial fur. The jacket itself was soft to the touch and beautifully shiny, embroidered with swirls of snowflakes and lace-like butterflies.

Another set of clues —the final ones, Mokuba assured her, while he parked himself in front of the TV watching Christmas specials— were even more confusing than the last. She couldn't figure out the last riddle for the life of her, and Mokuba claimed he had no idea where Seto was.

"I am the start and end of all things, I am in all that you hear, and I swim in the waters. My companion is wild, but can be domesticated. It can be found in the deepest of gardens and in the checkout line of a supermarket. It is strong and powerful, but broken easily by winds and rains. Together, we are a forgotten place that can save you at a moment's notice."

It made no sense— the start and end of things? Something that could be heard, but it swam in water? A wild companion that could be domesticated— an animal, maybe? But no, animals weren't found in the checkout line of a supermarket. And what kind of thing could be strong and powerful, but broken by wind and rain?"

Téa suddenly remembered the Sphinx she'd seen in Malik's exhibit. The Sphinx was massive, made of stone— yet sandstorms eroded it over the years, wearing away at its shape and form. Maybe the 'companion' in Seto's last riddle was something like that— something strong, but affected by nature.

But what in nature could be wild, but tamed?

"A plant?" Téa mused. But what kind of plant? There were no further clues. A strong and powerful plant? That could be anything! There were all sorts of plants that grew like crazy, or plants that leeched water from other plants. There were weeds, rose bushes with thorns, poisonous flowers, aromatic blossoms... or wild vines! It could be ivy, or the leaves of an oak tree!

She wasn't getting anywhere with that train of thought.

Holding the scrap in her hand, Téa made her way to the kitchen once more, opening one of the drawers and pulling out a stick of gum. It wasn't until Téa slipped the mint-flavored stick in her mouth that she realized just who the 'companion' was.

"Mint! It's a wild plant that's got a powerful flavor, and a strong aroma! But since it's a weak plant, it can be torn from the ground by wind, or drowned by rain! You can buy little pots of the stuff at a store, and—" Téa held up the pack of gum triumphantly, "it comes in stick form at supermarket checkout lines!"

But Téa's victorious smile was quick to fade— she'd only solved half the puzzle! What was the other half— the thing that was the start and end of things, that was in everything she heard, and swam in the sea?

"It's got to be a word trick— there's not really anything in the world that swims, starts and ends everything, and is in everything I hear."

An anagram? No, that wasn't it. It couldn't be a misleading riddle, like the one her father had given her. He'd had a similar riddle that led to an envelope— the thing that started and ended with an 'e,' but contained only one letter.

"The start... and end..." Well, what did you start with? What were synonyms for start?

"Beginning, opening, square one, alpha, birth, dawn, day one... foundation?"

Suddenly, Téa's eyes widened. "Another word for foundation— base. Base sounds like the word 'bass,' which is the same as a low register of sound, pronounced just a bit differently, a kind of fish!"

Base plus mint equaled...

"Basement! Seto, here I come!" Téa quickly tossed the scrap aside and tore downstairs toward the basement.

* * *

Téa groped her way through the darkened halls, her entire body coming to a halt when the plaster walls abruptly changed to something of a different texture. It squeaked when she ran her fingers across it, and it felt much smoother than the walls did.

_'Glass?' _Téa mused. But she was downstairs in the basement— there were no windows!

"A dying old man promised to leave the bulk of his fortune to one of his three sons that could buy something that could fill his room. The first son bought sacks and sacks of straw, and laid it all out on the floor, but it filled only a portion of the room. The second son bought sacks of feathers, and it only filled up half the room. The third son bought two small objects that could be concealed in his pocket, but when he went back to his father, he managed to fill the entire room. What did he buy?"

Téa smiled, realizing Seto was nearby. If she solved this riddle, he'd reveal himself— and that meant the end of the game.

"The third son bought a match and candle. When he lit the candle, he filled the room with light."

Just as she said it, Seto turned on the lights— and Téa's jaw dropped in astonishment.

She wasn't in the wine cellar —that was on the other end of the hallway— nor was she in the gym. Instead, Téa found herself in a huge dance studio, with giant mirrors lining the walls and thick, navy curtains gathered at the sides. Bright, smooth, polished pine lined the floors, and made up the twin barres on the side. And in the middle of it all, Seto stood, a strange expression on his face.

At first, Téa didn't say anything. She didn't think she could, even if she tried. Her lips moved, but the only sound that came out was a squeak. A moment later, her knees knocked together and wobbled, sending her to the ground in a heap.

Seto was at her side momentarily, his lips quirked up in an odd smile. Téa hadn't blinked once since he'd turned the lights on, but now she was blinking away a steady stream of tears. He softly rubbed away each one with his thumb, allowing himself a moment to boast mentally— she'd certainly never received a Christmas present like this before!

"Oh, Seto..."

"You're welcome," Seto responded, draping an arm over Téa's shoulders. She abruptly shrugged it off and forced herself to stand on still-wobbly feet as she looked about the room in amazement. The corners of the room had top-of-the-line speakers to provide complete surround sound for a stereo system gleaming brand-new and slick black in a nearby cabinet. Below the stereo system was a glass case lit up with button-sized bulbs and chains of lights that illuminated hundreds of CDs. A tiny computer monitor with a touchscreen classified each CD by title, artist, genre, and even each track— with its listed tempo, instruments used, and sheet music available for printing.

"You never cease to amaze me, Seto. I— I—"

She couldn't seem to find the words. For every time she doubted him, for every dark thought that had ever crept its way into her brain, he did something like this. Something to utterly amaze and impress her, something that showed he really knew her. A room as vast and perfect as this meant he'd been planning it for a long time— or else he'd paid a great deal of money to get it done quickly, expressly for her.

Why else would he need a dance studio in the basement of his home?

_'This must have been the room I thought I saw when I first came here,'_ Téa surmised. The empty storage space with old, dusty mirrors lining its walls... It had to be. But Seto had cleaned it up, and turned it into a proper dance studio, right around the corner from the gym!

"How can I compare to this? Anything I give you will seem like... like dirt on your shoes compared to this," Téa frowned, twisting her fingers together. "I don't deserve this. I don't deserve any of this from you."

She was talking about more than the studio and the other presents she'd discovered, too. She meant the relationship, the fact that she was staying in his home, the fact that he'd gone out of way to do so many things for her— and there were still more she didn't even know of. Seto could count them on his hand, but he never thought it mattered that she know about them.

They were in the past, after all.

"You gave me a chance," Seto responded gruffly, suddenly feeling odd. True, he'd told Téa that he loved her —and they were alone, in his own house, on a holiday when it was perfectly acceptable to be affectionate— but there was still something holding him back from being the sterotypical romantic hero. If that was what Téa wanted, then she was better off not holding her breath.

Téa couldn't think of a very good reply to this, so instead she stood up on tip-toe and embraced Seto as tightly as she could possibly manage. After a moment, Seto wrapped his own arms around her as well, bringing her even closer to him. For a moment, the whole of him tingled with a wave of heat, but he quickly pushed the sensation out of his mind. Desire didn't matter right then and there— what mattered was that after a difficult year for the both of them, they'd made it through— and were on the verge of something challenging and unknown that had nothing to do with the upcoming new year.

She nudged her chin upward, just a bit, staring up at Seto with wide, doe-eyes. It was an expression Seto knew only too well. But Téa wasn't Mokuba, and so her doe-eyes had an entirely different effect on him than his brother's pleading look.

Seto swallowed, not entirely sure what she wanted him to do— but he had a good guess. He could be a genius in class and ruthless in the boardroom, but he couldn't figure out what his own girlfriend wanted from him?

_'I will never understand her.'_ It was just one of those things he had to accept, right? No matter how much he knew about her perfume or her favorite chocolate, there were some parts of Téa —no, all females— that were to forever remain a mystery.

Téa only pouted more, reaching up a bit further, almost standing on her toes.

_'Improvise, stupid. What else could I want when I'm in your arms and leaning this close to you?'_ She wanted him to figure it out on his own. Let it be her own riddle to him. He would certainly like the present he got in return.

So Seto took a chance and craned his neck down a fraction— and pressed his lips against hers. Téa smiled against his lips, sneaking a half-lidded glance at her boyfriend as he pulled her even closer to him. Seto was squeezing his eyes shut as tightly as they could be.

_'Okay, so I have to give him a few lessons in kissing. Maybe all I know about kissing is from the magazines and romance novels, but... I don't think he'll mind. "Practice makes perfect," and I think that's something Seto and I _both_ agree on.'_

So Téa decided to engage in just a bit more 'practice' as she wound her arms around Seto's neck and kissed him back.

* * *

Hours later, night fell on Domino once more.

A cold wind whipped through the streets, but it hardly seemed to faze one man —a silhouette standing among satellite dishes and radio towers, on the roof of a tall skyscraper.

He slowly opened his eyes —one turquoise, one gold— and smiled maliciously.

"It begins."

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> **\-- This chapter was a PAIN IN THE BUTT. I just wanted to let you all know.**
> 
> **Whew!**


	18. Sheer Torture…?

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> It's just about New Year's: a time for new beginnings and a chance to forgive and forget the past. But old promises have to be kept, and relationships have to stay strong in the face of an approaching evil...

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> **What Doesn't Kill You  
> Chapter 17: Sheer Torture?  
> A Yu-Gi-Oh Fanfiction**  
> **By:** Azurite - azurite AT seventh-star DOT net  
> **Site: **seventh-star DOT net  
> **Conceptualized/First Written:** 12/21/04  
> **Completed/Final Edit: **7/26/05 (Ugh, don't ask)  
> **Posted: **7/26/05, 8/23/05, 7/27/09 (Version 2.5)
> 
> **Don't Forget!** All Review Replies are now hosted at my LiveJournal. Look for a section in my Memories called 'Review Replies,' and you can choose from the story/chapter of your choice to see what I had to say to your reviews! Thanks for your continued support!
> 
> **It's Time To Duel!** As with all of my fics involving actual duels (and there will be several coming up in this and future chapters), I take some liberties with cards— I use translations for cards that have not yet been released in English. I might have gotten the translations from the anime/manga, or I may have read them on a website— most likely Edo's page. I give complete, total, and utter credit to the translators involved in any/all of those projects. My apologies if Upper Deck/Konami end up changing the official card names if/when they are released for the English TCG in the future. Don't pester me about the cards not existing in the English TCG, though! At least I'm keeping all the card types the same… I am taking SOME liberties with the effects, though. That's nothing new for anyone that watches the anime, though. ^_~
> 
> **Big Thank You!!!!** to my betas for this chapter, **Mamono** and** __kitschy**!
> 
> **Wanna edit WDKY? **If you're interested and think you have what it takes (high school juniors and above only, please) to be a WDKY beta-reader/editor, then I suggest you check out the **betasquad** community on . Membership IS restricted though, so you have to state your intentions about editing and letting others pre-read YOUR work before I'll give you access to the community and the fics. But I do plan on posting all future chapters of WDKY there for mass-editing, and hopefully, faster release.

"Not again."

Another dream.

No, not a dream—not this time. This time he didn't wake up trembling and hot, parts of him still tingling with residual sensations that only existed in his mind. No, this time he was frozen all over—and his heart wouldn't stop racing. A nightmare. It had been a while since one of those….

But there hadn't been any Duel Monsters threatening to eat him alive, no vortexes of magic or bottomless pit traps…. Just nothingness. More accurately, loneliness.

Kaiba dreamt he'd awoken in his own mansion—his own bed, even—to find no one there. No servants, no workers, no Mokuba… no Téa.

When his dream self finally dared to breach the confines of the house, he found everyone outside waiting for hi —Charles, Mokuba, even Yugi and his friends…but still, no Téa. No matter how hard Kaiba searched, he couldn't find her amongst the throngs of people. He would always catch a glimpse of her—just past a shrub, or behind someone trying to get his attention. But she'd slip away before he could reach her, before he could touch her, before he could find his voice to call her name. Faces started to melt away into shadow, everyone turning into motionless statues that didn't mean anything to him….

A strange impulse welled within him: _Find her, find her now, before she's gone forever, she'll be gone forever…_

And then he woke up. It took a few moments for him to realize that he was awake…and for the remnants of that nightmare to disappear.

Bit by bit they vanished into memory, and slowly, sensation returned to his body. Unlike the other dreams that plagued him the past several nights, this one didn't leave him hot and trembling. Rather, the nightmare—the very thought of Téa being gone, lost forever to him—left him cold, covered in goosebumps, and with a rather painful acidic lump lodged in his throat.

He could hear his blood rushing, his heart pounding in his head—all he had to do was turn, just a small bit and he'd see…

She was there.

Curled up, safe and sound…asleep by his side, right where she'd been when he'd turned out the light earlier, right where she belonged… still breathing softly, clutching the blankets to her face….

Relief washed through him, and Seto let out a rush of air he didn't know he'd been holding in. Years of practiced calm brought Seto that sense of peace that he'd been lacking the past few minutes since he'd awoken….

_'I'll just forget about it in the morning.'_ It was a far hope that he could actually get back to sleep, but that wouldn't stop him from trying. After all, he couldn't just wake Téa up and tell her about his recent dreams…or this latest nightmare.

She probably wouldn't mind…and it wasn't as though she would laugh in his face, but….

_'I…I can't.'_

Resigned to at least _try_ and get some sleep, Seto once again shifted in his bed, hoisting a few centimeters of blankets back up to cover his shoulders. He remained completely unaware that Téa, right beside him, had her eyes open the entire time…and was well-aware that he had awoken in the dead of night from something inexplicable.

_'Seto…why can't you talk to me?'_

* * *

_'Well he sure isn't sleeping…'_ Téa thought as she chewed absently on a thumbnail, wondering once again what her boyfriend was up to and where he was. She'd been coming up with possibilities for the past ten minutes now, and now her once-crunchy cereal morphed into a mushy, misshapen blob of flakes and berries.

She still had no idea where he was, what he could be doing, or why—once again—he wasn't talking to her. Something was obviously on his mind_…_

It didn't matter how haggard Seto had been looking all morning—he wasn't **doing** anything about it. He was forcing himself to the point of exhaustion, without reason…at least, without telling **her** what his reason might be.

_'We promised we wouldn't keep secrets from one another, and we both know how long _that_ idea lasted. Maybe it's pointless to even think about it…'_ If he couldn't bring himself to tell her what was keeping him up and night, and she couldn't force herself to ask him about it, then they both might as well forget about it, right?

But she couldn't forget the dark circles around Seto's normally stormy ocean blue eyes, or the fact that he smelled like a veritable coffee house each morning—which probably meant he was downing more and more coffee than usual when she wasn't looking. He already drank three cups every morning as far as Téa knew—what if he bumped that number up, or dropped his usual spoonful of cream and sugar for the strongest brewed black coffee he could make himself?

Somehow, the idea of a wide-awake and ever-stoic Seto Kaiba didn't quell Téa's thoughts at all.

* * *

Téa had no idea how right she was.

It was an unfortunate truth that Kaiba wasn't getting any sleep as of late—though the past night brought about a drastic turn in his sleeping schedule. While before, dreams about him and Téa in rather…compromising situations were the subject of the night, last night's nightmare was something completely different. He hadn't had a nightmare in so long, and Kaiba wasn't sure if avoiding sleep was just the first step back down a path he'd already traveled—one where he was constantly teetering on the edge between sanity and….

He'd almost fallen asleep earlier, only a few hours after they'd risen for the day. His eyes began to droop, his head began to loll—but then he caught himself.

What would **she** think of him if he fell asleep in the middle of the day? Forget his image as a genius—it would be destroyed and forgotten. But that didn't matter if…

_'If she thought me weak…if she thought me foolish…if…'_

Since when did Téa's opinion matter so much to him? Since when did her face, her eyes, her scent, her touch—when did she gain such power over him? Why…? Why did she plague his dreams every night? No matter how hard he tried to ration everything out—love or not—he didn't understand. What was the point of all this if Téa was just going to leave in the end?

* * *

"Well one thing's for sure, I can't be here."

It didn't matter that it was snowing—had been snowing since late Christmas Eve, actually—and it was bitterly cold outside; the insides of Kaiba mansion were just as cold and lonesome as the grounds outside. Kaiba had holed himself up in his office—ever since Téa and Mokuba nearly caught him dozing on the living room couch only hours after they'd gotten up that day. He'd looked so humiliated—and angry!—that he barricaded himself in his office without another word to anyone.

The thought just frustrated and saddened Téa more—she didn't know what to do.

She couldn't possibly **mother** Seto Kaiba and demand he tell her what was wrong…but she couldn't just "ask" him, either. She didn't know why something so mundane, so routine… suddenly became so impossible, just because Seto Kaiba was part of the equation.

"Argh!" There was just nothing to be done about it. She couldn't just stay here and wallow in her thoughts—she had to go out and **do** something, even if that something had nothing to do with Kaiba and his secret dreams or nightmares—or whatever else was keeping him awake at night.

_'If he wants to tell me, then he'll tell me on his own time. And if not…' _Téa swallowed hard, willing away any tears that might come to her eyes. '_He trusts me…I know he does. We've come so far, and we still have so much ahead of us. There's just no way…_' Téa shook her head to rid herself of those thoughts. With one swift movement, she removed her heavy winter coat from the hall closet and snatched her purse from upstairs.

She was just about to leave the mansion without a peep when a voice stopped her in her tracks.

"Where ya going?"

Téa smiled wanly as she turned to face Mokuba; the poor kid undoubtedly wanted to be enjoying his winter break, same as all the other kids his age, but…Mokuba wasn't like other kids his age. While other 12-year-olds were out sledding or getting into snowball fights, Mokuba was trapped by his own will…and by the fact that he, too, was worried for his older brother. But if Mokuba couldn't get through to him, then who could?

"…Just shopping," Téa said, putting on a bright smile. "Girly things, you know."

Up until Téa added 'girly things,' Mokuba's face was bright—but then he became crestfallen.

"Oh."

"Mokuba, I—"

"Just bring me back something, okay?" Mokuba asked, turning around swiftly. Téa realized the younger boy was upset—lonely, since he didn't have anyone to spend these last few days before New Year's with—but she couldn't help the situation…and she couldn't stay here, trapped in this mansion, constantly letting her thoughts run circles in her head.

"Something? Like what?" Téa tried to keep the mood light; there was no way she could deny Mokuba anything, anyway. After everything the Kaiba brothers had said and done for her in the past several months…. Besides, with her recent windfall inheritance, it wasn't as if she was lacking in the money department. The whole idea about going out and **shopping** was letting her thoughts wander—and if her credit card lead the way, then, well…no loss on her part! Not much of one, anyway….

Was this what it was like, to have absolute freedom and control—but still somehow feel trapped? Was this what Seto Kaiba went through everyday? Was this how she would keep living her life—no matter where she went?

"A kimono!" Mokuba exclaimed, shaking Téa from her quickly-darkening thoughts.

"A… kimono?" Téa repeated slowly, confused.

"I don't have one," Mokuba admitted, clenching his fists to his sides. When he finally turned around again to face Téa, he'd plastered a fake smile over his lips. "Gozaburo never saw the need to let us go to the festivals or anything like that when me and Big Brother were younger. And Seto, well, he…"

Obviously Seto didn't care for tradition or culture any more than Gozaburo had—it was the way he was raised. No, the way he was **trained**.

"I'll bring one back for you** and **Seto ," Téa winked with a smile. "Something bright colored!"

"All right!" Mokuba rushed up to Téa and enveloped her in a huge hug. "Thanks, Big Sister Téa!"

It had been a long time since Mokuba called her that, and the silly little name warmed her to her toes.

"No, Mokuba," Téa whispered, long after the boy bounced around the corner to play more video games. "Thank you."

* * *

Kaiba tossed and turned in his makeshift bed—the leather couch in his office, with barely more than a knit quilt to cover him. It was the one place he could hope to catch up on his sleep, find some peace and quiet, some solace from his nightmares…at least, that was what he hoped.

It wasn't to be. He kept waking up every five minutes, alternately feeling hot and then cold. Visions from his nightmare continued to reappear and haunt him—stone-faced shadows of people, melting away as soon as he got near…Téa darting in and out of sight, always just a hair's breadth away and out of reach….

She was running away from him.

Leaving him.

_'But why…?'_

None of it made any sense—not why she was with him in the first place, not why she continued to stay with him…

_'She could leave…without a moment's notice. She's got the means, the will…the reasons…'_

Why would she even bother getting into a relationship with him when she could just move into an apartment of her own and then leave Domino after graduation—no strings attached? She'd said before that she stayed to finish high school…but what then? It was assumed she had the will to get accepted into Juilliard, no matter what.

He had enough faith in her for that. But…

Things had only gotten increasingly tough for them lately. She felt like he didn't understand her, and he felt—

Well, he wasn't sure what he felt. For all intents and purposes, he was in love with her, but why was such a supposedly simple feeling driving him up the wall? Why was he suddenly consumed by dreams and nightmares alike, and why was he so…

_'Scared.'_ He was scared of losing her—and he hated that feeling. Scared meant you had fear, which meant you were weak, which meant you were vulnerable.

Seto Kaiba was never vulnerable—not to anyone or anything.

But no matter how hard he tried to build up his defenses, no matter how hard he tried to be the strong, invincible man he once was…he couldn't. She was under his skin, part of his life.

_'And if she just left…?' _

The sound of the front door closing suddenly snapped Kaiba from his reverie, and he bolted from the couch without a second's hesitation.

_'Don't let her leave—!'_

But by the time he got out to the entryway, she was already gone. The door was closed, and the mansion fell silent once more. Silent, at least, until Mokuba spoke.

"Big Brother, what—?"

Mokuba was startled by the sudden sound of his brother's office door banging open—and then his brother stormed out, took two long strides toward the door…and froze. Mokuba stared at his older brother for just a moment, taking in his haggard appearance and the dark circles under his eyes. His eyes…wide and almost…

"Big Brother?" Mokuba repeated. He finally got a response—Seto slowly turned to face him, almost astonished that Mokuba was standing there.

"Where did she go?" Seto finally asked, his voice coming out hoarse.

Mokuba blinked in surprise. "Uh—shopping, she said."

The ebony-haired boy started to walk toward the kitchen, but he cast one last lingering look at his older brother, still frozen in place. What was wrong with Big Brother lately?

* * *

"So did you buy them, then?" Mokuba squealed the moment Téa walked in that evening. The younger boy hadn't even taken a bite of his dinner before he abandoned his chair and went skidding to the hallway where Téa put an armload of bags into the closet.

Kaiba's fork clattered to his plate—she was back? She was really back?

"I've never had one in my whole life! I wanna see, I wanna see!"

Somehow, Kaiba's ears tuned out Mokuba's enthusiastic cries, and he could only stare at Téa. She hadn't left him…

Téa nodded proudly, rising from her chair to rummage in the nearby closet just around the corner from Kaiba's office. She withdrew two shopping bags, each with two carefully tissue-paper-wrapped packages inside. Kaiba continued to eye Téa, even as he removed the dinner plates from the table and allowed her to put the packages on the table—one in front of him, and one in front of Mokuba.

Mokuba tore into his eagerly, revealing a bright red haori jacket with wide sleeves, a pair of loose pleated yellow hakama pants, and an off-white nagajuban, or thin robe meant to be worn under the main kimono.

He thrust the juban out at Téa, his expression intensely determined. "Help me put it on!"

"Right now?" Téa giggled. "Besides, you didn't say please."

"Please?" Mokuba whined, making his best puppy-dog expression. His older brother scoffed, crossing his arms over his chest.

Mokuba and Téa both shot unamused glances at Kaiba, though it was Mokuba who decided to take action—he moved toward the larger of the two bundles of tissue paper that Téa took from the shopping bags. Before Kaiba could even blink, Mokuba was tearing through the paper—and with a flourish, he revealed a stunning pair of blue hakama, dyed and embroidered in such a way that it looked like the very ripples of the ocean were imprinted on the silk.

Mokuba gaped first at his older brother, then at Téa, before stuffing the pants into his brother's hands and shuffling through the rest of the fabric. With a ginger grasp on the delicate silk, he withdrew a brilliant white haori coat with highly embellished discs on the upper shoulders from the tissue paper.

"Big Brother, look!" Mokuba thrust the fabric into Kaiba's face, revealing that the discs weren't just ordinary circles—they were really a pair of embroidered dragons, circling in opposite directions over a bright crescent moon.

Kaiba's gaze slowly shifted to Téa, but she refused to meet his gaze; she was too busy staring at her feet.

Something had just happened—right there, in that moment. All those doubts about her leaving him, about having some ulterior motive for being in a "relationship" with him—they faded away, as if washed away by the eternal sea. But in place of those frightening feelings and dark memories grew something else—confusion…and guilt. He didn't understand why she was doing this for him, why he was the one to deserve her attention and her love…

The final garment in the package was a black, full-sleeved kimono, simple, but beautiful and elegant at the same time. Nestled between its folds was a man's thin obi belt, dyed in varying stripes of blue, and accompanied by a midnight blue braided cord, meant to keep the haori coat closed.

If the silky texture and delicate embroidery wasn't tell enough, the expression on Kaiba's face certainly indicated it—she'd bestowed them both with very expensive gifts. The unspoken question that finally prompted Téa to raise her head was merely "Why?"

"I…I wanted us to be together for New Year's—celebrate for real." She averted her gaze again, though Kaiba caught sight of her crimson cheeks and smiled to himself. "I guess it's silly—'pyrotechnics' and all, but…"

"I love it!" Mokuba exclaimed happily. "And I wanna see the fireworks, too! And we can go to a temple, and I can tie one of those wishing-knots for the New Year, and we can ring the big bell and— and—"

Mokuba continued to list all the things he wanted to do in the coming days as preparation for the nationwide celebration that was New Year's, while Kaiba continued to stare at Téa.

"Don't look at me like that," she whispered. "At least try it on."

"I don't hate it," Kaiba finally said. "It's—" He couldn't really think of the right word to say. He'd never had a kimono before —not one of his own, and certainly not one as nice as this. But he was a wealthy CEO, well-known by everyone in the country…it was just that he never saw the **need** for such a formal, traditional garment. And here his girlfriend had gone and gotten him what was probably the most expensive one on the market—as a _gift_.

It felt strange.

"It's amazing. Thank you." Kaiba stood, surprising Téa as he held the coat up to his chest. It looked like it would be a perfect fit— but no one would know until he tried it on.

Kaiba picked up the remainder of his set before brushing past Téa on his way to change. "What about you?"

"Oh—" she blushed pink again, her nose wrinkling, "I have one—it's just an old pink one my mom got me a few years ago, but—"

"Wear it."

"W-Wh—right now?"

"If we have to try ours on, so do you!" Mokuba called out in a singsong, whipping his own kimono off the table and dashing around the corner to go upstairs.

"Come with me—that way if I tie myself in a knot, you can help me out!"

Téa chuckled lightly and followed Mokuba upstairs, smiling and nodding at Kaiba as she went. "Okay, okay—I'll wear mine. But don't laugh—it's not exactly new…."

* * *

Barely twenty minutes later, Seto and Mokuba arrived downstairs in their kimono. Mokuba had opted to try and change into his kimono on his own, leaving Téa to find and change into her kimono on her own. Ever the father figure, Seto stooped to adjust Mokuba's hastily-tied sash—even though he'd never tied one in his life. Perhaps it came instinctively? Or maybe…

A shadow of a memory darted at the corners of his mind, but it deftly escaped Seto's grasp the moment Téa coughed lightly—and he saw her. His eyes widened immeasurably, and the hand that had just finished tying Mokuba's obi dropped limply to his side. When he finally rose to his feet, everything from his knees on down tingled, as though he would collapse a second later.

She looked beautiful.

"…I know it's just a silly old thing, but—"

It didn't take more than few seconds to close the distance between them— his eyes riveted to hers, a dark blush staining Téa's cheeks a color not unlike her kimono. His hands drifted up to her shoulders, gripping them of their own accord…

Mokuba coughed none-too-discreetly, and the moment ended.

"You look really good, Téa!"

Kaiba wondered what to say that wouldn't result in him sounding like he was parroting Mokuba. Téa **did** look good—she looked **better** than good, in fact, but he hoped she knew that the look in his eyes expressed that. Things were growing increasingly more difficult to say as of late.

"Hey!" Mokuba exclaimed suddenly, catching the attention of both Téa and Seto. Before either of them could wipe the 'deer in the headlights' expressions from their faces, Mokuba spoke again. "We should have a New Year's party! The biggest in Domino! Or maybe just the coolest—we could invite everyone and—"

Mokuba kept prattling on about all sorts of ideas he had for decorations and things he could do, and it was plain that his enthusiasm was infectious—if the growing smile on Téa's face was any indication. It didn't take a single word from her before Seto agreed—far too easily, for Mokuba's taste. But he wasn't about to argue with his brother when he'd just gotten his way.

"Really? All right!" Mokuba tore around the corner to Seto's office, moving as fast as a whirlwind despite his kimono.

Seto turned his gaze back to Téa, the barest hints of a smile gracing his lips. "Now…where were we?"

"We—" Téa began, her voice tinged with confusion— but Seto cut her off easily, pressing his lips against hers without further hesitation.

* * *

Four days later, the pressure upon the Kaiba mansion's occupants reached its climax.

Since Kaiba gave all his household employees off for the duration of the holiday, that meant he was responsible for putting together this last-minute plan for a party—and despite his impeccable sense of planning (he did, after all, start a nationwide Duel Monsters tournament "on a whim") he wasn't entirely sure **this** plan was going to pan out.

Part of that feeling probably stemmed from the fact that he was away from Téa once more, unsure of what she was doing or thinking or feeling….

Without his permission, paranoia slowly crept its way into his body, sinking its claws deeper and deeper into his bones.

* * *

Mai Valentine tapped her heel repeatedly against the smooth concrete just outside the Kaiba mansion. Unlike most visitors to the mansion, she wasn't the least bit awed by the wrought-iron gates or the masses of greenery covered in a light sheen of snow.

She just wanted to get inside, talk to Téa, and…

Well, what use were wishes for Christmas or New Year's, anyway? They never came true.

Finally, there was a crackle in the speaker, a squeak in the gates—and Téa's voice. "Mai, is that you? What are you doing out there in the cold—get in here!"

Téa didn't even give Mai the chance to respond before the gates swung open, inviting a freezing gust of wind to whip through Mai's dark denim outfit. She shivered briefly before heading inside—never rushing, but not taking her sweet time either. She didn't have any 'sweet time' to be frostbitten….

It just started snowing again when Téa opened the front door and ushered Mai in. The sound of the wind rushing past her ears left Mai a bit deaf, so it surprised her when she heard Téa babbling on.

"…trying to reach you for days now! Where have you been, I wanted you to come today—but I guess if you're here you must have gotten my messages, right…?"

"Messages?" Mai repeated blankly. "Sorry sugar, I never got any messages—but what are you going on about, anyway?"

Téa looked crestfallen. "The party—tonight?" She gestured around the Kaiba mansion, which Mai realized, was beautifully decorated for New Year's. Paper lanterns hung from the ceilings, as did decorations for the zodiac animal of the upcoming year. Everything seemed to glitter or glow, and the whole house seeming warm and welcoming—absolutely nothing like what Mai would have imagined it. Truthfully, she didn't think Seto Kaiba was much of a New Year's-celebrating person at all.

Was this was Téa's presence did to a person—to a place? Was everyone and everything affected by her light?

"Ah, let me guess," Mai started, sucking in a breath. "Everyone's going to be here?"

Téa nodded hesitantly before gripping Mai by the shoulder. "Please Mai, I know you don't just want to end it like this with him—"

"**He** ended it, not me, Téa. And it's his loss. 'Guys suck and we don't need 'em,' remember?"

The reaction Mai got from Téa was not what she wanted or expected—Téa cringed and turned away, red-faced.

"I'm sorry I ever said something as stupid as that. I'm sorry that I hurt one of my best friend's feelings because I was too afraid to deal with my own problems. And I'm sorry you don't want it to work out between you two—because I know Joey hasn't been able to stop thinking about you, and—"

"Okay, okay!" Mai winced, wishing for just a minute that she didn't have a conscience that bent so easily. "I'll stay—but only if you let me tell you what I originally came here to say!"

Téa frowned slightly, adjusting her stance and crossing her arms over her chest—it was plain she wasn't in the mood for receiving any bad news or putting up with an argument.

"It's good news, I promise—" Mai paused, slipping her manicured hands into her denim purse. "That is, if you agree."

"Agree?" Téa raised an eyebrow. "To what?"

Mai smirked and produced a pair of tickets from her purse. "To come to San Francisco with me."

"America!?" Téa squeaked, dashing forward and nearly tripping in her sandals. She scowled at the offending wooden shoes, having forgotten for just a moment that she'd put them on to "practice" for tottering around all night in them—with the rest of her legs bound up by her kimono.

"The one and only—a Duelist's cruise."

Téa's expression fell. "Duelist? Oh, Mai, I can't—"

"Don't B.S. me, Téa Gardner. I don't care what you say about not having dueled in a year, or having 'more experienced' friends. Besides," Mai clucked her tongue against her cheek, "It's girls' only. I can't think of a better candidate for my partner."

Téa swallowed painfully. She'd always stood on the sidelines of duels…for so long. It was a deep, hidden, secret dream of hers that one day, she'd be given her chance to shine too—but she'd always told herself that her time would come, the moment she got accepted to Juilliard. And from there, all her dreams would come true. She'd be on stage, pushing her limits, doing her best, standing in the spotlight…and all her friends would be there to watch her succeed.

But in the meantime, she had to watch **them** become the most popular and well-known people in Japan. She had to support **them** no matter what…

She'd only dueled a few times—always 'off the record.' She'd dueled Mai once back in Duelist Kingdom, after…

_'After Kaiba defeated Yugi for the first and last time.'_ When it came to recalling that painful time, it didn't matter how close she was with Seto **now**, or what she currently felt for him. Back then, he'd been 'Kaiba'—a guy who'd struck her as nothing more than desperate, lonely, and scared. But his attitude and behavior didn't cry for anyone's help, let alone hers. She never imagined they would get to where they were.

But twists of fate and circumstances brought her here, to the Kaiba mansion. And now…

"Partner?" Téa echoed. "Okay, I'll admit I know how to duel—I'm not going to just say no without giving it a shot—but Mai, you're a seasoned duelist, a champion… why would you want to be stuck with someone like me?"

"Not 'stuck,' really," Mai admitted. "There are two divisions—upper and lower. Upper division is reserved for female duelists who have been officially entered into championship tournaments before."

"And lower division is for people like me—no official tournaments, but enough know-how to kick some butt?"

"Now you're thinkin' on target," Mai smiled. "Well?"

Téa turned around, her eyes still locked on the fine-print of the ticket. Duelist Cruise to San Francisco—a chance for recognition at last in the dueling world. No longer would she be anyone's sidekick or cheerleader, but her own woman, her own champion…!

Maybe even Seto could come to respect that.

But with friends like Yugi and Joey and a boyfriend like Seto, how could she ever hope to come out of their shadows? How could she ever hope to be recognized as a duelist in their eyes? Her dream of dancing always kept her going…but that wasn't their world. They didn't understand those kind of dreams.

"Well, I…" Téa's gaze rose, and she suddenly found herself staring at the basement door near the stairs. She hadn't been down there for days, not since Seto showed her the remodeled dance studio… but there was more down there.

"I challenge you to a duel." Téa turned around and smirked at Mai.

Mai couldn't help but smile back; this was the spunk she knew and loved from Téa—the attitude that would boost her confidence and win her duels…and recognition. Mai wasn't blind— Téa had been sending out signals, cries for attention for a while now—and here was Mai's chance to give Téa the spotlight she deserved.

"You're on."

* * *

"You couldn't have picked a worse time for this, Wheeler," Kaiba growled under his breath.

Joey sauntered beside him, casually swinging a pair of plastic grocery bags in each arm. "Hey man, Mokuba called me and said it was all good—"

"And you—!" Kaiba seethed at his little brother, who was all aglow and smiling as widely as he could manage. It was hard to be angry at that face, but… "I knew you were going to do this!" But in saying so, Kaiba really meant he didn't know—more accurately, he'd forgotten. It felt like it had been so long since Wheeler had last been at the mansion—after Crump kidnapped Téa, and there was some mysterious discussion about a 'bet' and…

Now Wheeler was going to stay in the mansion—starting that night. For a whole week—the remainder of the winter break.

_'My life is going to be a living hell_.'

"We're going to have so much fun!" Mokuba grinned as he high-fived Joey. Both boys were smirking as widely as possible, refusing to let Kaiba's cloud of gloom affect them in the slightest.

Mokuba and Joey busily exchanged plans over what to do the next week even as Kaiba marched up the short set of steps from the Kaiba mansion garage into the main household. When the door swung open, he was greeted with a smothering silence.

Suddenly, all the fears that he'd pushed aside the moment Wheeler joined their party came back with full force. Where was Téa? Why was she gone? She hadn't said anything about leaving and going anywhere—but that could mean anything. It could mean she suddenly thought of something to get, or perhaps there was an emergency and she hadn't been able to get ahold of him…perhaps she was purposely hiding things again, or maybe she'd just left—

"Someone's in the duel arena," Mokuba remarked, snatching a sweet rice cake from a pink box in one of the grocery bags. He chewed on it thoughtfully while examining the brightly lit panel by the basement door.

Not everyone knew how to access the duel arena—most people didn't even know Seto Kaiba **had** such a place in his own home! So that had to mean…

_'She's here! But…dueling?'_ It had been a long while since anything involving Duel Monsters interrupted their life. True, the game remained the common denominator between them all—"them" being Yugi, Joey, Tristan, Duke, Téa, and Kaiba himself—but there hadn't been any tournaments or championships as of late. Real life simply took over.

"Come on," Kaiba ordered without a second thought—he wanted to know what was going on, but without alerting Téa. He couldn't have her aware of how afraid he was of losing her as of late…so that meant he had to take certain steps to make it clear he wanted—no, needed!—her to stay in his life.

Joey was about to loudly protest to Kaiba giving him orders, but he fell silent the moment he saw the secret passageway open up in the wall near the front door. His mouth hung open for a good few minutes before Mokuba scuttled back down the mezzanine steps and hauled the astonished blond after him.

* * *

"Let's have some stakes, shall we?"

"You're not talking T-bones, I presume?" Téa asked with a quirking of her lips.

Mai frowned playfully. "No. Let's make a bet—I win, you come with me, no questions asked…**and** I get to help you construct your deck. You win, you can choose whether to go or not, and I won't badger you either way. And if you do end up going, you can create your own deck without any interference from me whatsoever."

It sounded like a win-win situation to Téa…after all, she'd already made up her mind about going to the tournament with Mai. But she wasn't going to tell Mai that.

"Just promise me one thing," Mai smirked.

Téa raised an eyebrow. "What's that?"

"That you won't use that Fairy deck from Duelist Kingdom—maybe if you backed it up with something like Isis had back in Battle City, I could understand, but—"

"This isn't a Fairy deck, I guarantee you that," Téa smiled dangerously, shuffling her cards carefully.

Mai tilted her head to the side, regarding Téa carefully. "What are you hiding?"

Téa only averted her gaze, the smile still plastered to her lips. "Nothing. You'll see."

Mai only grumbled and began the duel.

* * *

"Whoa…" Joey murmured once within the dark room—the only glow came from the myriad of television screens and control panels covering every centimeter of the walls.

Kaiba quickly took a seat in one of the Commander-style leather seats in front of the panels on the right side of the wall; Mokuba joined him in a chair of his own. Joey was left gawking in the doorway, until a shrill beeping informed the blond he'd best move or be crushed by the steel sliding door.

It took Kaiba a few minutes to slide his fingers over the panels—the keyboards were specially designed so the buttons could withstand a great deal of pressure or very little. Touch-sensitive pads that nearly sat even with the rest of the panel—just perfect for a speedy typist like Kaiba. He shifted the control of the security systems to manual, and changed the view of three of the center television screens to that of the cameras in his basement Duelist Arena.

One camera viewed the arena from Mai's side, the other from Téa's side, and the third from right in the middle, facing the doorway both girls had come in.

"She's duelin' Mai!?" Joey practically shouted when he realized who the blonde in the indigo denim outfit was. Mokuba glanced back at Joey with a questioning expression, prompting Joey to clap his hands over his mouth. "Sorry," he mumbled out, realizing he'd been unnecessarily loud with his exclamation.

Mokuba only turned around again to hide his smile. "This room's soundproof," he explained. "No one can hear you but us."

"Unfortunately," Kaiba murmured, though his words didn't quite miss Joey's ears.

Joey was about to make a snappy comeback when suddenly the audio from the dueling arena flared to life.

"…activate Temple of the Kings!"

Kaiba's Solid-Vision holographic technology flashed around the arena, and soon the entire room was lit up like an ancient temple. Brightly-lit torches adorned the carved walls, and ancient hieroglyphs gleamed from massive pillars and the extensively long walls. Statues and idols of Egyptian gods completed the illusion of an ancient Egyptian royal shrine.

To the boys' surprise, Mai was silent in the face of this strange card in Téa's deck. Her long bangs obscured her face from view when she finally spoke, her voice quiet.

"A gift, huh?"

Téa nodded slowly, the expression on her face flickering from serious to hesitant.

"From…the Ghost of Christmas Yet To Come," Téa managed. "At the cast party."

"You're allowed to say his name around me, Téa. It's not like I'll faint from hearing it." Mai managed a weak smile, ignoring the exotic setting surrounding her. She'd seen this very shrine once before—when Joey was the Duelist on the other side of the arena, and he was battling Odion aboard the Kaiba Kraft 3 during Battle City. It was a time Mai preferred not to remember, but…

"Malik gave it to me," Téa finally said. "If you knew it was him all along, why didn't you say anything when you came by?"

Mai nervously played with a strand of hair behind her ear. "Well…"

The truth was, after the incredible success of Domino High's "A Christmas Carol" adaptation, as written by Téa Gardner herself, Mai had bothered to stop by the cast room and wish Téa her congratulations. Mai had barely gotten more than a sentence out when a cold feeling washed over her—one she recognized all too well.

She'd felt it the moment the Ghost of Christmas Yet To Come came on stage, and here it was, happening again.

It was almost funny how a character meant to be spooky and frightening was just that—but Mai didn't appreciate the feeling at all. She wasn't one of those people who liked being "immersed" in the plays or movies she watched—she liked to keep a comfortable distance between herself and the fantasy world.

It could only be one thing, then.

There was something besides makeup and creepy music behind the Ghost's effect on her. But the only time Mai had ever felt like that before was when—

Mai shrugged, ridding herself of the memories of Battle City. She didn't care to relive that part of her life.

_'The past is passed,'_ Mai thought to herself. _'I won't be weak any longer!' _

Téa nodded slowly in understanding. She remembered her own reaction upon finding out that the Ghost was really Malik—newly-transferred to Domino High. Now he was a resident of Domino, with no intentions of leaving any time soon. His own exhibit at the Domino Museum was proof enough of that.

_'He tried to kill us all, destroy our minds and our friendships…yet now he's just a regular teenager trying to keep his past behind him…right?'_ Téa had asked herself that same question when Malik first handed her a small pile of Duel Monsters cards, shortly after Mai left them alone…

* * *

The moment the older blonde disappeared down the hallway to leave Domino High, Malik removed his hood and gloves. He stared after Mai, an odd expression on his face—one that Téa thought said: "She recognized me." Whether Malik wanted Mai to have known it was him or not, Téa couldn't be sure.

_'Did he want to say something to her?'_ Téa mused to herself. No, he couldn't have—Mai probably didn't want anything to do with Malik, and he **had** to know that.

When the Egyptian finally did turn around, he removed something from the pocket of the pants he wore beneath his voluminous robe—cards.

"For you," Malik explained quietly, obviously trying to avoid the attentions of Yugi, Joey, and Seto, immersed in the crowd of cast members happily celebrating their performance. Seto hung on the edges of the crowd, constantly casting urgent looks at Téa, but she didn't feel quite ready to join in the party just yet.

Mai wasn't the only one who'd been watching her in the audience—Téa knew it. She didn't know who else would have been there, or why—or even **how** she knew—she just knew. That was all.

"I—I don't exactly play Duel Monsters…" Téa began, upon realizing what the cards were. And not just any Duel Monsters cards, either, but very powerful ones that Malik and his adopted brother Odion had used in their Battle City duels.

"You will. Just take them. They're not part of my life anymore. But they will be part of yours."

Until Téa found herself staring at a pair of tickets for a Duelist Cruise to San Francisco, she never quite comprehended Malik's words. Now she did.

Part of her didn't want to use **these** cards to defeat Mai, as if they would have some sort of double significance for her, but…

"I'll sacrifice my Mudora to summon the Mystical Beast of Selket to the field!" The Mystical Beast was also one Mai had seen before in Joey's battle against Odion. It was a powerful monster capable of a rather tricky effect—though Mai wasn't entirely sure Téa remembered them all. Whichever one Téa **did** use though, Mai knew she better be prepared for it.

With only two Harpie's Ladies on the field, that seemed a bit unlikely…

Effect one—Téa could throw away the protection her Temple offered and sacrifice it and her Beast and summon anything she wanted from her hand, deck, or Fusion deck. That could be dangerous, depending on where Téa had been getting her cards lately. Even though Malik lacked the God cards, he wasn't someone Mai wanted feeding her opponent cards. It didn't help any that Téa was best friends with the reigning champion—Yugi—or that her boyfriend Kaiba came in a close second, with some of the rarest cards in the world under his belt.

Effect two, and the more likely scenario—Téa could simply use her ugly scorpion-thingy to attack, and instead of simply destroying her monster, she'd remove it from the game—while amping up her own Monster's attack strength. Without a Return from the Different Dimension, this meant Mai would never see two of her three Harpie's Ladies again, and she'd be taking a very big risk with her third one if she didn't get Elegant Egotist out in time. Her only other option was to hope she drew a Cyber Armor card, or Harpie Girl or Harpie's Brother.

To make matters worse, thanks to the Temple, Téa could activate Traps when she Set them, instead of having to wait the traditional turn, like Mai did.

Before Mai could even shift her gaze from the arena ceiling to the control panel at her fingertips, Selket attacked one of her Harpie's Ladies, effectively removing it from play—and since the harpy had been in attack position, Mai lost a good chunk of her life points in the process. Selket had a whopping 2500 attack points, which was far more than Mai could handle—until she managed to get the other Harpie's Ladies on the field, use their special Formations or attack power, or summon their Pet Dragon.

And judging by Mai's sorry-looking hand, that wasn't going to happen any time soon.

_'Huh. Maybe it's time I start believing in "The Heart of the Cards,"'_ Mai thought bitterly.

_'Still_,' she reasoned, even as the duel continued and Téa whittled away at what had once been a generous 8000 life points, _'This means Téa is more than ready for the challenges a true Duelist tournament brings.'_

As the turns progressed, Mai found an old feeling surging through her veins—that of excitement. She was getting challenged…by Téa, of all people!

_'If I'd finished that duel back in Duelist Kingdom…I wonder whether I would have won or not.'_ Back then, Téa didn't even seem to know what she was doing…but it was more than obvious by now that all the duels she'd stood on the sidelines of her provided her with ample information on strategies and tactics…and having champions as best friends probably didn't hurt her deck-building any, either.

Mai finally saw her chance and, using a combination of traps and spell cards, she managed to get Téa's lifepoints down to a meager 1200—but without any further monsters, spells, or traps able to do damage, Mai ended her turn there. To her surprise, Téa smiled widely.

"All right, I'm getting hungry. Time to end this."

Mai blinked. That sounded more like something **Joey** would say than Téa. Heaven forbid the boy was rubbing off on Téa…

_'I might be too late to stop that, unfortunately,'_ Mai realized with a wry grin. She was about to further ponder on why Téa suddenly seemed so sure of herself—especially when a single attack from practically **any** monster would end the duel in Mai's favor—when Téa did something astonishing.

"I'll send my Temple of the Kings and my Mystical Beast of Selket to the Graveyard and activate its special effect! I'll summon the— " Téa had a triumphant expression on her face, but it suddenly morphed into one of extreme pain. Her words died a quick death as she doubled over the control panel of the arena, the sound of the blood rushing in her ears blocking out the sound of Mai calling her name.

* * *

"I said it once, I'll say it again: whoa."

"Ditto," Mokuba murmured in agreement with Joey. Who knew Téa had such an arsenal up her sleeve? Gone was the Fairy deck Mokuba expected her to have. In its place was an interesting medly of cards—spellcasters, warriors, beasts, fiends, and dragons alike—with some sort of haphazard pattern to them all that Mokuba couldn't quite figure out.

But, judging by the look in his brother's eyes—analyzing every turn of the cards—Kaiba knew full-well what to expect from Téa's deck.

The Duel was just about done though, and it looked like Mai was going to make a victorious comeback—when Téa did something surprising. She offered her Temple and Mystical Beast to the Graveyard, but before she could summon a monster as the result of the sacrifice's effect, she doubled over her duelist panel, trembling.

Kaiba shot out of his chair, ready to head down to the Arena and find out what was wrong, but Mokuba stopped him.

"Big Brother, wait!"

Joey and Mokuba were both leaning in and watching the screen carefully as Téa righted herself. She was still visibly shaking, her fingers desperately clutching onto a card that she was only centimeters from placing into an open Monster slot.

The microphones on the arena cameras didn't pick up Téa's whisper as she summoned her chosen creature—but the brilliant flash of white and blue was tell enough.

The Blue-Eyes Ultimate Dragon!

"Heh," Joey chuckled as he pulled away from the monitor. "She swiped your card."

Kaiba stared at the screen intently, now more so than he had when Téa collapsed. A smile was returning to Téa's face—but whatever traces of joyous victory Mai might have been wearing were gone. The blonde looked utterly shell-shocked—if not at Téa's quick recovery, then at her sudden summoning of a creature that was supposed to be ONLY in Kaiba's deck.

But if she could make good use of it, then…

* * *

Téa could still feel the goosebumps snaking up and down her arms, and she felt as though her knees might give any second.

_'I don't know what's come over me,'_ she thought worriedly. _'Maybe I've just been stressing out lately.'_ She didn't want to waste any more time thinking about **what **was stressing her out—instead she activated a face-down spell card that she had on the field.

She'd been waiting for Mai to knock a sizeable chunk out of her life points…and now was the perfect time to end this, with an amazing finisher that no one would have expected.

"I activate Megamorph, which doubles my Dragon's attack strength to 9000—now that my life points are lower than yours."

Mai swallowed feebly—a one-turn kill. If Téa wanted to, she could have done that earlier in the game, when Mai first attacked and the scales tipped in the blonde's favor. Had Téa actually been **playing** her? Not just dueling her—but taking her for a sucker, and prolonging the duel longer than she had to—just to show off? No, that wasn't in Téa's character at all. Maybe she'd been trying to go for another strategy, but the cards in her hand added up…

But still, Mai couldn't shake the thought that something was wrong about all this—aside from the fact that Téa had her boyfriend's prized card, of course.

And why had Téa almost fainted before summoning the Dragon? Was she really **that** hungry?

Something told Mai that wasn't it. But aside from the slight tremble that shook her frame, Téa looked healthy enough—she certainly was grinning pretty wide when she declared her attack—and then the duel ended.

Mai stepped away from the dueling platform, and shook hands with Téa. The grip that she got in return was strong and not shaking in the least bit.

"Nice duel. So are you coming or not?"

"With a deck like mine, you think I could lose?" Téa winked.

Though Mai was pleased with Téa's decision, she couldn't refrain from asking, "Did you **really** get that card from Kaiba?"

Téa blinked owlishly, as if Mai had asked her whether or not she was guilty of some capital sin. "I just borrowed it, is all…"

Mai rolled her eyes. "Couldn't have borrowed something a little **less ** ass-kicking?"

Téa only laughed.

* * *

Kaiba leaned back in his Commander chair with a mixed expression on his face. Even Mokuba had some difficulty reading it at first, but his silent assessment determined this: his brother was surprised. Whether it was good surprise (Téa could win a duel against a tournament champion, albeit Mai never competed against Kaiba himself) or a bad one (she "borrowed" one of Kaiba's cards, which no one EVER did), Mokuba couldn't tell.

Kaiba wasn't talking, at any rate.

Joey, on the other hand, was more than happy to fill the silence.

"I don't believe it. I just don't believe it." Joey kept looking from the screens—now devoid of any human life, since Mai and Téa had left the arena and went off to unknown rooms within the mansion—to the door, as if contemplating whether he wanted to run downstairs and…

_'And what? What the heck am I gonna say to Mai?_' Joey wondered bleakly. He hadn't seen nor heard from her since Téa's birthday party—though he **had** been thinking about her nonstop.

Now she was right here in the house—doubtless invited to the same New Year's party Joey was—and he had a chance to talk to her, to apologize, to straighten things out, but…

_'But what am I supposed ta say, anyhow?'_

The thought of fumbling with his words again—in front of Mai, one of the few women that mattered to him in this world— made Joey fall silent. He forgot all about Téa's amazing victory or how she'd swiped one of Kaiba's rare cards from under his nose. Instead, he sank deeper and deeper into his thoughts, wishing he would never have to leave the dark security room for the whole week he was staying in the mansion.

* * *

Ten minutes later, Mokuba finally managed to usher his brother and Joey downstairs. The boys had no idea about the tournament Téa agreed to go to with Mai…and the girls had no idea that Joey was with Mokuba and Kaiba.

It came as quite the shock when the two parties collided right in the entryway of the wide-open Kaiba mansion.

"Uh…" Mokuba started. He looked to his brother for some sort of indication that he should reveal they'd just watched the duel.

But his brother wouldn't take his eyes off Téa.

"Just got home, did you?" Téa smiled, trying to inconspicuously hide her deck behind her back. Even Mokuba noticed her gesture though, and he couldn't help himself from smirking wildly. Just what **would** Big Brother say about Téa taking his Blue-Eyes Ultimate Dragon, anyway?

To Mokuba's surprise, Kaiba nodded brusquely. "Just now." He nodded curtly to Mai. "Valentine."

"Kaiba," Mai nodded back—though halfway through her nod, she noticed a familiar dirty blond head attempting to hide behind Kaiba's rather lean frame. Needless to say, Joey's attempt at hiding behind Kaiba **didn't** work.

"Joey…?"

Joey decided it was a good as time as any to pop up, so he sheepishly stepped from behind Kaiba, scratching behind his ear the whole while. "Eheh…hey, Mai. How ya doin'?"

Mai suddenly found herself fumbling for words too—something that never happened. She had something in common with Kaiba: simply put, she never wanted to appear weak. Someone who was fidgeting and stumbling couldn't present a more vulnerable image.

"Hey, so guess what? Girls-only Duelist Tournament cruise—Téa's coming with me and we're going to conquer the Pacific Rim," Mai said in a rush, abruptly averting her gaze from Joey. She couldn't think of anything to say directly **to** Joey. What was she supposed to say, anyway? _'Hi, I'm sorry I lied to you to protect your friend from you and your asinine assumptions about people?'_ Obviously not.

Kaiba's gaze turned steely, still focused on Téa. "You're going?"

A barrage of unwelcome thoughts rushed through his brain all at once: _She's leaving she's going she might not be coming back why would she come back what reasons does she have why is she here does she really love me what am I feeling none of this makes sense…_

Téa blushed brightly, finally deciding to bring her deck out from behind her. "Yeah—I mean, it'd be nice to duel myself, after all this time, and I—"

"She kicked my butt," Mai interjected, a proud smile playing on her lips. "Good thing she'll be in the lower division and not the upper, but she could easily make it if—" Mai stopped, wondering whether Téa was going to tell Kaiba she'd "borrowed" his powerful card, and that probably had a lot to do with her astonishing victory (gift cards and house rules aside).

"If I hung onto this," Téa thrust out the Blue-Eyes Ultimate Dragon, her eyes averted from Kaiba. "I borrowed it from your deck earlier—I'm sorry."

Kaiba wasn't about to tell the two girls he'd watched the entirety of the duel, let alone how **pleasantly **surprised he was at Téa's dueling abilities. Perhaps that time she'd "beat" him before was no fluke?

He took the Dragon from her, noticing that the moment the card left her fingers, her whole body seemed to shudder ever-so-slightly. A moment later, Téa looked up, smiling hesitantly.

"I'll find another card to put in its place," she murmured.

Kaiba didn't say anything—his thoughts were already a jumble, many of them still in shock over Téa's win, the others contemplating what card she might try and replace the Blue-Eyes Ultimate Dragon with.

_'Maybe…'_

He didn't realize he'd been staring at Téa intently, wordless, for the past few minutes. It was Joey's voice that finally broke him out of his trance.

"Ain't the little lovebirds cute?" There was a trace of sarcasm in Joey's thickly-accented question, but no one bothered to point that out.

Instead, Mai responded. "Lovebirds indeed—so have you two finally figured out what's what?"

Mokuba blinked, looking from his brother to Téa, and from Joey to Mai. He couldn't help but feel horribly out of place in this picture, this scene of adults with romantic entanglements and duels abound. He wasn't even 13 yet! And so, without anyone even batting an eye, Mokuba slipped around the corner—to not be part of the scene, but to merely observe it.

Téa didn't break her gaze from Kaiba, but her cheeks remained a healthy shade of pink. It was odd, how Kaiba's gaze could still get to her this way—like he was seeing right through her—but this time, it also brought a warm tingle to her skin. She didn't feel the urge to look away…she met his gaze head-on.

"You already know how I feel," Téa started in a voice so low it was almost a whisper. It seemed easy enough to forget that Joey and Mai were both standing nearby and watching them intently— all Téa could think about was how deliciously warm she felt inside, and how happy and amazed she'd been when Kaiba finally admitted that he shared his feelings for her. Whatever that meant for their future…

"I love him," Téa said—still speaking to Mai, but detached from the dimension where the blonde's presence distracted her.

"And I love you," Kaiba responded, his eyes almost entirely glazed over. Téa realized with a warm jolt that he'd said it—in front of Joey, in front of Mai—like he didn't care if they were there. He really meant it, didn't he? If he was willing to say it in front of other people, his voice so confident and sure…

Joey swallowed the burning lump away in his throat. There was Mai, the girl **he** loved more than anything, standing only a meter away from him…but he couldn't even measure up to Kaiba and his courage. Joey Wheeler hated coming in second to anyone, least of all Kaiba, so it stung even more that his once-rival had found love and happiness before Joey could.

"Romantic, ain't it? Heh, 'love.' Who knows what the heck it is, anyway?" Joey shoved his hands in his pockets, wishing for the life of him that he had a home to go to where he could sulk about this kind of thing. But 'home' for him meant a place with a drunken father that never cared, that never understood…

Once upon a time, Mr. Wheeler might have understood his son's feelings—maybe in a rare moment of sobriety, he could have said something enlightening about love and the complexities of women…but Joey was never around to see it. He was too busy working his butt off to pay for his tuition and pay off his father's debts.

"A powerful emotion felt for another person, manifesting itself in the form of deep affection, devotion, or sexual desire… a great liking or a fondness," Mai replied automatically, her voice almost breathless. She didn't realize that she'd just quoted a dictionary definition until she realized both Kaiba and Joey were staring at her with surprised expressions on their faces. She was about to say something to defend herself against any accusations of her being a nerd when Joey mumbled something that froze Mai's mouth shut:

"Thank you, Webster's." Only this time, there wasn't a trace of sarcasm of enthusiasm— it was just a quiet, dull whisper.

"Lucky?" Mai finally managed—and Kaiba's eyes widened.

"Violet?" Joey croaked.

_'There's no way—' _

"Seto, what…?" Téa tugged on his collar, obviously confused by what was going on.

"It's nothing," Kaiba smiled gently at Téa and ushered her away from the entryway, where Mai and Joey continued to stare at each other in disbelief. "I'll tell you later."

* * *

"…What'd you mean when you said you were spoken for?" Joey finally managed, flopping down on the massive marble stairway.

Briefly, he wondered which of the dark doors he spotted upstairs led to Kaiba's room, and which one to Téa's. He briefly envisioned Mokuba's room as being a brightly-colored mess of toys and Duel Monsters cards—just like Joey's own room was—but maybe the younger Kaiba would surprise him.

Mai was surprised that Joey remembered such a silly statement from an online chat room—nearly a week ago, no less! Didn't the boy have other things to think about during this holiday season?

Joey's intent stare answered her own question. _'Guess not. Should I feel flattered?'_ Part of her was—it seemed like Joey really wanted to know the truth, and if the way he was clutching onto the edge of the stair he sat on was any indication, he was bracing himself for the worst.

"Ah-hah…" Mai tried to find an effective way of dodging the question, and laughed meekly in an attempt to stall for time. "You, actually," she finally admitted.

Joey glanced at Mai with one eyebrow raised in surprise. "You mean—"

"Yeah, Joey… look, this whole conversation thing seems totally awkward. We fought for totally stupid reasons—"

"I fought," Joey corrected her. "You didn't do nothin' wrong—"

"Didn't do **anything** wrong," Mai smirked. "But thanks."

"I was just all—I mean, come on!" Joey gestured vaguely in the direction Kaiba and Téa had gone. "Him and her? Kaiba and…well, anyone, but least of all, Téa!?"

"Yeah," Mai sighed. "I was just as shocked as you when I found out. And I did warn Téa, but…she was just so afraid of what you guys would say…"

"Probably didn't help any that all that time she was makin' those mushy admissions, I thought she was talkin' about Yugi," Joey grumbled guiltily. He realized that he'd had just as much a part in his best friend's heartbreak as Téa had. After all, if he hadn't encouraged Yugi into believing…

"That's what I would have thought, too—I mean anyone could see he's had eyes for her since the beginning."

Joey knew that, too. But things had happened—big things, like the death of Téa's parents—and circumstances or fate or whatever brought Téa together with Kaiba, instead of Yugi. It didn't always add up right in Joey's head, but it was how things were. He couldn't change it, even if he wanted to.

He was therefore understandably hesitant before he spoke next. "…And what about us?"

"Us?" Mai repeated. "Us."

Mai rose to her feet, inhaling sharply. She looked around at all the decorations Téa hung up, and how amazing the house looked. Here she was, at one of the last places she would ever expect to be on New Year's Eve…Kaiba and Téa were together, almost disgustingly lovey-dovey with one another, and…they were **happy**. Silly as it was, Mai wanted a piece of that happiness. She wanted to wish on the dropping New Year's ball, she wanted to kiss someone at midnight—she wanted things for to go right for once in her life.

Maybe that meant winning some duels and proving her worth to a bunch of teenagers…or maybe it meant apologizing for being tactless and cold. Maybe it meant accepting apologies from a clumsy teenager who only thought of her, despite everything else he had in his world.

"Let's stick around the party and see what happens, hm?" Mai forced herself to smile as she proffered a hand down to Joey. "For now—friends?"

With her eyes squeezed shut as she tried to smile brightly, she never saw the hurt expression cross Joey's face. But Joey mustered some courage and reached up to grab Mai's hand in his own.

"Friends."

* * *

"I'm glad you're not delivering postcards this year, Big Brother," Serenity smiled at Joey as she latched onto his arm. Like everyone else, she was appropriately attired in a kimono and trying to walk in traditional Japanese sandals, with her toes separated by a thick cord attached to the shoe.

Their not-so-small band of friends gathered in front of the Kaiba mansion, wishing that it wasn't so very cold out…but at least they would all be together this New Year's.

_'All of them.'_

It meant more to Serenity than she could really say, so she settled for being glad that her brother wasn't working as an assistant for the postal service this year, as he had in the past several years.

Joey mumbled a response around a mouthful of buckwheat noodles, which he and several of the others had picked up at a nearby soba noodle stand. The streets were packed tonight, even in the usually-quiet prefecture of Domino, and the lines at little food stands stretched out for blocks—they'd already waited forty minutes before they'd placed their order.

It was only about ten o'clock, and they still hadn't reached the local Shinto shrine yet, where they and thousands of other people would be going to welcome in the New Year, pray to the gods for good fortune and prosperity, and watch the various celebrations and shows. Downtown, NHK, Japan's national TV station, broadcasted the year's best songs and list favorites, while the smaller stations highlighted more local events and parties, whether they were at shrines or at exclusive events.

"I wonder what changed about this year," Mai remarked with a smile. She fidgeted in her emerald-green kimono, glad for what little warmth her faux-fur stole gave her. Oddballs lingering on the street corners kept shooting glances at her, likely waiting for some unattended girl to get separated from her crowd and be left prey to the wilds of the street. Well, Mai Valentine wasn't that kind of girl.

Still, she kept close to Joey and the others.

It wasn't long before they reached the local Shinto shrine, and made their way up the lengthy staircase with the rest of the massive crowd. Nearly an hour later, each one of them made it to the front of the temple.

"I wanna ring the bell!" Mokuba exclaimed happily, unaffected by the chill in the air. He seemed thrilled just to be out on New Year's, surrounded by people he knew and liked. On top of that, he was wearing a brand-new kimono that he knew suited him.

All the old ladies who'd spotted him said he was 'adorable,' but it was Serenity's compliment—that he looked "very handsome"—that had Mokuba practically preening in place.

"So does everyone else here," Kaiba grumbled. After being jostled around by no less than a hundred people, he didn't look all too comfortable to be outside in the cold, tottering around in sandals…when he could be inside his nice, warm house, eating nice, warm food.

Mokuba didn't reply to his brother's remark, and instead wormed his way through the crowd up to the front of the shrine. The others caught up with him soon enough, and soon the whole of them were standing in a line, clasping their hands in prayer and wishes for the new year. Well, all of them but Kaiba. He stood off to the side near a tree bedecked with little tied-up strips of paper, looking befuddled. Téa stood closest to him, and opened one of her eyes to peer at him.

She gestured with her chin for Kaiba to come stand by her side and join her, but her boyfriend didn't quite get the message until a giggling shrine maiden tugged on his arm and positioned him next to Téa. Their sudden and abrupt closeness caused Kaiba to flush—though later he would attribute it to the cold—and as he clumsily put his hands together to imitate the 'appropriate prayer pose,' he wondered what he would pray for.

Before he could really think too long about it, another thought entered his mind—what would **Téa** be praying for? Was she praying to the gods to give her good luck and happiness…or was she wishing to leave Japan, to leave him and everything else she'd ever known behind—to chase a dream she'd harbored for years?

The minutes passed and he continued to stare, bile building in his stomach and rising up to his throat.

_'All I want… is for her to stay with me…'_

It was prayer enough. Kaiba clasped his hands together quickly once more, inhaling the thick scent of incense before stepping away from the shrine. Once Yugi and the others had their turn, he made his way to the bell. He gave the thickly-braided rope a sharp tug, and it clanged back loudly.

Perhaps the gods would answer his prayer…even if Seto Kaiba wasn't the type to believe in the divine.

_'Maybe just this once…'_

The others had made their way to where smiling shrine maidens wearing all-white took their monetary offerings and allowed them to draw fortunes from a box with several clacking numbered bamboo sticks in them. Once the head of a shoot poked its way through the box, the shrine maiden took the fortune that matched the number on the stick, and gave it to whomever had drawn that number.

"4?" Joey groaned, shaking his head. "This ain't a good sign." Still, the shrine maiden smiled at him as she handed him the corresponding fortune, while Serenity and Téa got theirs.

"I got 46," Téa grinned as she read off the folded red-and-white paper. "It says 'Spring wind blowing, both plum blossoms and cherry blossoms are to bloom around the mountainside.' Hm, what a nice poem."

"That's not the fortune, Téa," Serenity giggled, hiding her mouth behind the sleeve of her sky-blue kimono.

"I know, I know," Téa smiled. "Your fortune: excellent," she read, "Have a strong will and be calm. Do not waver in your determination, even when you meet with misfortune. Work hard and bide your time, and you'll have good luck."

"Sounds more like a fortune from last year," Kaiba remarked dryly, opting not to take a fortune—though the shrine maidens did keep looking at him, as if they expected him to relent and go back for one.

"It gets better," Téa smirked. "It says my wish will be fulfilled in time—always a good thing—and that I'll have to…well, this is weird."

Kaiba's interest piqued, he walked over to her and read the rest of the fortune.

"You will have to make an unexpected decision. You won't be able to find what it is you're missing until you give up the search. Travel plans may be hindered, but not for long. Be cautious about your business, as outside forces may hinder it to their own ends. You'll have no problem studying. Give and receive support, and you will win any game. Take your time with love—" Kaiba abruptly stopped speaking as his eyes skimmed the remainder of the little fortune. For such a small piece of paper, it certainly went in-depth into people's lives for the upcoming year!

"What does it say?" Duke asked, leaning over the duo in his pastel-colored haori coat and kimono. He was wearing a smirk that rather unnerved Téa—and by the way he kept glancing at Serenity and clasping his own fortune, Téa could easily deduce why he was smiling so oddly.

"Take your time with love," Kaiba repeated softly. "Unless your minds meet, there will be no future for you. Be faithful to each other and—" Kaiba trailed off, wishing he could just crumple up the paper and dismiss it as the silly garbage it was.

"And conception will come easy!" Duke crowed. His eyes lit up the more he read. "Be tolerant of others, as their illness will weaken your spirit. However, your body is strong enough to withstand whatever comes your way. It isn't time for marriage just yet—give it time."

"Ho…" Joey murmured under his breath, shaking his head despite his smile.

"Man, you've got **plans**, Kaiba, don't you?" Tristan laughed. "Forget anniversary balls, he's getting the whole kit and caboodle with Téa!"

"Guys!" Téa hollered, her face almost as pink as her kimono. First Seto reading her fortune, now Duke? How embarrassing…

_'Still, some of it…'_ It made her smile. It made her worry too, but tonight was a holiday—a chance for celebration and fun, not dwelling on the sadness of the past year. Come midnight, that would all be just memory—embers of the past, and nothing more. She couldn't afford to keep living in the past, wondering what life would be like if only her parents hadn't died, or if only she hadn't decided this thing or that thing…

_'My future is what I make of it, fortune or no,'_ Téa resolved silently to herself. She wore a pretend-smile as she tied the fortune onto a nearby tree. The once-barren tree looked like a cherry blossom tree in full bloom, the little fortunes tied to it looking like bright buds. And soon, the dark and barren sky would fill with light and fire…

* * *

It was nearly midnight at the Kaiba mansion, and at long last, the party was in full swing.

Joey and Duke had conspired to find Kaiba's wine cellar, and once down there, they'd discovered a great deal more than just grape wine— they'd also found import rice wine and the finest plum wines available. As drinking was actually encouraged during the New Year, no one could complain about the boys boisterously proclaiming that they would finish off all six of the bottles that they'd brought upstairs.

Kaiba couldn't argue with them either—down in the basement, those bottles just collected dust. He had no use for them—and after 'remembering' how drunk he'd gotten at the Kaiba Corp. Ball, he'd vowed never to touch something that alcoholic again. Not if he could help it, anyway.

The girls sat on the couches in the living room, glad to be relieved of their constricting sandals. Mai agreed to loosen Serenity and Téa's sashes, allowing them to sit down and breathe more comfortably than they had in the hours outside walking, but the beautiful styles their obi had been folded into were now loose and limp. They each nibbled from a variety of lacquered dinner boxes Kaiba had specially ordered for the occasion—though first they'd devoured the sets Téa had made for everyone.

"Are we staying here until sunrise?" Yugi asked Kaiba curiously. The younger boy already looked sleep-deprived, if the circles under his eyes were any indication.

"You don't have to," Kaiba responded gruffly. "Though the mutt probably will be no matter what—if he doesn't pass out drunk first."

"I still can't believe it," Yugi murmured softly. He had the faintest traces of a smile on his face, but his gaze seemed unfocused. Kaiba couldn't tell who he was looking at: Joey, who was now engrossed in some sort of drinking contest with Duke, or Téa, who was sitting on the couch talking with Serenity and Mai.

"What?" Kaiba finally asked, though he was loathe to admit that curiosity had gotten the better of him.

"Well…" Yugi scratched behind his head, one of his bleach-blond bangs flopping into his eyes. Once he blew it away, he spoke, that same wistful smile still on his face.

"Everything, I guess. Everybody. A whole year's passed us by, and yet here we are. Things are really different…but not." Yugi absently fingered the Millennium Puzzle tied around his neck—despite his light blue haori and seafoam green kimono. He must have made an odd sight at the temple, but if anyone had commented on Yugi's appearance, Kaiba hadn't noticed. Had he really become so distracted with Téa that he didn't pay attention to Yugi at all?

Was that how much his world had changed in the past year?

How much would it continue to change, whether or not the gods had their say?

* * *

"Soon, the gods will lose their voice." The words lingered in the air for just a few moments, the sound echoing in the great cavern where the speaker stood alone.

The only light in the massive room came from a series of strategically-planted torches, each of them set in holders shaped to look like the mouths of great sea creatures. The two torches nearest the doors were wrapped in the arms of a pair of stone-faced mermaids, their legendary beauty marred only by time, which had worn away at their once-intricately carved faces.

"All that I have foretold shall come to pass."

The flames in the torches flickered.

"This new year shall be their last."

* * *

Malik Ishtar bolted upright from his simple bed, tossing his few blankets to the floor.

He'd just heard a voice.

Something felt wrong. Not just wrong, but horribly wrong. He wasn't sick, but…

Without further hesitation, he rushed out of his tiny, makeshift bedroom and into the darkened hallways of the Domino Museum.

_'The prophecy…!'_

* * *

"5…"

Joey grabbed Mai's hand without thinking. Her gaze turned to him, and time seemed to slow, the countdown fading to a dull whisper in the background of her mind.

"Joey?"

"4…"

"I don't wanna be friends," he muttered gruffly.

It felt like the floor had just given way beneath her. In that instant, her hand had gone from deliciously warm to icy cold. Just what was he saying to her? After everything they'd said earlier, when it had all finally come out, and they'd explained…

_'He just can't trust me after all, can he? Well, I—'_ Mai desperately wanted to ignore the beads of tears forming at her lash line.

"3…"

"I can't stop thinkin' about that night, and—" Joey shook his head, his eyes still focused on the wide-screen television, which was simultaneously broadcasting New Year's celebrations from all around Japan.

Mai hiccuped into her sleeve, thinking she'd misheard him. She was mentally calculating the ways she could insult Joey and forcibly remove him from her life. But when he spoke next, everything became unearthly silent, and all her thoughts left her.

"2…"

His gaze finally tore away from the TV, the reflection of the fireworks still glimmering in his eye. "I wanna be with you."

"1…"

Joey crushed his lips against Mai's before she could even think to utter a sound. Since the whole of the Kaiba mansion was already dark, save what little light came from the last few lit lanterns and the television itself, no one saw the two of them wrapped in their own world, Joey embracing Mai for every centimeter of skin and silk she had.

Since he was so occupied, Joey didn't notice when both Tristan and Duke leaned in simultaneously and managed to catch Serenity unawares, both of them kissing her on the cheek. She was so surprised that she squeaked aloud, her cheeks flaming red. Her posture riveted to stick-straight, but once both boys winked at her, Serenity relaxed, allowing herself a breathy laugh.

"Guys…"

Only moments before, Téa had to remind Seto just what it meant to kiss someone on the stroke of midnight on New Year's. Flushed and speaking in hushed tones, she mumbled something about him not having to kiss her if he didn't want to—but just as the countdown hit 'one,' Seto kissed her wordlessly, gently holding her with a light touch to her arms.

Téa was so surprised that she forgot to close her eyes—and for the first time, she got a good look at what Seto looked like when he kissed her. A pleased smile curled her lips, and she finally relented and kissed Seto back.

Meanwhile, Mokuba lay sound asleep on the couch—he'd desperately tried to stay awake until the New Year's countdown, but sleep called to him and forced his eyes shut precisely at 11:56pm on New Year's Eve. Sound asleep, the youngest party-goer remained blissfully unaware of the special "moments" everyone else seemed to be sharing.

Everyone else... except Yugi.

Recessed from all the circles of lovers and friends, Yugi stood alone, hidden in the shadows. He could make out the silhouettes of each and every one of his friends… each of them caught up in their own moment with their own special someone (er, **someones**, in Serenity, Tristan, and Duke's cases). And he was alone.

Briefly, he wondered what Bakura and Malik were doing, and if they ever felt like he did in this moment. If they ever did, maybe he could sympathize with them…just a bit.

Yugi sighed deeply, and reached for an abandoned saucer of sake. He downed it easily, despite the taste of the stuff burning its way down his esophagus.

"Hmph," Yugi muttered sourly. "Happy New Year."

* * *

Hours later, sunrise finally fell on Japan, and those who believed it was more auspicious to welcome in the New Year's with the rising of the sun did just that.

For people like Seto and Téa, it signaled that they could finally get some sleep.

"It's beautiful, isn't it?" Téa smiled, loosening her sash but keeping her kimono tucked close to her body. The pink and orange rays of the sun were just stretching over the horizon, casting their pale glow over everything in their path. The light swept up and outward, finally making its way to the window where she stood. Beams of light pushed their way through the curtains and through whatever slits in windows and blinds were in the house.

At last, warmth spread through Téa's otherwise-freezing feet, and she shivered in place. A moment later, she shivered again— but this time, it was because Seto embraced her from behind, holding her against his chest.

He didn't respond to her question, he simply kissed her gently on the neck.

She smiled slightly and giggled as Seto continued his descent downward, tickling her with his kisses the whole while.

"H-Hey! No fair—!" When she finally wrenched away from him, she turned to face the mess their living room was in.

Well… it was a New Year. No reason to head into it dreading things like chores. They were a part of life.

_'Just like love and death. Everyone has to experience them both at least once.'_

Supposedly, anyway. Briefly, Téa wondered if what Seto claimed he felt for her was really love. He knew it was a different feeling for everyone, but…. There was still a niggling doubt in Téa's mind. She wasn't sure where it came from.

"Hm. Guess Joey's found his spot for the next week, right?" Téa laughed softly. Shortly after Mai left in the early morning hours—much to Joey's protests—Joey had decided to curl up on the couch. His plan hadn't worked out though, and he ended up falling off the couch and curling up beside it, snorting and kicking his legs out every now and then.

"I **told** you he was a mutt," Seto chuckled in her ear.

"I hope everyone got home safe," Téa chewed her thumbnail absently, ignoring Seto's remark. She especially wondered about Yugi, but she knew better than to voice such thoughts around Seto. Her best friend had seemed somewhat sad and quiet the whole night long—but maybe she'd just mistaken Yugi's occasional quiet countenance for sadness. That's what Téa was hoping, anyway. She didn't want Yugi to be upset at her again.

_'I don't think I could take it if he was.'_

* * *

Indeed, everyone **had **gotten home fine—though Mai, who'd taken Serenity in for the duration of the younger girl's stay in Domino, reported running into several lewd drunks on the train ride home.

Businesses slowly started to open up again, beginning with toy and candy shops—Mokuba, like the millions of other Japanese children, had received a monetary present for the New Year, and he was most eager to spend it with other kids at the local toy stores. Even the Turtle Game Shop was open early in the morning, expecting a rush of children eager to get their hands on the latest packs of Duel Monsters cards.

Most everyone else in the country spent New Year's Day relaxing and sleeping. Leftover foods from the previous night's raucous celebrations were plentiful, and there was no shortage of beverages to drink.

"Ugh…remind me never to touch anything alcoholic **ever** again, 'kay?" Joey groaned to Téa as he stumbled into the kitchen around 11 that morning.

Téa smiled, remembering her own bad experiences with the stuff. "I don't really think I could stop you if you were determined enough," she murmured pointedly.

Joey only stared at her with a sulky expression and bloodshot eyes, a sharp contrast to his eyes' normal hazel green color.

It didn't take long for Joey to recover from his hangover though—soon enough he was eagerly stuffing his face with whatever leftovers he could find, quite happily finishing off what Téa claimed she, Mokuba, and Kaiba could never eat—even between the three of them.

Mokuba returned home from the toy stores he'd visited, a stack of new games and packs of Duel Monsters cards in his arms. After he and Joey throughly inspected them (with Kaiba critically examining each card as he hovered over their shoulders), Mokuba agreed to tour Joey around the grounds.

It was nearing the mid-afternoon when Kaiba decided to go out and look for them, but had been unable to find them anywhere in the house. It hadn't taken them long to locate **him**, though. Before Kaiba could give up his search, he was pelted with a snowball. And then another—and another. Each one of them seemed to come from different directions, and before long, he was showered in snow. It didn't take him long to retaliate though, as he dodged behind a large pine tree, and spotting Mokuba's tell-tale mop of ebony hair, he quickly formulated a plan of attack.

It didn't help that he soon spotted a mess of blond hair bobbing beside Mokuba.

_'Wheeler.'_ So, the mutt was helping his little brother out, was he? Well, no matter…Kaiba was glad the thick snow and evergreen underbrush hid his smirk.

"You're outnumbered," a voice whispered breathlessly beside him. Kaiba glanced sideways at Téa, who was wearing the ice blue coat trimmed with artificial fur—one of the presents he'd gotten for her. A warm feeling abruptly blossomed in his chest—she was actually wearing it, which meant she liked it, which meant…

"Whose side are you on, anyway?"

Téa smiled mischievously at him and lobbed a snowball at Joey's head. There was a cry of astonishment from the other side of the pathway where the two teams had set up camp, and soon there was a torrential downpour of snowballs from one side of the entryway to the other.

Charles, the security guard, returned from his near-week long break from work. Unable to find his employer anywhere in the house, he'd dared to set foot outside—but he paused the moment he saw a flurry of snowballs seemingly launching themselves across the walkway. Charles decided that if his boss was somewhere in that mess, it was best not to disturb him… until later.

* * *

The day seemed to stretch on forever, much to Joey's delight. He took great amusement in torturing Kaiba with his presence whenever he got the chance, though he was quite polite to both Téa and Mokuba, helping them clean up the remnants of the New Year's party mess.

Finally, the hours dwindled into the late night, and Téa and Mokuba both retired to bed—but Kaiba didn't, since Joey seemed all too eager to continue causing mayhem, and it wasn't as if Kaiba was simply going to **let** him, even if he had agreed to putting Wheeler up for a week.

Unfortunately for Kaiba, Joey seemed wide awake as he leaned back comfortably on the leather couch, looking for all the world like he owned it. Kaiba wanted to scowl, but the last thing he wanted was to give Wheeler another reason to antagonize him. They seemed to have a strange, slightly amicable relationship with each other. They weren't the heated rivals they'd once been during Battle City, but they were far from being close friends.

"So why didn't you get back at Téa?" Joey finally asked, breaking the silence.

"Get back at her for what?" Kaiba couldn't help the near-disgust lacing his voice.

"For beatin' you at Duel Monsters," Joey chortled. "After that whole Crump thing, she told me the whole story in the limo—remember?"

Kaiba grit his teeth together. Oh, he remembered. He remembered the big, silly grins the two of them had worn the moment they exited the limousine, while Kaiba was left wondering what he'd missed as he dismounted Tristan's motorcycle. He remembered Mokuba excitedly deciding the terms of the bet later that night at dinner, but Joey suspiciously turning down the offer—for reasons unknown.

Yet he was here now, and he didn't seem to have any qualms about it whatsoever.

"I'm not one for **petty** revenge," Kaiba answered, wondering if Wheeler really thought him that much of a sore loser. Getting revenge on Yugi was one thing—Yugi was the one person Kaiba considered his true rival—but Téa? Long ago, Kaiba had dismissed Téa's win as mere luck. Normally, he didn't like to believe in such things, but…

But it could have been something else—true duelist skill—and Kaiba didn't want to think about that. He didn't want to consider the possibility of Téa, who he'd let into his heart after so much heartache and mistrust suddenly becoming competition to him. Still, he couldn't just forget how Téa had defeated Mai quite soundly the previous night. She'd watched numerous duels, gotten cards from top duelists, and now…

Before Kaiba could recall the painful fact that Téa was leaving him—Duelist Tournament or no—Joey made an exaggerated point of rolling his eyes.

"Geez man, I didn't mean like that! I meant…" the blond gestured broadly, a grin stretched across his lips. "Something creative."

Kaiba raised a brow, wondering what Wheeler could possibly mean. "Such as?"

Joey's smile only split his face wider, and he rose from the couch looking for all the world like a kid about to make some serious mischief.

"Got any whip cream?"

* * *

"You have some sick fetishes, Wheeler," Kaiba murmured under his breath. He couldn't believe he was doing this—creeping around his own house like he was some kind of cat burglar. Only he wasn't going to steal anything—he was going upstairs to "get back at Téa, creatively," as Joey had put it. And apparently that meant spraying whip cream over her hands.

Joey kept tip-toeing down the hallway, gently shaking the can of whip cream as he went. "Say that after you get some of this stuff licked off your chest."

Kaiba pretended he hadn't heard that. He had no desire to find out about what Wheeler and Valentine did in their spare time.

"Which one's her room?" Joey asked when they finally reached the second floor landing. He poked his head into the bathroom and started padding down the hallway, gently nudging the doors ajar to find out which one Téa slept in.

Kaiba felt a surge of panic rise in his throat.

He didn't exactly want Wheeler knowing he slept with Téa—Wheeler was sure to blow the fact out of proportion, and make rash assumptions—but what other explanation would account for the room Téa was undoubtedly sleeping in? It wasn't some girly room festooned with lace and ribbons. There was no pink or purple or pine bookcases…it was a dark room accented with cherry and mahogany—a **man's** room. Well, it had been a man's room until Téa decided to "move in" with him. Now it was **their** room, and with Kaiba's robe hanging off the nearby chair and Téa's makeup scattered about his desk, there would be no mistaking…

"Didn't she say something about some purple room last time we was here?" Joey mumbled, scratching behind his ear. He was peering into the Violet Room now, noting how the moonlight spilled onto the empty bed.

Kaiba swallowed. Why was he even bothering with this much pretense around Wheeler, anyway? What did it matter if Wheeler knew—let him jump to conclusions! If the mutt wanted to spend another **hour** in the Kaiba mansion, he'd keep his mouth shut about Kaiba's nocturnal habits, regardless of where they took place or with whom.

"In here," Kaiba muttered, his voice sounding oddly dry and hoarse. He pushed aside the door to a room on the opposite side of the hall—the converted master bedroom, with deep navy blue acting as its theme color. A tiny slip of moonlight filtered in through the thick curtains, illuminating Téa's form in the bed.

Joey squinted in the dark, trying to find some tell-tale sign of Téa's 'personality' in the room. Unfortunately, he spotted Kaiba's clothes first. For someone Kaiba thought didn't have much of a brain, he sure put two and two together rather quickly.

"You—her—!?"

Kaiba hissed at him to be quiet or he'd wake Téa, and that would ruin everything. If Wheeler wanted to throw a hissy fit, he could do it out in the hallway.

Joey's voice lowered to a dull whisper, but his eyes remained narrow in a suspicious stare. "How far have you gone with her?" he asked bluntly.

"None of your damn business," Kaiba seethed. Joey grinned broadly at his response, as if those words were indication enough.

"Oh, I get it. Never mind then." Joey's countenance suddenly became cheery again, which only set off more alarms in Kaiba's head. Just what did Wheeler know, anyway? And how had he found out?

_'Certainly not by using his brain,'_ a voice in Kaiba's mind supplied. Kaiba smothered a slight laugh; he didn't bother so much with direct insults anymore these days, but the ability to conjure up words enough to befuddle and anger Wheeler was just too easy.

"Awright…" Joey leaned over Téa slightly, but the slight motion was enough to get Kaiba skidding to his side— to make sure Wheeler didn't try anything funny.

That is, outside of spraying Téa's hands with whip cream and tickling her nose so she'd smudge it all over her face.

Sure enough, once Joey pulled out his secret weapon—a feather procured from one of the dusters downstairs— and started tickling Téa's nose, she started sniffling. Her hand subconsciously flung up to her face, and the dollop of whip cream from her hand dropped right onto her face. Joey stifled his laughter, but only for a moment—Téa moaned something in her sleep and batted at Joey's feather, causing her nose to twitch once more.

She brought up her other hand to scratch, and this time she smeared more whip cream on the side of her face. Before Kaiba could allow himself to relish in this odd sort of 'revenge,' Téa licked the whip cream away from her mouth.

_'Is she—?!'_ She couldn't be awake. If she was, would she really have let them get as far as they had? Kaiba couldn't be sure.

"Seto…" Téa murmured in her sleep, rolling over on her side. The whip cream on her face and hands was long gone—whatever Téa hadn't licked off, it was now smeared as a sticky film on her skin or on the sheets.

"Whoa-ho…" Joey laughed under his breath. "Someone's having **sweet** dreams." He emphasized the word 'sweet' carefully, making it obvious even to Kaiba that there was an intended pun there.

Kaiba only glared at him as the two of them padded out of the room and back downstairs.

* * *

The next morning, Téa had no idea what had transpired the night before—though any shiny traces of processed sugar were long gone from her face. The brunette had scrubbed her face clean and dressed for the day, and when she spotted Joey and Kaiba, both still in their nightclothes and looking at her bleary-eyed and smiling, she stopped.

"Okay, what did I miss?"

Joey only yawned loudly and said he was going to bed. Seto only grunted in reply.

Téa blinked as Kaiba breezed past her, heading to his own office to get some sleep, while Mokuba rummaged through the cabinets looking for some early morning sweets. Téa exchanged a confused glance with Mokuba, but the boy only shrugged.

Hours later, Kaiba and Joey were both once more awake and, if just to prevent the possibility of destruction in his household, Kaiba watched Joey like a hawk. He could easily kick Wheeler out if his pranks got too far…but so far, they hadn't succeeded—not really, anyway— in getting revenge on Téa. That called for a second attempt.

However, it seemed as though Joey ran out of "creative" ideas, and instead he opted for "kidnapping" Téa from bed after she'd fallen asleep. Joey procured a DVD from the rucksack he'd brought with him, claiming they would all watch it straight-through: the director's cut, full-length, extended-feature edition…of something. The movie of choice was a violent movie— supposedly a powerful politicial statement in disguise, Joey assured them, but Kaiba wouldn't believe it until he saw it.

The movie—something called "Battle Royale"—surprised Kaiba. But what surprised him even more was that it didn't take long at all for Téa to fall asleep, despite the bright flashing lights from the television, depicting explosion after explosion, and the surround-sound booms of hand-grenades and machine gun fire eliminating student after student. Sure, it was a political statement…but you really only understood the message once you saw close to 40 students being eliminated in a massacre.

Then again, Joey looked like he was having the time of his life watching the movie and explaining the nuances between characters. He excitedly claimed that he'd read the novel (Kaiba had to refrain from feigning surprise and asking Joey if he could really read) and all the manga out so far, and whoever did the manga certainly knew how to draw! The adapted story was pretty interesting, too…

Soon enough, the sound of gunfire, character conversations, and even Joey's voice faded off into the background. It wasn't until the movie was over and the main menu screen was playing on a quiet repeat that Kaiba even realized the movie was over.

"Who won?" he asked hoarsely, adjusting so Téa leaned on his shoulder, still sound-asleep.

"They got away," Joey whispered proudly. "Shuuya and Noriko, I mean."

Kaiba nodded—it didn't make sense to him, considering all the gunfire and explosions he'd last seen, so maybe he'd actually watch the movie again later.

Joey glanced over at Téa, still asleep and curled up against Kaiba's shoulder for warmth. Earlier in the evening, someone had haphazardly tossed the couch quilt over her, but her feet kept sticking out and she continued to fidget against Kaiba until she was suitably warm.

"You're pretty lucky, man," Joey finally said in a whisper. "I mean, even if you have seen more shit than a toilet…" he trailed off with a low chuckle. Before Kaiba could come up with a reply that wasn't laced with the tiredness he felt settling into his bones, Joey spoke again.

"Not everyone can turn somethin' so horrible into somethin' so great, you know what I mean? I mean you did it with your whole foster dad and all; made Kaiba Corp. a massive empire… Téa here managed to get stronger and more independent without her parents, and look at her now. I don't think I've ever seen her so…"

Joey stopped, as if searching for the right word to describe Téa. If he ever found a word he deemed appropriate, he didn't say it out loud.

Perhaps he found Téa happier, more relaxed, or more free-spirited. Or maybe something else altogether. Kaiba didn't know. He was well-aware that Téa had changed greatly from when they first met, but…it wasn't a bad thing. As hard as it was to truly believe, he loved her. At least, he thought he loved her.

He now knew that Joey was none other than LuckyChance777, the smart-mouthed, somewhat-perverted guy he'd encountered in a chat room online late Christmas Eve. He'd doled out the best love advice he could give—_'If you could call his innuendo-laden questions "advice"'_—and now…

"What about you?" Kaiba finally asked, allowing himself to ask the question that had been burning at the back of his mind ever since Joey came over. Why had he so readily agreed to stay over this night, but not before? Why did he work himself to the bone, apparently for no reason? Kaiba did it because it was what he was born to do, what he was bred to do, and truthfully, he enjoyed his work. Once upon a time, he had dueled in the same manner—specific cards for specific reasons—but things had changed. Serenity had her sight back, Mokuba was home safe…

So why…?

Joey shrugged nonchalantly, as if he were talking about the weather. "Dad's a drunk. He and mom divorced when I was a kid, and she lives in the other part of the country. I've been pretty much supportin' myself for close to six years now, no help from Dad at all. When he's sober, he tries to find work. That's about it."

Something told Kaiba there was more to Joey's story than he was letting on, but he didn't ask any more questions. Wheeler had a way of surprising him into silence like that. So he wasn't just a mutt or a 'fighting mutt'… he was a loyal and dedicated friend and brother, a surprising similarity between the two of them.

When Kaiba didn't respond to Joey's words, Joey leaned back on the couch and allowed himself a short laugh. "I'm surprised at you, Kaiba. I mean, Téa's really changed you, and I don't even think you notice."

Off the blank stare he received in return, Joey continued, "See, the old you woulda just laughed in my face—called me a loser, said I had a deadbeat loser dad, and that I probably deserved every bit of hard luck I got."

Kaiba was about to protest, saying he wouldn't, but Joey raised a hand and kept right on talking. "And don't try to tell me you wouldn'ta done it that way, 'cause you woulda. And even if I got mad and yelled at you, part of me would have known the truth—you were right. That'd give me reason enough to keep fighting. I can't stand being proven wrong by guys like you."

"'Guys like me,' huh?" Kaiba repeated slowly. "You really felt that way about me?"

"Hated your guts," Joey responded back promptly. For a moment, Kaiba thought he was going to add 'still do,' but Joey didn't.

"She was right—" Kaiba finally said, gesturing toward Téa with his chin. "Said we'd make good friends if we ever stopped fighting. I suppose we have more in common than we bothered to look at before."

It was odd to hear such words coming from Kaiba's mouth, so Joey only said "Heh," with a silly smile plastered on his face.

* * *

Several days later, Japan had once again blossomed into a highly active economy. Business was in full swing, and Kaiba Corporation was no exception. Kaiba had left for work earlier that day—the last day before they went back to school for the term, and the last day Joey would be staying in the Kaiba mansion. It was obvious from how longingly Joey looked at everything that he wished he could stay longer, but he didn't want to 'impose.'

Téa found it even more bewildering that Joey and Kaiba seemed to be getting along quite amicably—though she wasn't about to jinx the peace and have the two of them blow up at each other when next they saw each other.

"Ain't Kaiba supposed to be home by now, Téa?" Joey hollered from the kitchen.

Téa glanced at him with a raised eyebrow, noting his ruffled hair and his flour-smudged face. Maybe it wasn't such a good idea to let him and Mokuba try and prepare dinner. Key word being **try**…

"He—" But she didn't have a chance to finish. The phone in the kitchen rang shrilly once, twice—though the living room wasn't all that far away from the kitchen, both Joey and Mokuba were too busy arguing about how lumpy their concoction was supposed to be to answer the phone.

"Hello?" Téa asked.

The moment she heard the voice, her heart plummeted to her feet.

"Miss Gardner? It's Sergeant Konami. I'm afraid I have some bad news. Mr. Kaiba's been in an accident."

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> **All I've got to say is Bwa, Hah, Hah. In that order.**


	19. Accidental Friendship

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> So much for a perfect holiday... Kaiba's been in an accident, and his attitude is enough to get much more than snowballs flying!

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> **What Doesn't Kill You  
> Chapter 18: Accidental Friendship  
> version 2.0 - **Thanks, DarkShadowFlame, for the correction! (9/25/05) **  
> A Yu-Gi-Oh Fanfiction**  
> **By:** Azurite - azurite AT fanfiction DOT net  
> **Site: **seventh-star DOT net  
> **Conceptualized/First Written:** 6/28/05  
> **Completed/Final Edit: **9/11/05 - **In Memoriam** (Patriot's Day)  
> **Posted: **9/11/05
> 
> **TAKE NOTE!** Please notice that my website has changed! This affects the location of the Seto x Anzu fanfiction archive **Dragonfayth** and the Seto x Anzu fanlisting **Blue Eyes and Apricots**, so please change all of your links!
> 
> **Don't Forget!** All Review Replies are now hosted at my LiveJournal. Look for a section in my Memories called 'Review Replies,' and you can choose from the story/chapter of your choice to see what I had to say to your reviews! Thanks for your continued support!
> 
> **Thank you!** To **Mamono, Nekokilala, **and everyone at** betasquad ** livejournal dot com!
> 
> **Very Quick Recap: **"Miss Gardner? It's Sergeant Konami. I'm afraid I have some bad news. Mr. Kaiba's been in an accident."
> 
> **R.I.P.** Dedicated to Ben, a very nice guy who I met at CSUN's anime club. He passed away in a car accident on Sunday, August 21st, 2005. He will be missed.

It all happened rather quickly. But if someone were observant enough, they would have been able to tell the precise order in which it all happened.

First, Téa's eyes began to water, ever-so-slightly. She blinked rapidly a few times to quell the onset of tears, but her efforts were in vain. Subconsciously acknowledging this, she instead swallowed, forcing a rather acidic-tasting lump back down her throat. A cold, tingling feeling spread its way from her hands (now white from clutching the phone receiver so tightly) and the whole of her went numb.

While the greater part of her body seemed to slow and freeze to a halt, two parts of Téa were still quite active— her heart, thundering loudly, with the sound of her blood rushing booming in her ears… and her thoughts, rapidly firing one after the other.

_'Oh god, not again. Not him, I can't— I can't lose him. What will I do? What's happened? What can I do? Can I even do anything? Is he—'_

"Miss Gardner?" Konami's voice came back through the line, sounding a bit concerned. He didn't hear any vocal response— but he could just barely make out the sound of her breathing, soft and quick. She was afraid to ask what she so desperately wanted to know, so Konami had to just **tell** her.

"He's alive, Miss Gardner, but…"

"Oh, thank god."

The breath Téa didn't know she'd been holding for the past few moments rushed out of her, and her skin slowly returned to its natural color. "Is he all right? What happened? Where is he?"

Konami chuckled under his breath, glad to hear Téa speaking again— once again, focused, determined, and above all else, concerned.

"He was in a car accident, I'm sorry to say," Konami began. "I know what you're thinking, but it really **was** just an accident, Miss Gardner. We had several eyewitnesses, and another driver involved… in any case, Mr. Kaiba is here at the Domino Prefecture Memorial Hospital. He's alive and… well, I think you should just come in and see for yourself."

Téa smiled hesitantly despite the fact that Konami couldn't see her. It had to be some higher power's sick sense of humor that kept on bringing her together with Konami, the perpetual bearer of bad news. But it wasn't his fault… after everything that had happened, he was by her side, believing her no matter what she thought…

A thought occurred to Téa, and that smile disappeared as quickly as it had come. She lowered her voice to a whisper, afraid that Mokuba or Joey had heard her talking to Konami.

"He's not in a coma or anything, right? He doesn't have amnesia, or internal bleeding, or—"

"Like I said, Miss Gardner, he's fine. But you really ought to come in— I think he'd like to see you."

Téa sensed an odd sort of implication in Konami's voice, but it obviously wasn't the kind of thing the police officer was going to explain over the phone. A brief scene played out in her head, of Kaiba throwing everything from an IV machine to a bedpan at any nurses or doctors who tried to approach him, or any police officers that tried to question him.

She sweatdropped, laughing softly under her breath. Maybe it was a good idea to visit…

* * *

"Hey, where ya goin'?" Joey hollered the moment he spotted Téa trying to sneak out the side hallway. He knew that hallway led to the garage, so where was Téa rushing off to? And where was Kaiba?

Mokuba poked his head out of the kitchen to peer at Téa, who froze where she stood. She smiled at them sheepishly.

"You can have my dinner, if you want…" she murmured under her breath. She hadn't wanted to ruin this night for either of them —for Joey, it was his last night here at the mansion, and that meant he was milking the rest of his stay for everything it was worth. He made a mess of the kitchen, splurged on the most expensive groceries possible for dinner, and happily agreed to go shopping with Mokuba for new games —so long as he got one extra of everything Mokuba got. Naturally, the younger Kaiba agreed without hesitation.

"Téa…" Mokuba started warily. "What's wrong?"

Being a child, Mokuba could easily see through Téa's pretend-smile. He knew there was something wrong.

Téa exhaled deeply and tried to explain everything as best she could. "Your brother got into a car accident, Mokuba." In one second, Mokuba's face became horrified, his skin going pale and his eyes widening to the size of saucers.

"He's okay though," Téa continued a bit hesitantly. 'Okay' according to a police officer wasn't necessarily 'okay' by **her** standards, let alone Mokuba's. If his brother wasn't at the top of his game, he wasn't 'okay' at all. "I don't know everything that happened, but Sergeant Konami—"

"That same guy who called you about your parents?" Joey interrupted. He looked strangely serious and stoic, an expression uncharacteristic of Joey.

Téa nodded slowly, swallowing a lump in her throat. It bothered her that Konami kept getting involved in the hardest parts of her life —the death of her parents, her moving in with Kaiba, and now **this**.

"Well there's no way I'm just going to sit here and wait for you and Big Brother to come home," Mokuba announced abruptly, throwing his apron to the ground. He dusted his hands free of whatever powdery substance had coated them, and declared himself ready to leave.

"You ain't leavin' me here all alone— I know you don't trust me **that** much," Joey winked at Téa, a gesture which she couldn't help but smile at. Joey was always trying to make his friends smile, even in the toughest times. It wasn't as if he didn't understand hard times or difficulties like these… he just dealt with them in a different way.

"Okay, so we're all going then," Téa sighed. She wasn't going to argue, anyway. Seto would probably be grateful to see Mokuba, but as for Joey…

_'I'll cross that bridge when I get to it,'_ Téa thought wryly.

* * *

"Uh, 'scuse me!" If there was one thing to be said about Mokuba Kaiba, it was that he hadn't yet grown into his genes. While his brother was tall and lanky from a very young age, Mokuba seemed to retain more of his mother's petite appearance and dark hair. If he was ever going to get tall, he was long overdue for a growth-spurt. Being so short, he could barely reach over the high counter of the hospital reception desk.

The receptionist didn't even hear him. Since Mokuba had run into the hospital before Joey and Téa finished speaking to the chauffeur of the limousine they'd come in, they had to catch up to him. Now, as they approached from the entryway, they allowed themselves a moment of amusement as they watched Mokuba try and get the receptionist's attention.

"Pardon me." With Téa and Joey behind Mokuba, there was no way the receptionist couldn't notice them now. When she finally turned, the expression on her face was genuinely surprised.

"We're here to see Seto Kaiba."

"Relations?" the receptionist inquired automatically, her voice a dull monotone.

"I'm his brother!" Mokuba practically hollered from between Joey and Téa. The receptionist, despite not making eye contact with Mokuba, nodded and scribbled this down. She looked up at Joey and Téa, irritation and impatience quite prominent on her features. Her rimmed glasses slid down to the front of her nose, and for that moment, she couldn't have looked more like an angry librarian, her silence disturbed by noisemakers.

"I-I'm his… his wife," Téa mumbled, once she realized that it was probably past visiting hours and no one but 'true' relations would be allowed in. She pinched Joey hard on the side before he could make some surprised or snide comment, and he immediately piped up.

"I'm his brother-in-law. That counts, right?"

Apparently their little 'act' paid off well, because though Mokuba was staring at them with a look of complete shock, the receptionist seemed to fall for it, hook, line, and sinker. She shuffled through a thin file on the far end of her desk and looked back up at them.

"Intensive Care Unit, room 1025," was all the receptionist said, and then she turned back around and went back to whatever it was she was doing before.

Téa cast an angry stare at the woman's back, but she didn't start a fight for fear that the woman would take a closer look at her or Mokuba -or the file on the edge of her desk- and realize that Seto Kaiba wasn't married and that the blond duelist beside her was far from being her brother.

She put her hand on Mokuba's shoulder and steered him toward the stark white double doors marked with the simple placard: "Intensive Care Unit" while Joey followed behind, wearing a large grin on his face.

* * *

The halls at the hospital seemed to stretch on forever, an almost endless expanse of white walls and speckled tiles. Though it wasn't very late at night, there seemed to be very few people in the halls, and all the doors to individual hospital rooms were closed off and their tiny windows shut; there was no way to know if or when anyone would come out from one of those doors.

However, the moment Téa, Mokuba, and Joey reached the 1000 block of rooms, they knew they were getting close. Even from behind closed doors, they could hear a very angry, very distinct voice…

"You can just forget it! There is no way I'm going to use crutches!"

There was an exasperated sigh followed by a murmured voice; obviously some nurses were trying to convince Kaiba that he needed crutches.

_'So he broke his leg or sprained his ankle or something. As silly as it is for me to think it, that's actually a much better scenario than what I thought happened…' _Téa knew that Kaiba probably wouldn't find much amusement in the fact that Téa **liked** the fact that he'd broken his leg or whatever, but as far as Téa was concerned, a broken leg was far better than a crushed skull or an impacted spine. It was better than death.

Téa stared at the room marked '1025' but there was no nearby paperwork or letter board to indicate that Seto Kaiba was inside. If it weren't for the fact that they'd heard him hollering from all the way down the hall, there was no way they would have been sure this was the right room. She put her hand on the door with the intention of knocking and then entering, but she stumbled forward when the door opened from the inside.

The brunette found herself awkwardly pressed against the rather warm chest of a white-coated individual wearing a long stethoscope. When Téa finally regained her balance and her composure, she stared up at the doctor she'd fallen into: a young man with ebony hair and a perfectly white smile.

"Why, hello there."

"Uh—" Téa felt her cheeks turn hot, but before she could fumble with an excuse for her sudden bout of clumsiness, Mokuba bolted past her and the doctor and hollered as he entered the room.

"BIG BROTHER!"

Seto Kaiba cast a somewhat surprised stare from Mokuba to Téa, who waved nervously at Kaiba from behind the doctor, who still blocked her way into the room.

Kaiba pushed himself up a bit further in his bed, wincing when his one unrestrained leg shifted painfully against the sheets. His right leg was bound up in a light blue fiberglass cast and elevated on a mass of fluffy white pillows. His left leg looked normal enough— except for the smaller white wrap and brace on his ankle.

"Well now didn't I tell you Mr. Kaiba that I would have someone inform your family of your presence here, Mr. Kaiba?" the doctor smirked, finally allowing Téa to step inside.

"Sergeant Konami called," Téa explained, a faint blush still covering her cheeks. "We came as soon as possible."

"Your sister?" the doctor asked as he tapped a pen on his clipboard.

"Ah— I'm his wife," Téa explained hurriedly, thinking that if the doctor knew she was 'just' Kaiba's girlfriend, he would tell the nasty receptionist… and kick her out of the hospital while he was at it.

Téa's words earned astonished looks from both the doctor and Kaiba himself, though Kaiba's cheeks were the only ones that started to burn red. To both Téa and Kaiba's surprise, the doctor didn't say anything— he just sort of hummed under his breath and smiled again.

"Yo, bro!" It was at the exact moment that silence fell when Joey decided to burst into the room, juggling several paper cups of wiggling gelatin blobs.

"Ah, hi, Joey…" Téa mumbled as she stared at the floor. She was afraid that if she looked at anyone directly, they'd see right through her act. But she couldn't risk Kaiba saying something stupid and blowing everything to the ground. _'Brother-in-law!' _she mouthed urgently to him. He stared at Téa as if she'd grown a pair of antlers, and then turned back to face Joey and the doctor.

"You don't want any wigglies?" Joey asked innocently, offering Kaiba a strangely-shaped mass of green.

Kaiba shook his head vehemently; answer enough for Joey, who promptly dropped the green gelatin into his mouth and swallowed it whole. Even Mokuba seemed in awe by this, but he didn't dare ask his brother if he could have a "wiggly."

"Well then, I'll leave you and your family alone for a while, Mr. Kaiba," the doctor smirked. He raised an eyebrow at Téa, who blushed and turned away from his gaze before he could see right through her lie.

"Mr. Kaiba will need to stay here for several days, but after that, he'll be all yours. Oh, and Mrs. Kaiba?"

Téa's blush darkened even further.

"Yes?" She couldn't bring herself to look at the doctor.

"If your **husband** won't agree to use crutches, he only has one other choice if he expects to heal. But I imagine I'll have time to talk to you about that in a few more days. Good night."

"G-Good night…"

When the door finally closed, Joey burst out laughing. Mokuba joined in, but Kaiba only glared at the doorway, as if his gaze could penetrate the opening and follow the doctor on his rounds.

"There was no way he could have believed that."

"He did put a certain sort of emphasis on the word 'husband'," Téa agreed softly. When she finally had the courage to look at Kaiba again, he was smiling at her— an odd, quirky sort of a smile, but a smile nonetheless.

Téa's cheeks grew so unbearably hot that she decided to eat a "wiggly" herself, in the hopes that the funny gelatin might cool her down some.

When Joey and Mokuba finally finished laughing and eating the rest of the gelatin blobs, Mokuba spoke.

"So what happened, Big Brother?"

"I was just in my Integra coming home from work— the traffic downtown was ridiculous, so I took the long way. Well apparently some crazy driver decided it was the perfect time of night to practice racing down a pass, and the next thing I knew, my car was smashed in the guard rail. I must have blacked out after that, because all I remember is seeing the other driver, and then the ambulance lights."

"Was it some drunk?" Joey asked, trying to sound nonchalant. But it was obvious he had no amicable feelings toward drunk drivers whatsoever.

"No, I don't think so— though if it was, he sure got away lucky— my car was the only one damaged. When I woke up, the paramedics told me the other driver was uninjured, and went somewhere to deal with our insurance policies. At least he didn't cut and run."

"He must have called the ambulance for you, Seto," Téa murmured. "If he'd cut and run, you might—"

But before Téa could finish, Kaiba reached over and grabbed her hand, squeezing it warmly in his own.

"I'm fine." But a moment later, there was a clatter from where Mokuba sat, and the ebony-haired boy reappeared, sheepishly clutching the pair of crutches that had been leaning against the wall. Kaiba glared at them as if the crutches —and not a car accident— were the true source of his pain.

"But there's no way in hell that I'm going to use those things."

"You plannin' on flyin', then?" Joey asked, a sarcastic tone tingeing his voice. "Still, you're a damn lucky dog to get away from that accident…" From the look on Joey's face, he didn't care that he was angering Kaiba even more with every word he said; he was finally getting to throw Kaiba's favorite insult back at him— slyly, too.

Before Kaiba could answer, there was a soft knocking on the door.

"Please excuse my intrusion…" an apologetic voice sounded from the doorway.

To Téa's surprise, the person that walked in wasn't a quiet, demure nurse— it was a woman with short, sandy blonde hair, probably only a few years older than them. Something about her seemed oddly familiar too, but Téa's mind was so jumbled that she couldn't place it.

"Ah, Mr. Kaiba, right? How are you doing?"

Kaiba didn't seem too pleased to see the woman, but he wasn't snapping at her angrily, as he did with Joey.

"Could be worse," Kaiba finally remarked, gesturing broadly to his legs, both bound in casts.

The woman laughed sheepishly, and then turned to Téa and Joey, who were both staring at her.

"Forgive me, I… I was the other driver in the accident that hurt Mr. Kaiba, here."

Joey raised an eyebrow. "And you got away without a scratch? Looks like I was wrong, Kaiba: there **is** a luckier dog than you out there. This guy."

"Wheeler…" Kaiba growled under his breath, even as he balled his hand into a fist.

But it wasn't Kaiba getting angry at Joey again that prompted Téa to say something. It was Joey's words— and the magazine on the bed stand beside Seto. She recognized the blonde woman at last!

"Please excuse my friend— he doesn't know who you are."

The blonde woman turned once more and smiled at Téa. "You catch on faster than most people."

Téa flushed bright red and bowed her head. "If this hadn't been lying around, I wouldn't have even known—" She reached over to the bed stand and picked up the racing magazine that had been lying there. Now that she thought about it, this was all pretty ironic. After all, Seto was a relatively new driver, even if he had been taking lessons in secret. But despite all his genius and money, he'd still been badly injured. And the woman who'd gotten into the accident as well —a famous racer in both the car and motorcycle circuits— had gotten out without a scratch to her body.

As for the cars themselves…

"Haruka Tenou," the sandy blonde woman finally explained.

Suddenly, Joey's expression changed. It looked as though his eyes might drop out of his sockets at any minute, and his mouth kept opening and closing as though he were a landed fish.

"T-T-Tenou! T-The world-famous racer? The guy that beat all the odds in all the races in all the categories?"

Haruka blushed, but only faintly. It was obvious that she drank up this kind of praise, but she had the decency to look flattered.

"MISS Haruka Tenou, Joey," Téa finally corrected, her face growing too hot to be comfortable anymore. For a boy, he sure was dense about things. Anyone could tell Haruka was female just by looking at her… right?

But when she glanced at Kaiba, he too seemed surprised by this revelation.

"Miss…?" Joey repeated slowly as he blinked.

"Uh, yeah," Haruka scratched behind her ear nervously, and then cleared her throat abruptly. "Well, I know it's late and past normal visiting hours and all that, but I thought I'd let you know that I'll take care of the insurance, and your car will be as good as new in a week or so."

Kaiba was silent a moment, but he kept whatever he was thinking to himself. He responded with a simple and curt "Thanks."

Joey continued to gape, even as Haruka winked at Téa and closed the hospital room door behind her.

* * *

"Eww," Mokuba exclaimed, turning his eyes away.

Kaiba rolled his eyes at his younger brother, inching up the pajama pants the hospital had provided him with so Téa and Joey could see the tops of the staples in his leg.

"Surgery to put _staples_ in your leg? I thought medical science moved past that kind of thing…" Téa whispered, somewhat in awe but generally disgusted by the idea of anyone stapling parts of the human body together.

"It was only a couple of hours, and I was out for all of it," Kaiba explained. "They x-rayed me, decided it was a simple fracture requiring minor surgery… I was in and out of the operating room, and now here I am," Kaiba grimaced. "Stuck here for ten days, though."

"It's for your own good," Téa reassured him. "You don't want to do anything stupid and risk breaking your leg further."

"The fiberglass is already dry, and I have a decent enough pain tolerance," Kaiba seethed. "I didn't even need half the amount of painkillers they gave me."

"Guy thinks he's Superman," Joey muttered out of the corner of his mouth.

"Joey!" Téa elbowed the blond in the chest, and glared at him with narrowed eyes. Joey only shrugged and looked up at the ceiling.

"So you'll be here for ten days. Don't worry, I'll get the homework from school for you— and Mokuba and I will visit every day."

Mokuba turned around once more, carefully avoiding looking at his brother's swollen and stapled leg, and nodded vehemently. "You bet. No way I'm going to let you survive off nasty hospital food again. You got so skinny the last time…"

The 'last time' was when Kaiba slipped into a coma as the result of Yami's "Mind Crush." He'd only been in the hospital for a few days, before Mokuba ordered him moved out— the last thing the little boy needed to hear from doctors was that there was no hope of recovery for his brother. In fact, Kaiba _had_ recovered at home, quite miraculously at that. But only time would tell if he could pull off another miracle and not permanently damage his legs.

"What was the 'other method' that doctor was talking about, though? I mean, unless you want to stay here for eight weeks, I don't see what you're going to do if you don't want to use crutches," Téa murmured thoughtfully.

Kaiba only scowled deeper and crossed his arms over his chest, stubbornly refusing to say anything on the matter.

"The 'other method' is a wheelchair," a voice announced. When Téa, Mokuba, and Joey turned to face the source of the sound, they found themselves face to face with the same doctor as before. This time, however, he was followed by demure nurse who was pushing a wheelchair in front of her. "And it turns out Mr. Kaiba is right— he can't use crutches. Further examination of his ankle sprain shows that too much pressure on it could break the bone. So he has to stay off _both_ feet for at least six weeks, or else he won't ever fully heal."

"I am _not_—" Kaiba started, a deep growl evident in his voice. But Téa cut him off before he could continue.

"So we're permitted to borrow the wheelchair?"

"Your insurance covers it, yes," the doctor said, flipping through some paperwork. "Though Mrs. Kaiba, I didn't notice your name on his coverage—"

Téa blushed scarlet, remembering the not-so-little white lie she'd told the desk receptionist and the doctor so she could see Kaiba past visiting hours.

"I have my own. Different hospital and all. No offense."

"None taken," the doctor responded cheerily. "If you can live without him for the next several days, we'll be helping him get started on the basics of physical therapy, and how to care for his legs at home. Bathing will be a bit difficult, but I'm sure you won't mind assisting him with that."

Téa only turned redder, while Joey burst out into laughter and excused himself from the room.

"R-Right."

"Well, as it is far past visiting hours, I do recommend you lot get yourselves home now— you can come back and check on Mr. Kaiba as early as nine tomorrow morning."

Téa cast a melancholy stare at Kaiba, but he didn't look her way. He still seemed a bit upset that Téa so readily agreed with the doctor's prognosis of him needing a wheelchair. She reached over and squeezed his hand gently, but he didn't appear to react, so Téa just sighed deeply, and picked up her purse.

"Well, we'd better be getting home— we still have that whole mess in the kitchen to clean up, and now…" Téa gestured around absently, and forced a smile onto her lips. "Thank you again, doctor. We'll be seeing you."

"You too, Mrs. Kaiba. Good night." The doctor smiled at Mokuba and Téa as they left, and he offered a slight wave to Joey, who lingered outside in the hall.

"Yeah," Téa whispered as the door closed on Kaiba and the doctor. "Good night to you too."

* * *

Ten days passed rather quickly, all things considered. The Kaiba mansion remained as cold and quiet as it ever had been, but there was also a distinct air of sadness whenever Téa bumped into Mokuba. It was very likely that the youngest Kaiba had never spent a night in the mansion without his brother, and missed the elder Kaiba's reassuring presence. It was something Mokuba had mentioned the very first night Téa had stayed over— but it was only now that Téa understood what he'd meant.

_'I spent days away from here, staying at Mai's, but because I was so upset with Seto, I didn't think about what his presence did for me. And now that's he's finally coming home at last, I should be relieved, but…'_

But she wasn't. For some odd reason, she was dreading Kaiba coming home, if only because she knew he would be grouchy and irritable at having to use a wheelchair to get around.

And they hadn't even talked about what they would do about school yet.

"Come on, Mokuba," Téa smiled feebly at the younger boy. "Let's bring Seto home."

After Téa called the chauffeur, the two of them made their way to the garage, intent on getting Kaiba back to the mansion— one way or another.

* * *

"Okay come on, just take it carefully, one step at a time…" Téa was trying to assist Kaiba out of the limousine they'd taken to the hospital, but since he'd refused to use crutches, he was forced to lean on Téa and Mokuba for support, at least until the chauffeur managed to get the wheelchair assembled from the trunk.

"Need a hand?"

Téa gulped the moment she heard the Brooklyn accent. She muttered a quick "I had nothing to do with this" to Kaiba and then looked up to see not just Joey, but Yugi and Tristan as well.

"I didn't want to believe it…" Yugi murmured on sight of Kaiba. "Wow."

"Hey, Téa, shove over. A tall guy needs tall support," Tristan nudged Téa aside amicably, while Joey took Kaiba's other side. Kaiba didn't look the least bit pleased by this situation, and wrenched his arms away from the two boys.

"I don't need your help," he ground out, refusing to meet anyone's gaze.

Joey and Tristan exchanged a glance and let Kaiba go, but Téa hollered at Kaiba before he could attempt to hobble away.

"Seto, don't even think about it!" Téa marched up to him and held his upper right arm in a forceful grip, one that Kaiba couldn't escape even if he had the strength to try. "Do you really want to risk breaking your ankle, straining your leg even more, and being stuck in a wheelchair for the rest of your life?"

Kaiba didn't answer, and kept his gaze fixed on the sidewalk outside the Kaiba mansion. He was glad the mansion took up a whole block, because otherwise he was sure this little scene would be drawing the attention of many neighbors.

After Téa nodded at Joey and Tristan, they took Kaiba's arms again and supported him until the chauffeur finished bringing out the wheelchair. The two boys released Kaiba's arms, but he didn't move to sit in the chair.

"Big Brother?" Mokuba ventured timidly. "Don't you wanna go inside? It is pretty cold out here…"

It hadn't snowed since New Year's, but Domino still remained a frigid temperature, enough to force most people indoors. Mokuba, like everyone else, quickly grew red in the face from puffing so much air, all in the vain attempt of keeping warm.

Mokuba touched a hand to Kaiba's shoulder, and the elder boy let out a deep sigh. With a measure of obvious reluctance, he sat in the wheelchair and allowed the chauffeur to wheel him up the front walk toward the mansion, with Téa, Joey, Tristan, and Yugi following behind, and Mokuba at his side.

* * *

Quite uncharacteristically, Kaiba didn't argue with Téa's suggestion that the boys stick around for a while for some hot cocoa. He just sat on the loveseat in the living area, staring blankly at the widescreen television screen— which was turned off.

A mere ten minutes or so after everyone arrived at the mansion, everyone made their way out to the living area, trying to chat conversationally— but it was difficult with Kaiba's imposing presence there, as solid and silent as ever.

"Hey!" Joey exclaimed abruptly when the silence began to make everyone uncomfortable. "I just thought of something!"

"Call the authorities," Kaiba muttered under his breath. "It must be a miracle."

Joey scowled at Kaiba, but it was a half-hearted scowl, owing to the fact that Kaiba didn't even bother to look him in the eye and insult him. Even Yugi, Téa, and Tristan seemed surprised, though their shock was more from the fact that Kaiba had said anything at all, least of all acknowledging Joey when he did.

"You haven't called me a dog," Joey finally said. "It's already been like, fifteen minutes, and nothin'. And you didn't say anythin' at the hospital, neither."

"I'd be more than willing to—" Kaiba started, but Joey kept talking, steadfastly ignoring Kaiba.

"And it don't matter, I guess, since the only dog here's you," Joey stared at Kaiba with amusement sparkling in his eyes. "And a damn lucky one, too. Not everyone walks away from an accident like that, you know." Joey shifted his gaze to Téa, who realized the implication laced in Joey's words.

Her own parents hadn't walked away from their 'accident.'

Kaiba's parents hadn't walked away from theirs.

You'd think Kaiba would be grateful that he was even alive! But he seemed grouchier than ever, and more reclusive on top of that. He wouldn't even acknowledge anyone, or even talk to Mokuba!

Everyone's gaze drifted to Téa, who forced herself to wear a smile. "I'm glad he's okay," she finally whispered. "I don't know what I— I mean all of us…"

Kaiba looked up only when he realized Téa had started to cry. Yugi approached her with the intent of soothing her, but Téa swatted him away and valiantly fought to stop her tears.

Silence swallowed the room whole, and for a brief moment, all that was heard was light breathing and the sounds of people in their winter wools turning to exchange confused glances with one another.

"HEY!" Joey interrupted loudly, his cheeks a bright red. He seemed embarrassed that his little remark caused so much discomfort, so he was primed to try and fix his blunder. "So there's this story— it's kinda funny, you know, I think you could appreciate it."

"No car accidents or broken legs?" Tristan asked with a raised eyebrow.

"Hey! Come on, what kind of a guy do you take me for?" There was a moment of silence as everyone present exchanged significant looks, and then Joey amended, "Don't answer that."

With everyone's permission, Joey animatedly began his anecdote.

"So this one day, I gotta make this delivery for this high-class company way downtown, right? Now, I gotta wear this standard ol' red vest number with dark slacks and a light shirt, but it was rainin' cats and dogs that day, so I had my soakin' wet rain jacket over the vest." Joey demonstrated by tugging his sweater up so that it covered every inch of his neck, giving him the appearance of a turtle barely sticking its head out of a shell.

"No one notices me as I go into this office, even though I'm drippin' wet everywhere. Now, I betcha thinkin' why no one woulda noticed me— so did I. I was just lookin' for the guy to drop the package off to though, so I could finish my shift and get my ass home— you know me, I don't like hangin' around work more than I gotta, and my manager over at Rising Sun is a real ass."

_'Rising Sun?'_ It was a familiar name, for some reason, but Kaiba couldn't place it. Still, the idea of a sopping wet Joey entering the upper-class world of businessmen in suits amused Kaiba, so he kept listening.

"Well no one's pointin' me in the right direction, so I finally end up at this reception desk, where this guy in a suit's arguin' with his secretary or somethin'. Apparently, the guy didn't want to deliver this important memo to the boss, because the guy was already pissed, and the memo only had bad news. But the longer he waited, the worse he knew things would get, right?"

"Why does this sound familiar?" Tristan mused aloud.

"Didn't something like this happen to Henry VIII?" Yugi asked. "I swear we heard a story just like this one in our European History class."

"Hey! No Henry or Harry or whoever's stealin' my story! Lemme finish!" Joey hollered.

Tristan and Yugi promptly shut up and gestured for Joey to continue.

"So _anyway_, I'm all sick of just standin' there waitin' for someone to notice me, so I clear my throat, and at last it gets these guys attention. Problem was, guy in the penguin suit looked thrilled to see **me** and that just freaked me out." Joey shuddered for effect. Meanwhile, Kaiba covered his mouth while feigning a cough; the truth was, Joey's little story was rather amusing, because Kaiba found himself thinking about office life almost the same way— and he _was_ one of the suits!

Yet never before had he heard anyone but Joey call those drab gray or black-and-white suits "penguin suits." Kaiba always thought that name was something of his own invention, and to hear it from someone else's lips made it all the more amusing— and it validated his opinion of the stupid outfits.

"So I'm just tryin' to explain to the guy that I have a package, and the guy goes nuts— the package was for his boss anyway, so I might as well go in there and deliver the memo on the sly. I tried tellin' this guy, I'm wearin' bright freakin' red, I look like a stoplight, it's not like I'm going incognito or nothin', but this guy wouldn't hear none of it. He just kept sayin' that the boss couldn't fire _me_, I didn't work for him, right? Not that I like gettin' yelled at by strangers, mind you, and some of 'em even call up the company and complain, which ain't ever gonna help me get a promotion, you know what I'm sayin'?"

"King Francis could cut off the messenger's head, but King Henry VIII tried to console the messenger by saying that he could cut off a bunch of Frenchmen's heads in revenge. The messenger just said 'Yeah, but none of those heads will necessarily fit my shoulders!' right?" Tristan remembered, speaking to Yugi.

Joey looked irritated, but he waved his hand airily. "Somethin' like that with my situation, right? Well anyway, the penguin forks over this memo, and I look at the first line, right, see if I can get an idea why the guy's so terrified of givin' this message to his boss. I only remember exactly what it says 'cause it was **complete** gibberish." Joey paused and cleared his throat. He feigned a nasally, haughty voice and began, "'It used to be true that enabling headcount readjustments enable growth years, however throughout the fiscal year we have seen that the reconfigurable resources work effectively'."

Silence.

Everyone in the room blinked, staring at Joey.

Kaiba wanted to laugh, but he restrained himself, given the situation; of course none of them would understand business jargon like that!

"See, I told ya it was gibberish," Joey stated. "Anyway, I go into the boss's office, in my bright red raincoat, my hood up over my eyes— I swear, I looked like the Grim Reaper with a sunburn. But amazingly, the boss didn't even bat at eye at me. He even signed the delivery slip without thinking about it. Penguin guy tipped me like, 20 over my usual, and I left before the boss realized anything." Joey grinned proudly.

"I still don't get it though," Tristan said. "At least with Henry VIII, the message to King Francis was something downright nasty, and easy to understand. Even the messenger knew that."

"Oh, the message was nasty, all right," Kaiba finally said. "It's no wonder the 'Penguin guy' didn't want to deliver the message himself."

"You understood that memo?" Joey asked incredulously. It didn't take long for all eyes to turn to Kaiba, as they waited for an explanation.

Kaiba nodded, tempted to dangle the silly piece of information over all their heads just because he could. However, the story had been amusing enough to raise his spirits a bit, so he didn't see the point in fouling up the mood. He didn't stand to gain a thing by teasing the mutt unnecessarily.

This realization almost destroyed the moment, but Téa spoke. "I'm surprised you could **remember** all that techno babble, Joey… it went right over my head."

"The memo said the boss was getting fired by **his** boss," Kaiba explained with a smirk. "'Headcount readjustments' is just a nice way of saying "firing a few people here and there" and 'growth years' has to do with a company eventually having a good enough turnover to make a profit despite the lowered efficiency rate."

"Kaiba sounds like the memo," Tristan uttered.

"…Whoa. Never knew it was so uh… simple," Joey nodded slowly as he listened to Kaiba's explanation. "The first part, I mean. But hey, makes sense why the Penguin guy was so happy to have someone else deliver the message. And I guess if he hated his boss enough to not want to deliver the message to him, he was pretty glad to know the guy was getting ousted. No wonder he tipped me so much."

"But you already spent all that money, Joey…" Yugi sighed, staring at his best friend with an exasperated expression on his face.

"Eheh…" Joey laughed sheepishly. "I thought I told your Gramps not to mention I stopped in?"

"He didn't **have** to, Joey— I heard you from upstairs, demanding to buy a full box of the newest Duel Monsters expansion packs…"

Practically everyone laughed while Joey tried to give a decent excuse for spending all his money on Duel Monsters cards. His excuses only brightened the mood further, his story and the corporate gibberish of the memo he'd delivered forgotten… to all but one. Kaiba didn't mind the others being there at the mansion, seeing him in the state he was in— not anymore.

For the first time, he simply felt _comfortable_ . It was an unusual feeling, to be sure, but one Kaiba was not about to let go of so quickly.

* * *

  
_'She can't find out…' _

A sharp sting of pain raced its way up Kaiba's legs, but he steadfastly ignored it. He didn't care what Téa or his doctors said— he wasn't going to be some couch potato getting gangrene by sitting around for six weeks or more. He was going to start his physical therapy just a little bit early… the freedom from that godforsaken wheelchair was work the risk of injuring his legs further.

Unfortunately, Kaiba's idea fell through rather quickly.

"Seto, what are you doing?"

_'Damn.'_

Téa was at his side in less than a moment, scrambling to put Seto back in the wheelchair and lecture him to **stay** in it, because it was good for him, it was **right** for him, and did he really want to risk breaking his legs again?

There was a moment when irritation overwhelmed him, and he almost opened his mouth and snapped at her… but he stopped. He wasn't entirely sure why. Perhaps it was because he'd made the mistake of looking at her, of looking into her eyes and seeing the genuine concern for him there. She didn't want to be constantly reminding him of his weakness, telling him what he couldn't possibly do… she was just trying to help.

Still…

Every time someone said "You can't," it made Seto Kaiba want to do it even more. That was just his personality— try harder, do better, last longer. Be a champion. Even with all the duels won and lost, that part of him could never die. He always wanted to fight the odds, no matter how insurmountable it seemed. Yet Téa, who supposedly loved him and knew him so well, kept trying to pin him down.

_'She's not!'_ Part of Seto argued, but what little portion of him remained devout to his ideals couldn't believe that one bit.

* * *

He was impossible to understand.

When she'd first met Seto Kaiba, Téa decided that he was completely off his rocker, a few lightbulbs short of a chandelier, and many other analogies that left her firm in the belief that Seto Kaiba was nothing less than mentally unstable.

And then, not long afterward, he'd changed. Not completely, and not necessarily for the better, but he **had** changed.

Instead of snarking at his brother the way he did to everyone else, and instead of letting insane schemes drive his need for victory, he'd become a much more reclusive person. He was still as determined and motivated as ever, but he didn't resort to gruesome tactics to get his way. Quite suddenly, it seemed as though Seto Kaiba had a sense of **honor**. His brother had always been important to him, but now he seemed to be the sole thing in Kaiba's life keeping him from reverting back to that "lost" state he'd been in before. And so when Pegasus kidnapped the younger Kaiba and took his soul, Seto Kaiba had gone to the most extreme of measures to try and get him back…

_'In the end, it hadn't been about beating Yugi. It was about getting Mokuba back,'_ Téa recalled, remembering Kaiba's duel with Yugi atop Pegasus's castle. Kaiba had threatened to kill himself if Yugi didn't admit defeat, and in the end, Yugi refused to let Yami win the duel. With startlingly vivid clarity, Téa also remembered lecturing Kaiba on the value of life, and how stupid the whole duel had been.

But things changed. Téa's opinion of Kaiba changed, because she hadn't really understood why Kaiba fought the way he did. It was one thing to know someone's motivation for fighting as hard as they could, for risking everything, but…

Maybe she hadn't understood him as well as she thought, despite knowing him for nearly two years.

Even after seeing him get trapped in his own RPG world, even after watching him fight with the best and the most dangerous duelists in Battle City… even after nearly dying from something as sadly everyday as a car accident, she still didn't understand him. She admired him, envied his strength, and she loved the man that only seemed to appear every once in a while: the man capable of romance and weakness.

But the man who refused to take orders, who refused to acknowledge common sense? That didn't seem like Seto Kaiba at all. Yet he insisted on trying to get up on walk, on not having **anything** to do with a wheelchair, and on being so stubborn he almost became a pain to deal with.

_'What's stopping me from just getting away from here for six weeks and waiting for him to heal?' _Téa wondered. She didn't know. Maybe it was because she was worried Kaiba would continue to risk his health because of his stubborn attitude. Maybe she didn't want to burden Mai with another houseguest when she already had Serenity there for the duration of the holiday. Or maybe she just loved him enough not to want to leave.

_'He can be a pain,'_ Téa smiled wanly to herself, _'but I still love him. No matter what.'_

* * *

It must have been love that kept Téa smiling throughout the next few weeks, because Kaiba only grew more and more irritable, though Téa was always quick to remind him that with each passing day, he was getting better. One less day to spend in the wheelchair, right? Unfortunately, her attempts at cheering Kaiba up didn't seem to work.

The first day of school, Seto badgered Téa into leaving with him hours before school was scheduled to start— after all, he wasn't going to have her come up with some sort of sob story for the teachers. If they had problems with his absence, they could see his state for themselves.

He just didn't care to have the rest of Domino High ogling him in a wheelchair.

So the two of them awoke and prepared to leave before Mokuba was even awake. Téa was still incredibly sleepy and quite irritated that Seto insisted on coming with her, when she told him repeatedly that the teachers would understand his absence, and that he had a practically perfect attendance record anyway, right? Seto didn't bother giving her a response. He only chugged down another cup of steaming hot black coffee and insisted they get out to the limousine already.

Just as Téa predicted, the teachers understood perfectly that in Seto's state he wasn't in a very good condition to attend school. However, Téa half-expected at least one of them to put up a fight and say that Seto wasn't dead, so he should still attend school. If Seto hadn't been there, Téa could have just said that he wouldn't come to school no matter what the teachers said, and the staff couldn't do anything about it. But his being here ruined that.

But everything went perfectly. None of the teachers had a single problem with Seto's absence, so long as Téa continued bringing him the classwork and homework, and kept him up-to-date on any lectures or lab assignments. None of them said anything contrary to what Seto and Téa were asking— and while Téa was glad she was right, she was also a bit disturbed. In the back of her mind, she'd acknowledged the possibility of teachers taking issue with Seto being absent. After all, they all **knew** Seto was in a wheelchair, but the school was perfectly wheelchair accessible, and it wasn't as if Kaiba had to worry about taking a jam-packed train to school every morning.

Not a single teacher made any suggestion of the sort.

_'Maybe they're glad to get Seto out of their class for a few weeks?'_ Téa thought to herself. She couldn't keep the amused expression off her face, but unfortunately, seeing Téa smile only seemed to make Seto grumpier. He refused to let Téa return home with him, saying that she would just be awake and bored with nothing to do until she usually left for school. She might as well use the extra hour and a half at school to study.

Téa bit her tongue to snap at Seto and tell him she only wanted to go home to sleep, but if he found her such a bother, she could nap just as easily at school. So she let Seto leave grumpy and sour-faced as ever, while she took up residence at her desk and napped until the first bell rang.

* * *

As the weeks wore on, Téa found relief in the fact that Seto seemed much more tolerable in the afternoons when she returned home from school. He was silent and diligent while they worked on their homework together, and whenever they had something to study for, he didn't seem the least bit bothered when he had to ask her questions.

On the other hand, his attitude seemed very short-lived. Perhaps it was because he wasn't doing very much with himself at home aside from schoolwork and whatever Kaiba Corporation matters he could handle from his home office. By the time the afternoon wore on into the evening, the snappish Seto Kaiba that Téa had grown to loathe returned with a vengeance.

It was even worse on the days when Seto had to try and wash himself with his casts on. While his ankle was very nearly healed from its sprain, it wasn't ready to withstand full pressure yet. Though Seto's leg cast lining was waterproof, it didn't make bathing any easier. Seto was far too tall to fit in his own bathtub anymore, but he couldn't exactly shower with two injured legs— and he was 'reluctant' was an understatement when it came to the idea of allowing Téa to become his nurse and giving him a sponge bath.

"You're going to start smelling, though!" Téa protested as she wrinkled her nose. It wasn't that she minded Seto's musky scent or anything, but she couldn't stand sleeping next to him every night if he didn't wash himself. The thought was revolting!

Every day, the argument was the same. In the end, Téa always won, and was permitted to help Kaiba wash his injured legs (but nothing more), all because Kaiba inevitably saw the logic in her argument: if he didn't wash, he'd smell, and if he smelled, no one would want to be around him— not Téa, and not Mokuba. Truthfully, Téa wasn't sure if Kaiba cared whether anyone wanted to be around him or not, but she certainly hoped he wanted her around, and that he understood that she just wanted to help.

Yet here they were again, Seto stubbornly refusing to let her help, and saying he was just fine the way he was, he could take care of himself…

"Will you just STOP?" Seto yelled at her.

Téa pulled away from him, taken aback by the forcefulness and volume of his voice.

"…I was only trying to help, Seto. I wish you would remember that."

Seto was silent a moment. He dropped his head to his chest, his bangs concealing his eyes from view. "I know," he said at last. "I'm… sorry."

"It's okay," Téa smiled, even as a warm feeling blossomed in her chest. It wasn't wrong of her to keep staying in this place, in these situations where Kaiba yelled at her and made her feel rotten. He always realized the error of his ways, and he had finally matured enough to the point where he could apologize for his own wrongs.

Some things that were fairly simplistic in Téa's world —things like apologies— still surprised Seto, but Téa supposed that he would continue to grow and change, as he always had. She would just have to grow and change with him, in order to stay on the same page as him, and understand him as best she could.

"Hey. Remember this, okay?" Téa straightened and cleared her throat. "It's a little rhyme my dad used to tell me when I was upset. 'Whether the weather is cold, or whether the weather is hot, whatever the weather, we'll be together, whether you like it or not' … So do you get it?"

"…You're not forecasting the weather, right?"

Téa gently tapped Kaiba upside the head. "No, silly. But I don't want you going and thinking that you're the only one having a hard time with this. Mokuba and I are having a tough time with this, too. It's never happened before. But it could have been worse. No matter how tough it gets, we're glad that you're still here, still in one piece— so we'll stand by you, no matter how grouchy you get."

Téa smiled at Kaiba, and for just a moment, his heart jumped.

He hadn't been feeling very 'in love' lately, and had started wondering if his feelings for Téa were a fluke. Were they supposed to come and go, or were they supposed to last forever? Was he even supposed to be thinking about 'forever' when he'd nearly died in a car accident, encountered all sorts of strange people bent on world domination, necromancy, soul eating, and dark magic? This _was_ his first relationship after all…

But something in Kaiba didn't want to brush it off so easily. It had taken them so long to get as far as they had, and he knew if he kept getting so easily irritated with Téa —talking without thinking— that he would push her away. The fear that he'd pushed to the recesses of his mind ever since his injury started to flow back into his mind. What was really keeping her here anyway? Why would she promise to stay by his side, when she had no obligation to do so?

One look in her eyes, and he thought maybe he knew the answer: she loved him. Perhaps more than he loved her, or more than he could express.

With this realization, Kaiba allowed himself the smallest of smiles, and he stayed quiet.

_'No more arguments. No more fear. I don't want her to leave me.'_

Perhaps it was his innate selfishness coming back again, but it had to be something more than that. Selfishness didn't usually entail thinking about things so often, or wondering about other people's thoughts and feelings. Where Téa was concerned, it was more than just possessiveness. It was something else altogether.

* * *

Quite unfortunately, Kaiba found himself unable to stick to his word.

A few days went by, and again he found himself in the bathroom with Téa, her trying to gently goad him into letting her help him wash. She just refused to understand how thoroughly humiliating this whole thing was— even if it had nothing to do with dueling, even if no one else was watching. It was all beside the point; _she_ was the one Kaiba didn't want to see… didn't want her to see **him** like this!

But she kept on stubbornly insisting…!

"I don't need your help!" Kaiba snapped, his voice abnormally loud in the moderately sized bathroom.

"That's it, then, isn't it?" Téa whispered as she dropped her hands to her sides. Her gaze fell to the floor, and she turned around, her back to Kaiba. All he could see of her was her reflection in the mirror, her eyes shadowed by a veil of hair.

"You never need anyone for anything. You just think you're better off alone, don't you?"

"Yes!" Kaiba shouted before he could stop himself. He saw Téa flinch, but she didn't turn around. Fine. If she was going to play stubborn, then so could he. He didn't have to keep playing this foolish game of hers. He didn't have time for petty arguments or silly regrets.

His words continued to hang in the air, unrevoked.

_'Better off alone…'_

"I can do that, then. You want to be alone— fine." At last, Téa turned around, and Kaiba felt a measure of shock when he saw there wasn't a single tear in her eyes. He was equally surprised at himself for expecting her to be crying, as if he wanted to take some pleasure out of it. But that wasn't the case at all… right?

"Fine," Kaiba ground out. "Go ahead." It was a direct challenge. Whoever made the first move, whoever stood by their word longest would win.

That's all this was— a game.

Téa stared at him long and hard, and after a moment, she sighed deeply. "There's nothing holding me here, you know. Nothing but you and my friends. My friends —they could understand if I left. They could accept it eventually. I can do it if I want. But I just want you to tell me: is this really what **you** want?"

When he didn't answer, Téa tried a different tactic: "You **do** know that I care what you think, Seto…" She sighed heavily. "So fine, forget that I care about you. But what about Mokuba? Don't you care about what he feels?"

She didn't expect him to answer. She expected more silence.

In the end, it didn't matter either way.

"And what would you know about his feelings? You think you're his "big sister," but the truth is you've just started leeching off our family since you've lost yours— you don't know anything about us."

It took a moment for his words to sink in, for the shock to filter its way through her system and for her voice to form coherent words.

"Y-You don't mean that."

This time, silence was not the right answer, but it was all she got.

"Is this really how you want to end this?" Téa fought valiantly against the urge to start crying then and there; she would **not **be the weak one, the broken one, the coward— not this time around.

All she had to do was look away from him and get out of this place, get out of this **life**, once and for all.

She had the means, she had the motivation, but…

_'Why won't my heart stop racing like this? It's stupid!'_

She couldn't wait any longer. She couldn't wait for Kaiba to suddenly become the man of her dreams, the man who would cause her to change her entire future and shape all her dreams. She couldn't keep having these expectations of him, expectations she'd once had for Yami Yugi…

"I'm leaving."

Téa stormed out of the bathroom and blindly ran to the closet. Once she'd fumbled for her duffle bag, she stuffed it full with as many clothes as possible. She paused only to grab her purse, and then she slammed the door to the bedroom that had once been hers **and** Kaiba's shut. The sound echoed throughout the mansion as she stomped down the stairs. She was acting blindly, bent to action based on her emotions. But none of that mattered— she had no reason to stay here anymore, no reason to put up with any more of Kaiba's ego or foolishness. She wasn't going to waste anymore energy on something so fruitless.

A sharp, stinging pain started to filter its way through her system, aching even more with every step she took. She was only a few meters away from the door now, and nothing could stop her, no one could change her mind now…

* * *

  
_'She's really leaving.'_

It took a moment for the thought to really process through his system. One moment she'd been standing there, offering him an ultimatum. He hadn't expected her to be serious about it, for her to suddenly leave like that…

_'She's leaving **me**.'_

Kaiba briefly remembered a nightmare he'd had not all that long ago. He'd been searching for Téa in the Kaiba mansion's expansive gardens. He'd found everyone else, run into them multiple times, as though they were all lost in some eternal labyrinth. But with every moment that passed, everyone else's faces became blurred and stone-like, while the few glimpses that Kaiba caught of Téa —it _had_ to be Téa, after all— became less and less frequent.

She was going away, disappearing, leaving him…

_'It's my fault. Why did I say something so…'_ Stupid? Callous? Cruel? There were far too many possible ways to finish that sentence, and none of them made Kaiba feel any better about the situation.

Téa was leaving.

Leaving for good, too, if he didn't do something to stop her. But Kaiba couldn't exactly do anything about it in his current state. He wasn't about to try skidding across the bathroom in the idiotic contraption the hospital had forced upon him.

But if he just sat there…

All it took was the thought of her being gone —gone forever, thousands of miles away, with no mind or heart to ever talk to him again, much less see him— and Kaiba forced himself up out of the wheelchair. His legs immediately protested with the pressure he was putting on them, but he ignored the pain.

He couldn't let her leave. It wasn't that he **had** to keep her because he was selfish or possessive… he just _wanted_ her by his side, for no reason other than to have her, and to make her smile, to make her happy… That was the feeling he'd been missing all this time.

_'Hmph. "Love." So it's a realization of desire?'_

It sounded like such a simple explanation for something so complex, it had evaded Seto Kaiba's grasp for so long. But maybe for him, maybe for that moment, it was just that simple. He realized he wanted Téa, and if he didn't get past the bathroom door, he'd never see her, never have her again.

_'One step at a time…'_

* * *

"Téa, where are you going?"

She should have expected this. She should have readied herself for the possibility of Mokuba hearing her thunder down the stairs and approaching her, asking her with pleading eyes what was happening, where she was going, and how long she'd be gone. As if she could come back after what Kaiba said…

"Mokuba, I—" Surprisingly, Téa didn't have time to finish. Her words were cut off by another's.

"Téa, wait!" Seto's voice was surprisingly hoarse, and resounded off the high ceilings of the mansion.

Only a few seconds passed before Téa turned around, and quite abruptly, any resolve she had to continue walking out the door —and out of the Kaiba brothers' lives— left her completely.

Seto, despite his broken leg and sprained ankle, managed to hobble his way down the stairs, though if the grimace on his face was any indication, he was in excruciating pain. He limped awkwardly toward her, but his resolve to come too close wavered, and he stopped only a meter away. The look of hurt was still plain on his face, though now it wasn't because he put undue pressure on his broken leg or sprained ankle.

"Big Brother, what—" Mokuba stopped talking after his brother glanced at him. There must have been a strange look in the elder Kaiba brother's eyes, because it was enough to communicate to Mokuba that this wasn't a moment for him to intervene. The ebony-haired boy quickly silenced and scuttled around the corner and out of sight.

_'I can't say anything to him—'_ Téa thought, again fighting not to cry. But this time, the feeling was coupled with the desire to run into Seto's arms, to feel him around her and let him share that feeling too. She wanted to hold him up and support him, and let him know she would never leave, she could never leave…

"What happened to 'Whether the weather is cold, whether the weather is hot, whatever the weather, we'll be together, whether you like it or not?' huh?" Seto demanded, trying to sound a lot more serious than he appeared. The fact that he was still grimacing and standing so awkwardly probably didn't help matters any.

_'He's throwing my own words back at me…'_ Téa realized in mute surprise. That little poem she'd passed on from her father to Seto… the simple words that mattered so much to Téa, but she thought Kaiba didn't even register her saying. He **had** heard her, and he'd taken her words to heart, too.

Cerulean eyes searched deep navy ones, looking for something that couldn't be described in words. Apparently Téa found what she was looking for, because her once-angry expression melted away and she closed the distance between them. There was no hesitation as she wrapped her arms around him —to hug him and to help him stay upright. A few seconds passed before Seto realized that this was no dream, and it was okay to relax into her embrace.

"I'm sorry," Téa finally managed in a dull whisper, smothering her face against Seto's chest.

A hand pressed warmly against her back, absently stroking at first and then pressing her lithe form closer to his. "I'm the one…"

The words died in his throat. He'd already apologized once during this whole ordeal, and a second time would make it a miracle. Seto Kaiba was never very good at apologies. Still, the attempt was more than enough for Téa. All she wanted was to forget everything that had happened, everything that he'd said…

"Let's get you back upstairs, okay?" She reluctantly shifted away from Seto's warm body and clutched one of his hands. "You can't be stuck in that wheelchair forever, and if you don't heal, there's so much we won't get to do…" Téa intentionally trailed off, letting Kaiba's mind wander where it willed. Obviously, he got the message, and he leaned into Téa for support, almost acting eager to get back upstairs and rest some more.

* * *

Though Kaiba was well aware of the fact that each passing day meant one less day in the infernal contraption called a wheelchair, it didn't comfort him any during the long stretch of hours when neither Téa nor Mokuba were home, and Kaiba often found himself with nothing to do.

Unlike other teenagers who had the luxury of staying home for whatever reason, Kaiba had no inclination whatsoever to play video games, clean his room, or watch television. He'd already sorted and re-sorted his Duel Monsters cards a good three times already. He didn't feel like playing a simulation duel against one of his many computer personalities, because he'd already beaten them into the ground twenty times over. And he'd already watched the business programs on television to the point where the monotone voices he was so used to listening to became an unintelligible drawl.

Worse, there didn't seem to be any mass amounts of Kaiba Corporation paperwork for him to catch up on.

It was out of the ordinary and highly disconcerting being told that work was running smoothly, just fine, and was he okay? Obviously his employees had heard about the accident. Kaiba didn't care to ask how they'd found out —it had to have been either Téa or Mokuba, but placing blame hardly mattered now. It seemed that everyone at Kaiba Corp. sudden;y felt the need to go above and beyond their normal duties, so as to not risk their angry, injured employer firing them on a whim.

But now he was angry because his employees were so competent, he had _nothing_ to do! And so he sat, bored in front of his computer, clicking randomly about the Kaiba Corporation website in the hopes of finding something outdated or misspelled that he could nag someone to fix— or better yet, spend hours fixing himself, if just to have something to do.

It was at that particular moment that he remembered something rather random: 'It used to be true that enabling headcount readjustments enable growth years, however throughout the fiscal year we have seen that the reconfigurable resources work effectively.'

What made remembering that jargon even more amusing was the fact that his mind remembered it exactly as Joey had said it: in a Brooklyn accent, with a feigned attempt to sound haughty and nasal.

_'The mutt actually said something amusing for once.'_

Truly amusing, at that— not something stupid that was funny simply **because** it was so idiotic.

Out of sheer boredom, Kaiba stopped scrolling his mouse wheel and he glanced at the page he'd found: a listing of all the various subsidiaries of Kaiba Corporation. While the main company focused generally on technology, there were a variety of smaller companies, formerly directed by the Big Five, that still came under the Kaiba Corporation umbrella but retained their own name, logo, and the majority of their profits.

One of those companies was a local courier service with a familiar name: Rising Sun.

And then, _'…you know me, I don't like hangin' around work more than I gotta, and my manager over at Rising Sun is a real ass.'_

Suddenly, Joey's words from weeks ago made sense.

Kaiba couldn't help the broad smile that crossed his lips as he made the realization: _'The mutt works for me.'_

On the same token, he'd been paying Joey's paychecks for longer than he'd even known the teen, let alone associated with him. Even more astonishing was the fact that they'd **both** been blissfully unaware of this fact until today, a perfectly random day of the year.

The question then was, what would Kaiba do with this newfound information? There was a myriad of possibilities, ranging from the inhumane and cruel to the uncharacteristic and kind.

The fact that Kaiba's lips somehow managed to quirk upward in an uncanny smile decided it.

With one swift grab of his phone and the quick pushing of a few buttons, Kaiba knew what he was about to do— something unprecedented, and something that would **never** happen again.

"Roland? Get me the district manager for Rising Sun Courier Express. I've got some employee restructuring I'd like to talk to him about."

* * *

"Hey Wheeler, congratulations."

"Huh?" Joey responded eloquently. He was still half-asleep. After all, he came into work at five in the morning, worked two hours, and then headed off to school. It had never bothered him before, but ever since he'd left the Kaiba mansion, he'd made it a habit of staying over at Mai's. As a result, it was getting harder and harder to wake up in the morning and force himself to leave.

"Didn't they tell you?" Joey's coworker, clad in a bright red windbreaker with two bright white zigzagging stripes down the sleeves, stared at the blond in shock.

"Tell me what? Aw man, tell me someone bought fresh coffee—"

"Dude, forget getting yourself coffee. Ask anyone _else_ to get you coffee, they'll do it for you!"

"You'll get me coffee if I ask you to? Is this some kinda joke? You hate bein' anyone's gopher."

"Yeah, well, unfortunately I have to do it when orders come from my _boss._"

"Huh?" Joey repeated.

His co-worker had to lead him over to the front desk, which was dimly lit by a pair of long florescent lights flickering overhead. The rest of the store remained unlit, though dawn slowly began to spill in through the front windows. The light bounced off a single packet of paper on the front desk. Joey struggled to rub the bleariness from his eyes, and even when he'd scanned the paper once, twice, three times, he still couldn't believe it.

"I… I got promoted?"

"To manager, dude! This store is yours!"

"It ain't April Fool's Day," Joey began slowly as he stepped away from the counter. "And it ain't my birthday yet, and if this is some kinda cosmic early birthday present joke thing, I—"

"Joey!" His friend gripped the blond by the shoulders hard and shook him out of his reverie. "The order came down from corporate. The boss's boss's boss's boss or something did some major restructuring over the holiday, and now all the people that weren't even getting _looked_ at are suddenly getting promoted, getting raises— Did you _see_ how much money you're making now?"

Joey swiftly looked at the paper again, and his hazel eyes widened in astonishment.

"That's gotta be a typo."

"It's not a typo, Joey," his friend reassured him.

"Holy mother of—"

"I know! Congrats!"

* * *

At long last, it was over.

Kaiba ended up healing a great deal faster than anyone could have predicted, but no one knew exactly what to attribute it to. Perhaps it was Téa's good nature and constant care, or perhaps it was something else. Personally, Kaiba wanted to believe that sitting on his rear for so many weeks had done less good than everyone wanted to think; if he hadn't pushed himself to the limit and walked when he wasn't supposed to, his muscles might not have regained their strength so quickly.

Or so Kaiba thought. He wasn't exactly a doctor, and he was certainly in no mind to keep returning to the hospital for what he deemed unnecessary physical therapy.

Glad to be away from the stark whiteness of the hospital, nagging nurses, and the horrid smell of rubbing alcohol around every turn, he gladly put up with Téa's gentle chiding when he announced he would return to school with her one day— even if he did have to limp.

Still, she didn't put up much of a fight. In fact, she smiled when she thought he wasn't looking, and she made it a point to curl up especially close to him that night as they slept. The next morning, she seemed almost _cheery_ despite the fact that they were, once again, up far earlier than necessary. But she only saw it as reasonable— they had to prepare for any contingency, and as Kaiba wasn't **fully** healed, she would have to look out for him.

While he thought it wasn't necessary, it was a bit… endearing. It felt strange to have that kind of affection directed toward him. It confused him a bit, but it was easy enough to just let Téa continue in her own way, if it made her happy. He wasn't about to tell her off for being so caring; not anymore. He'd come so close to losing her, and he didn't care to come close to that again, or repeat his past mistakes.

_'Both her parents and mine…'_ It had taken a while, but Kaiba gradually grew to respect just how lucky he was to have left the scene of his accident alive. Not entirely in one piece, and not walking by any means… but he was still alive, still breathing, and with every memory intact.

Every memory… including the more recent ones, when he'd said some very cruel, callous things to Téa out of insecurity, confusion, and other mixed feelings.

He just wanted to push those memories out of his mind completely.

Surprisingly enough, it was easy once the first school bell rang and people began streaming into the classroom.

First, it was just one girl— a nameless little brunette with twin braids on the sides of her head.

"Kaiba, you're back! It's so good to see you in class again!"

Téa turned to stare at Kaiba, a single eyebrow raised in question. He shrugged and went back to looking at his pile of make-up work, just to ensure that everything was in its proper order and there was nothing missing. But before he could even turn to the second page, another girl came bouncing up to him… and then another, and another.

Soon enough, Kaiba's desk was surrounded by girls, well-wishers of various sorts. Tall and short, first-years who had no place in their class, second-years from down the hall, third-years who looked horribly out of place seeking out a younger student… even many of Téa and Kaiba's own female classmates gathered around his desk. Even more surprising, some of them bore little gifts and trinkets of various sorts— things they'd kept stowed in their cubbies or their school desks, their satchels or their knapsacks…

By the time the tardy bell rang, signaling the start of first period, Kaiba's desk was piled high with Get-Well cards, several bouquets of brightly colored plastic flowers, a few stuffed animals of varying degrees of sickening cuteness, and enough chocolate to give him a lifetime of teeth rot. Had Kaiba been able to see over the pile, he would have noticed Téa twitching slightly, fisting and unfisting her hands every few moments, her face changing intermittently from pink to white.

The truth was, it had been a very long time since she'd had any reason to be jealous over other girls fawning over Kaiba, but this sudden and abrupt display was quite unexpected. It wasn't as if the Domino High female student population was unaware of her existence— _everyone_ knew she was dating Kaiba, right? They probably didn't all know she lived with him, but that was beside the point!

But it wasn't as if she could remind those idiot girls that Seto Kaiba was taken. They had to figure it out on their own— from the man himself, _right_?

_'So why isn't Seto doing anything to stop them?'_ Téa chewed her thumbnail as she watched Kaiba itemize every gift and card he'd received, placing some into his Duraluminum briefcase and others into his desk.

He was actually _keeping_ them. He was actually _talking_ to the girls that sauntered up to his desk at breaks and at lunch, _thanking_ them for thinking of him…

_'I can't be mad at him… he nearly died, broke his legs, was trapped in his own mansion for over a month, stuck in a wheelchair! Even after everything… how can I be angry at him for getting a little attention?'_

Téa tried to be reasonable, she really did. Unfortunately, the green-eyed demon constantly lurking under her skin didn't feel the need to be suppressed any longer, and try as she might to ignore the feelings of jealousy and envy, they just kept burbling up…

* * *

Though Téa had been looking forward to a quiet, private lunch with Kaiba on his first day back at school since the accident, it didn't look like she'd get that chance today— not with all the crowds of girls surrounding Kaiba's desk. And though Téa managed to meet his eyes once or twice, Kaiba didn't seem the least bit inclined to separate himself from the masses and join her for lunch.

So Téa found herself sitting with the guys— Yugi, Tristan, Joey, and Duke, in their little circle of desks at the far side of the classroom, the early afternoon sun streaming in through the windows at their side.

Joey was happily recounting something amazing that had happened to him only a few mornings ago— quite unexpectedly, he had gotten promoted at the Rising Sun Courier Express store where he'd worked for years.

"So that's just it, you're manager of the store now? But how are you going to shuffle work and school? We still have a year left!" Téa pointed out. "Not that I'm not happy for you or anything," she added.

"I know, I know," Joey dismissed Téa's words with a quick wave of his hand. "But the school already knows why I had to get a job anyway, and now that things are finally goin' my way, I don't think they're gonna complain. 'Sides, I got the other guys at work to help me out— now that the old boss has gone corporate and I'm in charge, everyone gets along with everyone else! So, no worries."

"…Not that I wanna be the guy that brings up the lousy news Joey, but what about your dad? Does he know about this?"

"Oh yeah," Joey nodded. "That's the other great thing that happened."

"'Great thing'?" Yugi echoed in a monotone. From what he'd seen of Joey's father, the man wasn't anything 'great' at all. So why did Joey look so delighted to be talking about him all of a sudden?

"Yeah, so after that day of work, I went home— like, really home, not Mai's," Joey admitted in an undertone. "And I caught Dad when he was sober! Guy couldn't stop crying, thinking I'd given up on him, left him for dead, hated his guts. We had a good long talk, and since Dad was sober for the rest of the night, I convinced him to try and fix his life up."

"What did you say, exactly?" Duke asked with a raised eyebrow.

"Suggested he go to this rehab clinic they have up in the mountains," Joey stated seriously. "Somethin' I wanted Dad to do for a long time. He got picked up by the shuttle this mornin'."

"Wow, he really went? He's going to stick with it, and—" Téa trailed off lamely. She knew it was hard to believe that an alcoholic like Mr. Wheeler would ever have a moment of sobriety, but apparently luck was with Joey yesterday.

"Aaaand, it gets better," Joey continued as he pumped a fist in the air. "Serenity's movin' in with me in March!"

"Are you serious?" Duke and Tristan exclaimed at the same time. The two boys couldn't have looked more gleeful if Santa Claus himself had dropped a pile of money on their laps.

"She got accepted here at Domino just this week! She told Mom she's comin' here no matter what, and so now for our third and final year, my little sis is gonna be right here with us!"

"That's great!" Everyone cheered Joey on for his incredible string of successes lately.

The crowds finally parted from Kaiba, who had been carefully listening in on Joey's story the entire time. However, he knew that if he said anything, he would likely give away his secret. Instead, Kaiba settled for smirking at Joey and letting the mutt have his fun.

"I dunno how it can get much better than this— I got the best four guy friends in the world," Joey nodded to Yugi, Tristan, Duke, and even Kaiba on the other end of the classroom. "A gorgeous, angel-like conscience to slap me upside the head when I screw up," Joey smirked at Téa, "The best sister ever, and the hottest girlfriend on the block!"

Kaiba, now free from the throngs of giggling girls, coughed under his breath. Oddly enough, his hack sounded suspiciously like "whip cream!"

Joey obviously heard what Kaiba "said" and turned a brilliant red. However, it was the fact that Téa blushed too that had the rest of the boys staring at them, on the verge of asking them many an embarrassing question.

"I'm going to smack you, Seto," Téa grit between her teeth. She forced a pretty smile onto her face, even as Kaiba rose from his chair and awkwardly walked over to her. He leaned in to speak to her, his voice a whisper under his breath.

"We thought you were asleep."

Téa didn't honor Kaiba with a reply, so the CEO just chuckled.

"Guys," Yugi looked from Joey to Téa to Kaiba. "Is there something you wanna tell us?"

"Yeah, about some odd nocturnal habits, maybe?" Tristan added.

"NO!" Joey and Téa shouted at the same time.

Everyone just laughed.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> **Okay, so this chapter ended on a bit of a happy note. But with the major cliffhanger of last chapter, I decided it was better that way. I apologize for the long delay in this chapter coming; it's always the filler-type chapters (Hey, where's the cream filling?) that have the most important information in it (hint, hint!) and are the most difficult to write. Finally, this chapter signals the end of the first half of WDKY. It only gets better from here, ladies and gents.**
> 
> **I hope to have you stick with me for the last half of what is sure to be a wild ride!**
> 
> **Azurite**


	20. My Rainy Valentine

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> It's St. Valentine's Day in Japan, when girls give cards, chocolates, and notes of their affection to the boys they love. Téa's already got plans for Seto, but when she sees other girls setting eyes on him, how will she react? Nothing will end up like they plan, that's for sure!

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> **What Doesn't Kill You  
> Chapter 19: My Rainy Valentine  
> A Yu-Gi-Oh Fanfiction**  
> **By:** Azurite - AT gmail DOT com  
> **Site: **seventh-star DOT net  
> **Conceptualized/First Written:** 6/28/05  
> **Completed/Final Edit: **10/6/05  
> **Posted: **10/25/05 - Happy Birthday Seto Kaiba + Happy Belated 2nd Anniversary, WDKY!
> 
> **Today's chapter **is brought to you by the letters R (for Rated R, according to the MPAA guidelines of a fictional work containing sex, violence, nudity, language, or other obscenities inappropriate for those under the age of 17) and M (for rated Mature, the equivalent rating, which holds the same standards, minus a year -age 16- at the most). We're also a proud sponsor of the fun three letter word "sex." Because yes, this chapter is, as are ALL the chapters since Ch. 10, Rated R/M. In this case, it's due to some pretty steamy scenes. No, WDKY is not and will not be a lemon, but this chapter is pretty citrusy as far as content goes. You've been warned, and I don't want to hear whining about it.
> 
> **Thank you** to **Atlantis2**, the one-and-only Steam Queen! I could never steal her thunder... She was the only one who commented on the beta release of this chapter since I posted it up at **betasquad**. If you wanna beta WDKY, drop by the LiveJournal community of the same name and let me know!
> 
> **Disclaimer: **Today's chapter is also brought to you by the suffix "-ing" as in: "copyrighting" "forgiving" and "not suing" …
> 
> **Don't Forget!** All Review Replies are now hosted at my LiveJournal. Look for a section in my Memories called 'Review Replies,' and you can choose from the story/chapter of your choice to see what I had to say to your reviews! Thanks for your continued support!

At first, the rain came down in a soft pitter-patter, light and hardly audible.

Unfortunately for Téa and Seto, they picked the worst possible day to walk home together.

_'Some St. Valentine's Day this is turning out to be,'_ Téa thought grumpily. It had started out as a bad day and now was getting progressively worse.

And it was all Seto's fault.

_'He didn't have to accept those girls' Valentines!'_ Téa thought angrily, purposefully ignoring a particularly large puddle. She stepped in it and nearly slipped forward; she was now soaking wet absolutely everywhereShe'd somehow managed to keep her feet relatively dry, but now…

Seto carefully stepped around the selfsame puddles that Téa chose to angrily stomp through. But despite his long legs, he wasn't always quick enough to avoid the splash back— and Téa's intentions were clear with every splash she made.

She was mad.

Not because it was raining. Not over her being wet from head to toe.

She was mad at **him**.

But for the life of him, Seto couldn't figure out why. Téa had been perfectly cheery and chipper in the morning— bordering on romantic, actually, with the way she'd woken him up. She never got up before him, but today seemed like it was a special exception. She'd risen especially early, showered, dressed— and by the time Seto's alarm went off, she was the one hovering dangerously close to him, a seductive smile on her lips and a mug of the freshest smelling coffee Seto had ever smelled in his life waiting for him in her hands.

As soon as they'd arrived at school though, everything changed.

Much to his surprise, he'd received several Valentines— aside from the expected one he got every year from Mokuba, and the one he hoped he was getting from Téa, he also found himself juggling at least thirty other pink-and-white envelopes with hearts and happy faces scribbled all over them. Some of the bolder girls at Domino High even dared to approach Seto during lunch —when he was eating with Téa— and give him boxes of chocolate.

That was the tradition in Japan on St. Valentine's Day— girls gave chocolates to the one they admired, or someone they respected. Thusly, there were two different kinds of chocolate: obligation chocolate, that you gave to your bosses, superiors, co-workers, and friends, and "favorite chocolate" for the boy the girl was romantically interested in.

A month from Valentine's, men who received chocolates or other presents had the opportunity to return the favor, on White Day. Until then, all Seto could say was a simple "thank you" to each girl that dumped a new present on his desk.

He wasn't really paying any attention to any of it— he had no mind to sort out whether one brand of chocolate was more expensive than any of the others, or if one letter happened to be spritzed with a flowery perfume. It all just piled up, and Seto faked a humble sort of attitude about the whole affair. In reality, he wanted nothing more than to dump all the cards in the recycling bin and melt all the chocolates down for later use (Seto Kaiba could admit to one guilty pleasure: that of chocolate. As a result, he wasn't of the mind to throw out chocolate).

The problem was, if he threw any of the letters out, he'd have thirty hysterical girls at his desk one month from now, sobbing because he hadn't even returned their attentions with a simple _letter_. It hardly mattered to Seto what any of them said in their pithy letters, but he didn't want to have to read _each and every single one_ just to have one of his secretaries type up a standard thank-you and reply for White Day.

Torn as he was, Seto kept each of the letters and any present they came with— and he continued to thank each girl that gave him something, whether it was a pink, perfume-scented letter, a carefully-wrapped box of expensive chocolates, or something even more creative.

And bit by bit, Seto noticed Téa getting angrier and angrier. But it wasn't his fault; he didn't _ask_ for any gifts this St. Valentine's Day! In fact, Seto usually ignored the holiday altogether. Most years, he was lucky enough to have the holiday fall on a weekend, or else he could find something to take him out of school. But this year…

At long last, they reached the Kaiba Mansion, and though the both of them had a key to the front gates and the door, Téa had a rather difficult time fumbling around with her sopping wet sleeves and her drippy satchel. By the time Seto retrieved his own key, Téa's frustration had built to the point where she wanted to break down and cry. It was a horrible, dreadful St. Valentine's Day, and now Seto wasn't even talking to her, they were both soaking wet, and even though they were both home, the day was practically over.

_'I hate this!'_

* * *

It occurred to Seto —a very long time later— that perhaps the first words out of his mouth since they'd arrived home **shouldn't** have been "Let's go upstairs and get dry."

It was a decidedly unromantic and uncaring thing to say, even if it was sensible and rational, and very Seto Kaiba-like in nature. But the moment the words were spoken, Téa's face screwed up in quiet indignation. Her fists clenched white at her sides, and at last, her trembling, cold frame heaved a great sigh and she sloshed upstairs after Seto.

Silence filled the decidedly-empty Kaiba Mansion once the two of them made their way into the master bathroom, the door into the bedroom left only a few centimeters ajar. Each armed with a pair of fluffy towels, Seto and Téa both proceeded to dry their hair and squeeze as much water out of their clothes as they could. The whole process only took a few moments. Téa could feel an undue amount of pressure creeping up on her, so she decided to say something— at precisely the same time Seto spoke.

"I'm going to take a shower. You can keep drying off if you want— and there's a hair dryer in the other bathroom."

Seto started walking down the short, tiled corridor to the standing shower, peeling off his wet clothes as he went. If he had any idea that Téa was still standing behind him, her eyes fixed on him as each layer of his clothes came off, he made no indication.

As for Téa, whatever thoughts she'd had in her head —whatever she'd thought of to say— flew right out of her head. Instead, the rapid beat of her heart started pounding ever louder in her ears, sending blood rushing all over her face and causing the girl to color a vibrant shade of pink.

_'I… This isn't what I wanted.'_

She wanted a romantic St. Valentine's Day. She wished she could have controlled the weather and made it perfectly sunny and warm. She wished she could have put a force-field around Seto, so all those annoying fangirls of his couldn't get within an meter of him, let alone close enough to drop off smelly letters and melted chocolates. She wished she hadn't gotten so mad about something so stupid, because if she just turned around and left right now, what would be left of the day that was supposed to mean so much to her?

Téa's thoughts were all a jumble now, disjointed and confusing. She wasn't sure what to do or what to say, and she couldn't seem to decide, for the mass of scenes replaying in her mind's eye. Seto walking away, peeling off his jacket first, then his shirt. And then… skin.

It wasn't as if she hadn't seen Seto topless before— she'd seen him at the beach, and then on her birthday, when—

Suddenly, the master bathroom seemed to heat up by ten degrees, and Téa wasn't entirely sure it had anything to do with Seto turning the shower on.

_'That means that less than five meters from where I'm standing, he's completely—!'_

If her face had been pink before, it was crimson now. Téa hesitantly glanced at her flushed face and her shivering form in the mirror. Thoughts of the fangirls and of a possibly-ruined St. Valentines Day left her mind entirely. In their place was but one thought: _'I… I want this.'_

She didn't know entirely what possessed her to start peeling off her own clothes and wringing them free of water— but she didn't step out of the master bathroom and go down the hall to the other shower. Instead, Téa took another dry towel from the rack and carefully wrapped it around herself, and then she walked down that tiny tiled corridor.

Téa inhaled deeply, closed her eyes for a moment, and rounded the corner.

"Mind if I join you?"

The standing shower was actually a great deal smaller than the layout of the bathroom made it seem— but it was room enough for lanky Seto Kaiba, and certainly room enough for one more. But the moment Téa spoke, Seto found himself more startled than he'd ever been in his entire life— and he abruptly dropped the washcloth he'd been using and he pressed himself into the far corner, just below the shower-head. He felt cornered.

Clouds of steam were starting to rise from the floor, and the pitter-patter of the water continued louder than before, lacking a form to rain down upon. It seemed as though an eternity passed before either of them said or did anything— even blink.

Without a word of warning, Téa dropped her own towel off to the side of the shower and stepped into the steam.

* * *

It might have been only a minute, but something still wasn't registering as entirely right in Seto Kaiba's mind.

Téa… in the shower with him. Naked.

His gaze left her face of its own volition, but the moment it reached Téa's bare collarbone, his eyes stopped and refused to glance even a centimeter lower. Seto desperately wanted to turn away and hide, but the shower seemed so dreadfully small…

_'Definitely time for a renovation. Maybe I should knock out a wall or two—'_

"What are you so afraid of, Seto?" Téa asked gently as she stepped forward.

There was no room to back away— he was literally up against a wall.

Intent on keeping focused, Seto didn't say anything. But Téa continued to step forward, until she was very nearly pressed against him. In one fluid movement, both her arms were around him, and Seto found himself in what had to be the strangest hug of his entire life.

He was growing hotter and hotter, his pulse racing in his ears, words forming on the tip of his tongue…

SPLOOT!

Téa giggled despite herself. Seto's expression went from something akin to a deer caught in the headlights of an oncoming truck to confused and even more startled than before. The hands Téa had so expertly wound around Seto's back had actually been reaching for the shampoo in the rack behind Seto; once Téa reached the right bottle, she squeezed the upturned container directly over Seto's head, dumping a dollop of bright pink persimmon-scented gel onto his head.

Her gentle smile returned as she eased her fingers into Seto's sticky hair, lather quickly forming and seeping between her fingers. She wasn't even paying attention to the expression on Seto's face —much less where his eyes were wandering— as she styled his hair with the shampoo.

"Ah, done! I now pronounce you… Setosaurus!" Téa burst into another fit of giggles at the sight of her boyfriend, his hair done up in five flat, plate-like triangles. His hair wasn't quite as long as Yugi's, so the spikes were rather small, but nonetheless…

Seto regained enough composure to smear away some steam from the glass siding of the shower and take a glance at himself. He quickly ducked under the shower head to rinse out the offending hairdo, but he was far from letting Téa get away so easily— especially when she'd put him so suddenly in the spot like that.

He wasn't exactly sure what was going to happen or where they were going to go with this— but at that particular moment, he didn't care.

With one swift movement, he swung Téa into his arms. While before, she hadn't been pressed entirely up against him, now she most definitely was. The smile abruptly slipped off her face as she gazed, unblinking, up at Seto, wondering what he was about to do.

Much to her astonishment, there was another loud SPLOOT! noise, and then Téa found herself trapped in Seto's embrace, subject to his own version of artistic hairstyling. A frustrating amount of shampoo later, Seto smirked and wordlessly turned Téa to face the glass paneling. When she caught sight of her hair, fanned out all around her neck like a giant umbrella, she turned an even brighter scarlet than before.

"Téa-ceratops," Seto finally said, the first words out of his mouth since Téa walked into his shower naked.

The smile on her face seemed to still time itself, and the moment could have stretched on and on. At last, she ducked her blushing face from view and allowed herself to rinse the shampoo from her hair, carefully reaching around Seto so she would condition her tangled locks. She was hogging the hot water, she knew, but Seto wasn't saying anything about it. He wasn't even moving. If it weren't for the fact that she could somehow _feel_ him standing right behind her, Téa might have thought Seto left the shower— probably out of embarrassment.

All the same, it was startling when a large, warm hand fixed itself to her hip, first sliding up to just under her breast, and then down again, almost down to her thighs. Téa swallowed a lump in her throat, resisting the sense of vertigo that had her wanting to tip backward into Seto's arms.

When Seto spoke again, his voice was husky and deep, quite unlike anything Téa had ever heard before.

_'Maybe I'm just imagining things, what with the water interfering and the acoustics of this weird bathroom…'_

But his lips were startlingly close to her ear, and the water wasn't interfering with his speech at all.

"Why did you come here, Téa?"

Was that some kind of a trick question? Did he mean 'here' here, as in, the shower, or did he mean 'here' as in the Kaiba Mansion, his house, his life, his space in general? Téa fumbled for an appropriate answer, tempted to start playing with her fingers while she formulated some wild answer in her head.

But they were standing completely naked together in a shower— there was nowhere to run, and nowhere to hide… and no reason to do either.

The answer came to her as if it had been in her mouth all along. She turned around slowly, clapping Seto's hands back around her slender body and pushing herself against him with only slight force.

"Because I'm ready."

* * *

The water in the standing shower slowly began to cool, but Seto Kaiba only half-realized it when his breath came out in puffs of white steam.

After Téa's soft-spoken declaration, any shyness she had melted away. She didn't seem to have a shred of hesitation as she moved around Seto, eventually rubbing a blue-white bar of soap over his form, watching little bubbles spring up under her touch and slide away, down, down…

A healthy blush crossed her cheeks when she dared to let her gaze drop below his slender hips; when she looked back up again, Seto was blushing deeply too, and forcing himself to keep his gaze riveted to the wall.

"Don't you want to look at me, Seto?" Téa finally asked, her voice coming out as a strained whisper. Part of her was afraid this had all been some horrible mistake on her part, and she was rushing things —too far, too fast— and she would never be able to look at Seto the same way again. Worse would be if Seto was just putting up with her, and he really didn't want her _that_ way anymore…

_'If he ever really did in the first place.' _But Téa knew that the sort of passion they'd shared —on her birthday, and on Christmas Eve— could not be so easily faked, nor forgotten.

Seto's gaze finally left the tiling on the sides of the shower and reached her face. Téa shifted slightly, holding herself away from Seto and keeping her gaze fixed on his. Slowly, his gaze dipped lower, hesitating only momentarily on that last strip of skin before her collarbone. The moment he sucked in a sharp breath, Téa knew he'd gotten over his hesitation.

The sound of the water streaming from the shower became a distant memory; the only thing Seto could hear was the furious pounding of his heart against his ribcage, his pulse loud and throbbing in his ears.

_'She's beautiful.'_

It wasn't the sort of thought he had often. As superficial as people tended to think Seto Kaiba was, he didn't base his opinions of others based on their looks alone— it was their attitudes and actions that made them who they were. And right now, Seto found himself utterly mesmerized by Téa, although she had hardly spoken. It wasn't just that she'd been so bold and surprising: it was that she continued to be somewhat shy and yet press for his opinion, for his acceptance.

She wanted to know whether he **wanted** her.

The truth was, he'd only thought about it during those rare occasions when things got heated between them— and the last time had been late on Christmas, when he'd at last realized he was in love with her. Though they'd continued to share the same bed, exhaustion often wiped away any chance of passion between them; besides, they had decided that "it" was either too soon or too risky for them.

At the moment, Seto couldn't remember which of those things Téa had cited as her excuse the last time around. It probably didn't matter, anyway.

Everything that had ever been hidden from him —because of a too-tight, borrowed uniform blouse, a satin camisole lined in lace, or a bikini top sporting tropical flower designs— was now right before his eyes, there for the taking, if he so wanted.

It was as if his higher brain functions abruptly shut down, and the last coherent thought Seto could recall thinking was _'I do want.'_

After that, everything was a tangle of raw sensations— the touch of the bathroom tile against his palm as he pressed Téa against one of the walls; the sound of water running somewhere, the perfect vision she made —silken hair streaming down her shoulders, creamy skin stretching into eternity, and soft hues of pink gracing her cheeks and her breasts.

Neither of them could recall just how long they spent in that shower, mindlessly kissing one another. However long it was, his arms end up wound around her while her fingers somehow got themselves tangled in his wet hair.

Seto's last kiss had been hard and unrelenting, and it left Téa very nearly breathless. Her hands dropped to her side and her chest heaved, but her gaze remained fixed on him.

"It's getting a bit cold… isn't it?" she managed, her eyes wide and dark.

It took a moment for Seto to process her words, as the whole of him was still very much focused on Téa and getting her to touch him again. He decided that the best course of action was to shut the water off and get them both to someplace suitably warm and comfortable— where they could finish what they started.

Fortunately or unfortunately, they hardly made it out of the shower stall, let alone the bathroom. Téa very nearly slipped trying to walk backward out of the stall, either unwilling or unable to leave Seto's firm embrace. He managed to catch her before she could slide onto the tile and possibly hurt herself, but the move only brought her naked body even closer against his.

For a moment, they both stood still and rigid, their eyes locked on one another, unblinking. What happened next seemed more out of instinct than any coherent thought process, but Seto found himself craning his neck downward to kiss Téa once more. His grip on her shoulders tightened, a hint of desperation creeping into his touch. All he wanted was to mesh their bodies together…

It was in a haze of thought and sensation that Seto realized his dream had been something like this. On a dark, cold Christmas morning many months ago, he dreamt about being with Téa. After waking up decidedly aroused and confused, he'd forced himself not to think of her sexually, when so many occasions had arisen that proved they weren't ready for that step. Not at that time… or maybe not ever.

But all of that seemed to be changing in the minutes that followed. The damp, wayward steps from the bathroom to the bedroom, the haphazard attempts to dry off with towels that would not stay wrapped around them— all were signs of what was to come, and a fierce determination rose in Seto: this time, nothing would stop them. They both **wanted **this. They both **needed** this.

* * *

Somewhere between lips dragging across skin and tongues darting out of mouths, Seto and Téa found themselves back in the bedroom. Seto, being the taller one with an obscene amount of control over the situation, fumbled as he tried to lead Téa to the bed— but he only succeeded in tripping over a stray sheet and abruptly landing on top of her with his legs still hanging off the edge of the bed.

Téa smiled a tiny little smile and shifted, allowing Seto to throw the offending sheets to the floor and get on top of the bed and under the covers properly. He lowered his head to caress the curve of her neck with his lips once more, occasionally allowing his tongue to sneak out and lick her still-damp skin. Téa's hands moved up and down his back in warm, tantalizing strokes, tempting him to just close the distance between their bodies once and for all.

Unfortunately, Téa's body had other ideas. She tried to hold it in —really, she did— but she couldn't suppress it any longer.

The tiniest of sneezes escaped her, and she immediately flushed red and tried to bury her face under the covers. Téa wished Seto would just forget about it and keep going— she was so tense and wound up, so insanely _ready_ that it almost scared her.

But he stopped.

His body stilled completely on top of hers, and when Téa dared to raise her gaze, Seto was eyeing her critically, a strange expression on his lips.

"W-What?" Téa ventured after a moment.

"You're sick," Seto finally said. He sighed deeply and shifted off to the side, no longer straddling Téa's slender form.

"I-I am not!" Téa protested, her body immediately sensing the lack of warmth just above her own. But at the moment she spoke, another tickle filled her nose, and she sneezed again.

Seto only looked at her with a raised eyebrow, his lips quirked upward in an "I told you so" sort of smirk.

Téa half felt like crying. She'd worked up this immense amount of courage in a sudden burst, and now… she was so sure they were ready. But they weren't going to go through with it. She'd convinced herself that at least she was ready, she was willing to give herself to Seto Kaiba, and…

_'He doesn't want me.'_

The whole of her went cold as tingles and goose bumps formed up and down her limbs. She wanted to get away from here now, to get away from the softly radiating warmth and fulfilling presence that was Seto. Since when had he become such a feature in her life?

_'Stupid question…'_ Téa groused. She already knew the answer: _'Since I fell in love with him.'_

"It— it's not because you don't want to, right?" Téa finally mumbled as she focused on keeping her eyes pinched shut. She started to see spots of color, but she did her best to ignore them —and ignore the pressure Seto put on the mattress beside her, and the way her skin flushed hot and cold whenever he brushed against her.

"I don't want to— not like this," Seto finally said.

A dull ache filled the inside of Téa's chest, feeling heavy and empty at the same time.

"I want it to be perfect," Seto whispered, and with one swift tug, he brought Téa's body against his once more, locking his bent knees behind her own.

"It's really that I'm sick?" Téa questioned, realizing she _did_ have a bit of a congested sound to her voice. But was that _really_ what was stopping Seto? They'd come so far to get to this point, and now…!

"Not that you were worried about protection or anything, because I-I'm on the pill now…" she trailed off softly, her face growing a brighter pink. She wasn't facing Seto, and she was immensely grateful for that fact for the moment it remained true. Seto swiftly moved Téa by her shoulders and faced her, the look on his face all-too serious.

"You really… I mean, it's not just me wanting this? It's okay with you?"

Téa swiped two fingers across Seto's nose and scowled playfully at him. "Do you really think I would have walked into your shower with the intention of seducing you if I was **afraid** to do this? Come on, Seto."

Seto smirked, but he didn't say anything.

"Besides," Téa continued, stuffing her hand under a pillow and retrieving a small square of plastic, "I bought this just in case."

Seto's eyes widened a fraction as he stared at the condom package between Téa's fingers— proof that she'd not just been **thinking** about it, but thinking about going through with it. It was a far larger step than Seto himself had taken, though he'd continued to mentally berate himself for thinking of Téa in a sexual way— when she **obviously **didn't want to take that next step. How wrong he had been!

"Perfect, Téa," Seto repeated. He snatched the offending package from Téa's fingers and tossed it away from the both of them. Téa's eyes followed the square as it sailed across the room and landed somewhere— likely not to be found for a very long while.

"It'll be a month before the pills are totally safe…" Téa managed shyly. "I just started them two weeks ago."

"There's no rush."

Téa swallowed. "None?"

"None."

"'Cause I am going to get better real soon, you know that, right?" Even as she said it, she could feel the excitement drain from her body, and exhaustion slowly crept in, taking its place. She wasn't 'all better' just yet.

Seto laughed and tugged Téa against his body once more.

"The kinds of things you're making me think right now, Téa…" Seto shifted beside her, muffling his voice in the curtain of her still-damp hair. While moments before, Téa being sick was what stopped him from making love to her, he could hardly care right now. All he wanted was to be close to her, and to feel her naked warmth against him.

Téa giggled softly, tiredness filtering into her voice.

Suddenly, Seto spoke again, his voice a bit louder and more intense than before. "I mean it. I've never felt this way about anyone before, Téa. I… I've never wanted to make love to anyone."

There was something about the way he said her name —not so much the other words he said, just the voice he used— that sent a delicious tingle rushing down her spine. Téa shifted under the sheets and the thick comforter, curling her body against Seto's behind her.

"I never even thought I would** feel** this way about someone." His voice dropped an octave, and he added, almost as an afterthought, "I never thought I would want to be part of someone else so badly."

"Ever?" Téa asked softly. "You never thought about falling in love?" There was more to it than that: there was the desire and lust that they'd been steadfastly ignoring the past two months —at least. But Téa knew if she brought up the subject of sex again, things might get heated between them— and for better or for worse, now that Seto had refused to make love to her as "sick" as she was, the desire to do the same had left Téa almost completely. Instead, she felt achy and tired— and just a little relieved.

"I never had time, I suppose," Seto said after a momentary pause. One of his hands moved from outside the pile of blankets to the warmth within. He grasped Téa's hands, curled up against her chest, in his own embrace, his fingers absently playing across her breasts.

"But here we are," Téa murmured as sleep started to claim her. "I don't think either of us could have ever imagined it."

"You and me? Never."

Téa giggled softly again, and shook Seto's hands away from hers. She turned in the bed and faced Seto, her face still a rosy pink and her smile gentle and wide.

"But look at us now."

Seto's lips curled upward as she shifted and he thrust a leg between Téa's knees. He drew her close until her head was tucked on his shoulder, her arms wrapped around the expanse of his bare torso. The slightest movement would stir arousal in him again, and he knew it— but there was no worry there.

One quick glance down to the girl tucked into him, and he knew Téa had fallen asleep.

Seto sighed deeply and smiled. He briefly squeezed Téa's slender form against his and resigned himself to sleep. His last thought before his eyes finally fluttered shut and he drifted into a dreamless sleep was _'One day…'_

* * *

Sometimes, he wondered why he bothered.

Every night was the same— he always sat in the same place, he always ordered the same drink, and he always waited… and waited… and waited.

She never came.

He was always waiting, always wondering if the Téa that had noticed him —that remembered him as a person, not a vessel for some Millennium Spirit— would notice him again. She had once— and for moment, Ryou Bakura had allowed himself to think he maybe meant something to Téa. But there was still so much he didn't understand about her and her life, or the choices she made.

One of those 'choices' had a name and a face: Seto Kaiba.

Ryou didn't have any personal dislike toward the CEO, but to see him and Téa together was surprising, to say the least. But slowly, that shock wore away, and was replaced with a strange feeling that Ryou couldn't quite define. It was something like disgust coupled with envy, but for the life of him, Ryou could not figure out why.

It wasn't as if he harbored any romantic **feelings** toward Téa after all… right?

Whether or not he could truthfully answer that question, Ryou Bakura was suddenly put to the test when the object of his thoughts appeared.

For a moment, he thought he was imagining things. Why would she be here?

Not… for him, right?

As soon as he'd asked the question, he had his answer: No.

Téa shifted through the crowds easily, going mostly unnoticed as her outfit looked like almost all the other girls' choice of clothing: sparkly, low-cut, and revealing.

She moved with purpose, with direction. She was only there to see one person— and as she breezed past him without even looking, he realized that person **wasn't** him.

"Mai!"

The blonde woman behind the bar turned at the sound of someone calling her name; it wasn't usual for people to get friendly enough with the staff to be on a first-name basis with them. On the rare occasion someone **did** show up regularly enough to learn everyone's names, Mai didn't exactly warm up to strangers who pretended to know her. Thus, it was a surprise when someone who did genuinely know her showed up at the bar— though not exactly a pleasant surprise.

"Téa, what the heck are you doing here?" Mai hissed as she dried a glass. She hurriedly shoved it under the counter and shot her friend a glare. "I thought you said you weren't going to come back here!"

Téa blinked innocently and sat at the bar, a mess of silver bracelets on her wrist clinking on the countertop. "When did I ever say that?"

Mai only rolled her eyes. "What do you need— and please don't say 'to get drunk,' okay?"

"Well, I **could** use a stiff drink…" Téa admitted with a sheepish tone to her voice.

Mai's glare only intensified. She slammed a glass of ice water on the counter and waited for Téa to speak.

"Advice, Mai, advice. What else do I pester you about all the time?" Téa tossed Mai a cynical look and downed a quarter of her ice water.

"Ah, now that's a different request altogether. What can I do you for?"

Téa shook her head in resignation. "You're starting to sound like Joey."

Mai had the grace to blush lightly before she turned around and started mixing a drink.

"It's… Seto again. The both of us, we—"

"Hold it!" Mai interrupted her by holding a hand up in the air. "You're not here to tell me the two of you got in some astronomical fight again, there's another conspiracy for murder, and you need a place to crash for a while, are you? Because— sorry Téa, you know I like you— but **no**."

Téa shook her head fervently and blushed. "It's not that at all."

Her curiosity piqued by Téa's strange reaction, Mai paused and leaned on the counter, eager to hear more. "So… what is it then?"

Téa looked down and refused to meet Mai's gaze. Instead, she snatched one of the bar napkins from the countertop and started twisting it as tightly as her fingers could manage. After a few minutes of this show of nervousness, Mai shook her head.

"Look girl, don't make me guess. I have a pretty vivid imagination."

"We almost slept together!" Téa blurted, her voice coming out raspy.

Mai almost dropped her finished Sex on the Beach drink and stared at Téa with wide, violet eyes. After a moment, Téa's little announcement sunk in, and Mai found herself smirking rather broadly.

"About damn time, I'd say. The two of you probably have more tension than an elastic band."

"Almost, Mai," Téa repeated bitterly. "We **almost** slept together."

Mai blinked owlishly. "So why didn't you go through with it?" When Téa stared at her with a pleading expression, Mai relented. "Okay, so you're going to make me guess. But at least this shouldn't be too hard… it's probably not another case of you having second thoughts about being with Kaiba, of all people…"

Téa shook her head vehemently.

"And it's probably not another case of Kaiba getting amnesia and not remembering."

Another 'no.'

"So I'm thinking it's… you regretting that you didn't go through with it when you could have."

This time, Téa didn't shake her head yes or no; her chin just dropped to her chest and she looked extremely glum.

"Geez. Something told me I'd have to give this talk to **someone** sooner or later. I just didn't expect it to be soon, or to YOU, Téa." Mai ran her fingers through her hair, the expression on her face betraying her exasperation.

Téa raised her gaze and waited for Mai to speak. Unbeknownst to the both of them, Ryou Bakura also listened in on their conversation— but he remained hidden in the shadows, concealed by a pillar holding up the second floor balcony of the club.

But part of him couldn't focus entirely on the words that Mai and Téa were saying; it felt like part of him was sinking into the darkness, into himself.

He hated this feeling that was a subtle mix of nausea and exhaustion; it felt like he was losing control of himself, and that only meant one thing.

_'I won't let you—!'_

To Ryou's surprise, that voice that usually remained so silent within him spoke. _ NO! This body is mine— and so is Téa's. _ And after that, Ryou's world went black.

* * *

"Listen honey, let me tell you something," Mai said, an odd tone creeping into her voice. She shoved the Sex on the Beach onto the counter, expecting the deep orange drink to either be taken away by a nearby patron or else go 'stale.' It didn't matter either way. "You know sex is a bigger deal than most people let on."

"I… I know. That's why we stopped." Téa inhaled deeply. "Or why **he** stopped is more like it," she added under her breath.

"What did he say was his reason— or do I not want to know?" Mai asked, an eyebrow quirked upward in questioning.

"Because I was sick! Isn't that the dumbest thing you've ever heard?"

To Téa's surprise, Mai smiled. "He's got more self-control than most men I know."

"…You're **agreeing** with him?"

"Téa, do you honestly want to remember your first time as the time when you felt so nauseous you could pass out, or the time you sneezed all over your boyfriend's face as he tried to kiss you?" Téa's horrified expression was answer enough. "No, see? You don't. You want it to be perfect. Some of us don't get the opportunity to really think about it and try again— but you do. So give yourself the chance to cool off and think it over. How do you really want it to be your first time?"

"How do you know it's my first time?" Téa asked, her lips curled into a half-frown.

Mai rolled her eyes. "Trust me, you wouldn't be coming to me for advice if it wasn't. After your first time, **everything** changes. Believe me, I know."

"Do tell," Téa grinned wickedly and swallowed part of the drink Mai had made. "Mmm, Sex on the Beach, right? I'll have to suggest that to Seto sometime."

"…You're horrible, you know that?" Mai sighed. "This is what you get for hanging around boys your whole life."

"Maybe!" Téa laughed, nearly finishing the cranberry juice, peach schnapps, pineapple juice, and vodka combination. "At least I can embarrass you into talking though, right?"

"Maybe you can learn something from my mistakes!" Mai challenged, swiping the glass from Téa's hands and polishing off the rest of the drink. Her expression abruptly changed from cheerful and friendly to something quieter and sad.

"My first time… I thought everything was perfect. The right guy, the right time… but I couldn't have been more wrong."

Téa silently wondered how long Mai had decided to wait before she had sex for the first time. The blonde had been horrible burned by her own best friend back in high school, the same woman who now co-owned and taught at the Domino Performing Arts Center, where Téa went for classes. Mai had once told Téa that after her best friend had betrayed her in such a way, she refused to ever trust anyone again- but obviously, that had changed at some point.

"Look Téa, the long and short of it is, you can forget about bad first kisses. You can say they didn't count or whatever. But you can't get back your virginity. You lose it, it's gone. The memory will stay with you no matter what."

"What happened, Mai?" Téa asked softly. She wasn't sure she wanted to press her friend for more information, but if Mai was forthcoming with her own experiences, maybe she was right… maybe Téa **could** learn something.

"Long story short, I met this guy. Thought I was in love. Thought he was in love too. I figured maybe I was wrong about all guys, maybe there **is** somebody out there I can love and trust and give myself to." Mai's hand dropped to her stomach abruptly, and she sighed. "I got pregnant the first time I slept with him. I thought he'd be happy, he'd understand— he'd want to marry me, start a family or something. I guess I'd gotten in over my head with romantic thoughts and stuff, because the next thing I knew, my father disowned me, the guy abandoned me, and I was left with nothing."

Téa found it very difficult to come up with anything appropriate to say, so she just stayed silent and shocked.

"…I ended up aborting the baby. I hated myself for it afterwards. Still do, in a way. I'm a lot more selective about the guys I hang around and how far I get with them. I don't want something like that to happen again— not to me, and not to my friends."

Mai's expression was startlingly serious, and she regarded Téa critically. "I want to believe that Kaiba's the right guy for you, Téa. But I'm not going to lie to you and say that first loves last forever. They don't. Someday, you might find yourself growing apart from Kaiba, or finding out that he hasn't changed the way you wish he would. And maybe you'll break up. You have to be ready for the consequences of whatever you do."

"I… I don't know how long it'll last either," Téa finally said. "Part of me **does** want it to last forever, just because… well, you know me, I'm a hopeless romantic at heart. I'm probably too optimistic for my own good. But…" The brunette started to play with her fingers, hiding her eyes from the flashing club lights. She didn't want to show the tears that were building behind her eyes, threatening to smudge her mascara and her carefully-applied eye shadow. A few deep breaths later, and she was ready to speak again.

"But after my parents died, I think I got a bit more realistic about the world and the people in it. This isn't a nice place. Not everyone can be reformed. Some people… they really just need to go to hell," Téa managed a weak laugh, even as her cheeks flushed with the effort to keep her tears in check. "But some people —people like Seto— they **can** change, and they do. So I want to believe in him, and believe in us… for as long as I can."

Mai smiled, a tight smile, but a sincere smile nonetheless. "I hope you guys last. The fact that the two of you got together at all still amazes me."

"Speak for yourself," Téa smirked. "You and Joey?"

The blonde bartender turned a delicate shade of pink. "What about us?"

Téa only laughed.

* * *

"We made a deal, Téa… but now the terms have changed."

'The deal' was made back when Téa opened her mind and her soul to the darkness that was Bakura— in order to save her from the malicious spirit of Gozaburo Kaiba. She'd agreed to befriend Ryou, if just so the Spirit of the Millennium Ring could continue to use Ryou as his vessel, his means to an end. But Téa seemed to have gotten awfully absorbed in her home life with Seto Kaiba, forgetting about the promise she made and the connection they shared… that simply wasn't acceptable.

Bakura kept close watch on Téa, enjoying the waves of emotions he continued to sense off her. Part of him —his spirit, his essence— remained inside her, deepening the connection that they already had. The connection that had no rhyme nor reason to it, the thing that continued to drive Bakura's pursuit of the girl.

And now…

Little did Bakura know that as he watched Téa and Mai talk about some upcoming duelist tournament, someone was watching **him**.

Odagiri was still 15 years old, but he'd had more than his fair share of experience with gangs and clubs. DV8 was a second home to him, and he made it a point to know each and every face that returned to the club more than once.

So when Wheeler's friend Gardner showed up again, Odagiri made it a point to keep an eye on her. It didn't take him long to notice other people that had the same idea as he did.

_'Ghostie.'_ Odagiri recognized the white-haired boy from his previous visits to the club— and as of late, he'd been coming more and more often. But something seemed **off** about him tonight— especially with the way he was staring at Téa.

Odagiri made up his mind to tell Wheeler as soon as he could— if not through Serenity, then through Odagiri's sister, who attended Domino High in a different class than Joey and his friends.

The only question was… what would he tell them? He could hardly explain just what felt so 'off' about this guy— assuming they even knew who he was. It was entirely possible Téa had friends that Joey and the others didn't know about.

As Odagiri pondered over what he could tell Joey and the others, he continued to stare at the white-haired boy— until the boy turned abruptly and smiled maliciously at the boy himself. Odagiri felt himself freeze from head to toe, any thoughts he'd been thinking disappearing from his head. The flashing lights and pulsating beat of the music faded into the background, and the next thing he saw was total darkness.


	21. Endless White

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> It's White Day at last, the day when boys are supposed to reciprocate the gifts, chocolates, and other tokens of affection they received on St. Valentine's Day. What exactly does Seto have in mind for Téa, anyway?

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> **What Doesn't Kill You  
> Chapter 20: Endless White **(Version 1.5)**  
> A Yu-Gi-Oh Fanfiction**  
> **By:** Azurite - azurite AT seventh-star DOT net  
> **Site: **seventh-star DOT net  
> **Conceptualized/First Written:** 6/28/05, 10/23/05  
> **Completed/Final Edit: **10/29/05  
> **Posted: **10/29/05
> 
> **Don't Forget!** All Review Replies are now hosted at my LiveJournal. Look for a section in my Memories called 'Review Replies,' and you can choose from the story/chapter of your choice to see what I had to say to your reviews! Thanks for your continued support!
> 
> **Thanks to **Miss Matched over at **betasquad** livejournal community and forums for helping beta this chapter. As with all chapters, if you're interested in helping edit and make WDKY even better, let me know!
> 
> **Double Thanks** to the genius that is **mischiefmagnet** for catching "that error" that shall not be named...
> 
> * * *

_'Hmph. White Day.'_ Seto Kaiba absently twirled an expensive pen between his fingers. It had his name engraved on the cap; some stupid present from an admirer whose name Kaiba couldn't remember. He got lots of expensive gifts like these on St. Valentine's Day, and the day one month later —March 14th, White Day— was the day when women supposedly waited with bated breath to find out if he shared their affection.

Needless to say, he did not.

Except for one person…

The question was, what in the world could he possibly do to make up for the disaster that had been St. Valentine's Day?

Well… in retrospect, it hadn't **entirely** been a disaster. But he wasn't about to start thinking about that, because he'd already survived a month thus far, and he wasn't going to push his luck by entertaining thoughts of what he and Téa had almost done on St. Valentine's Day.

_'Too late.'_

How had he survived a whole month, anyway?

* * *

Téa kept glancing at Seto none-too-discreetly, hoping she could catch his gaze, but he looked completely lost in thought.

It was an unusual expression to see on her boyfriend's face, because normally he looked so concentrated. But at that particular moment during on an icy cold March day, he looked completely out of it.

_'I wonder why…'_ Téa chewed the end of her pencil absently, frowning in disgust when the little pink eraser detached itself in her mouth.

Téa knew what she **wanted** Seto to be thinking: she wanted him to be thinking about whatever impressive and amazing thing he was going to do on White Day. He'd been awfully sweet and romantic whenever they were alone as of late, but his attitude remained completely the same in school— focused on work, dedicated to his job, and unconcerned with fangirls or wannabe duelists.

White Day was only a week away… surely Seto hadn't forgotten all about it, right? He hadn't forgotten about her Valentine (carefully crafted alongside a box of new Duel Monsters cookies) and the hard work she'd put into it, right? He hadn't forgotten about what had… **almost** happened, right?

Téa had the decency to blush as she remembered the rainy St. Valentine's Day incident that involved a shower, a burst of courage, and a great deal of nakedness.

All at once, a series of flying paper footballs bounced off the back of her head, and Téa snapped from her reverie and turned around to glare at Joey and Tristan. The two of them always paired up in chemistry lab, when they had free seating. Yugi had decided to use that day's study period in the lab to work on another project for his vocational ed class, and Seto had already finished his assignments long ago, so he was content sitting at the lab table on the far end of the class, reading Tolstoy's "War and Peace."

Téa only made a face at Joey and Tristan, who chuckled quietly to themselves and went back to mixing acids and bases and causing all sorts of problems.

_'Boys! They're so immature!'_ The thought gave Téa pause. Did that include Seto? It wasn't as if Téa felt she could talk about her problems —sexual or otherwise!— with the guys, least of all Joey. Even if Seto and Joey had some semblance of an odd friendship, the two of them probably didn't want to know a thing about the other's sex life. More often than not, Téa couldn't even bring herself to be as brave as she had been nearly a month ago and talk to Seto about what she was thinking and feeling!

Mai was her only outlet for that kind of thing.

Considering Téa was only getting increasingly frustrated with the upcoming holiday and whether or not Seto would say or do anything, Téa decided that another visit to Mai was long overdue.

* * *

The truth was, Seto **was** planning something, and the only reason why he seemed so out of it was because he kept thinking that he was forgetting something, or that something was going to go wrong. He was the type who planned for every possible contingency, and who learned from past mistakes, whether they were his own or someone else's.

The bulk of St. Valentine's Day was a disaster, and Seto knew it. He'd been so confused that day, wondering why Téa was so quiet and upset, instead of bubbly and romantic as he'd expected her to be. In the morning, she'd been that way, but in the few hours they'd been at school, her attitude changed completely. Once Seto found out why, he was determined not to ever be so blind to her feelings again.

After all, there was nothing more dangerous in his book than an angry or upset Téa. She knew him better than most people, and she had access to practically every part of his life. As strange a thought as it was, their relationship was almost a form of two-way blackmail. As long as they kept each other happy, there would be no problems.

That meant no ghosts, no alcohol, no amnesia, and no fangirls!

He triple-checked every last detail to ensure things were going to go perfectly, and if anything needed revisions, he made the appropriate changes and triple-checked everything all over again. There was no way this Sunday was going to be a disaster like St. Valentine's Day.

Not a chance.

* * *

Mokuba was grumbling over a stack of white and red construction paper when Seto found him later that evening at the kitchen table.

"What are you up to?"

His younger brother only responded by shoving a pile of empty, heart-shaped boxes (that likely once contained chocolate) from the center of the table off to where Seto was standing; there was a small load of them there in various sizes and colors, and almost all of them had some sort of cute card attached to it with a large bow.

Seto wanted to laugh; apparently not even his younger brother was exempt from the chore of politely thanking all of the girls that gave him chocolate. The easiest ones to deal with were the "obligation chocolates" bestowed on the boys from their classmates, but the majority of chocolates tended to be "favorite chocolates" from girls that admired Mokuba as "more than just a friend."

"I can't wait till I'm 13," Mokuba groused as he hastily scrawled his signature on another thank-you card.

"Why's that? I thought you weren't looking forward to me shoving you into an active role in Kaiba Corp." Seto smirked, remembering his 'threat' to Mokuba the previous August before they'd arrived at the 50th Kaiba Corporation Anniversary Ball.

"I'm ready for _that_. But at least when I'm 13, I can start turning down all these girls and their chocolate, and blame it on teenage hormones," Mokuba grinned toothily.

Seto shook his head in disbelief. But before he could leave his brother to his own devices, there was one last matter…

"You're going to need to keep yourself busy on the night of the 14th."

"Huh?" Mokuba continued scrawling his signature on card after card, only bothering to glance up when he needed to make sure he was spelling the name of the recipient correctly. "Why, you and Téa doing something? It _is_ White Day, so I hope you've got something planned…"

"I do," Seto straightened, allowing himself a moment of pride. He was probably being a bit excessive in his efforts, actually, but if everything went as planned, then it would all be worth it.

When Seto didn't elaborate, Mokuba looked up from his work and stared at his older brother with a raised eyebrow and a questioning stare. "Do I want to know?"

Seto pursed his lips and sat down beside Mokuba, taking some of the finished thank-yous and stacking them neatly off to the side. After that, he clasped his hands together, then took them apart and started to drum them on the table. He couldn't exactly tell Mokuba _why_ he was planning what he was, but he could tell him _what_ he was planning, right? That was simple enough.

"The Anniversary Ball" was all he said, and then he waited for Mokuba's reaction.

To Seto's surprise, Mokuba wasn't shocked in the least. He smiled briefly and then went back to his work.

"That's a nice idea."

"What? You think it's stupid?"

Mokuba didn't look at his brother, but the smile on his lips did curve up a bit more. "I didn't say that."

"Then why are you smirking like that?" Ironically enough, his younger brother's opinion mattered to Seto a great deal, even if he was the third party in this situation. Truthfully, the best person to ask about what he should plan for White Day was none other than Téa herself— but since asking her what she wanted for White Day would ruin the point, Seto immediately vetoed that idea. The next best inspiration came in the form of the scrapbook he'd given to Téa on her birthday; one of the pictures within it was a color newspaper clipping of her, Seto, and Mokuba smiling as genially as possible for the cameras, while reporters hounded them from all sides.

The night of the Kaiba Corporation 50th Anniversary Ball.

When Seto originally selected the picture, he had done so purely out of the fact that it looked good— he had hardly remembered the actual night of the ball. Now that time had passed and the "incident" following the ball was explained, there was no more mystery. Nevertheless, Seto didn't care for a repeat performance.

"Nothing, nothing," Mokuba waved his hand airily, still sifting through the cards he'd finished and the ones he had left to fill out. "Téa'll like it." He paused, and Seto waited for him to say something along the lines of 'BUT…' Luckily, Mokuba came through as predicted.

"Just don't get drunk and forget about kissing her, okay?"

Seto dropped his face into his palm and grumbled as he walked out of the kitchen. There should have been no surprise that Mokuba found out about 'that' eventually; while he hadn't witnessed Seto's mistake the night of the Ball, he'd most likely reviewed the video footage, same as Charles, the security adviser, had… but Mokuba —knowing more about Téa and Seto's relationship— was able to deduce what had happened when the camera bulb blew and the video footage went dark.

_'I should have known._' After all, Mokuba **was** a Kaiba.

* * *

"You are the luckiest girl on Earth," Chieko Sagusa stated dramatically, in a tone quite unlike her usual super-polite one. The girl with almost platinum-blonde hair was staring at "Téa's" dance studio in the basement of the Kaiba mansion, turning around slowly and with awe plainly visible in her eyes.

"I'm beginning to think so," Téa laughed.

After a great deal of conversation regarding the future of the Domino High Dance Club and their own interest in dance as performers for the Domino Performing Arts Group, Téa offered to take Chieko to a private studio she knew of. Chieko seemed horribly confused when she and Téa arrived at the Kaiba mansion, but as soon as Téa turned on the basement studio lights, it all made sense.

"And this was a _Christmas_ present?" Chieko shook her head in disbelief. "I wonder what he's got planned for you for White Day."

Téa blushed scarlet, trying to find a side of the studio where her expression wouldn't be reflected in a multitude of mirrors. She was wondering that same thing herself, her mind supplying her with increasingly wild ideas as the day passed. Try as Téa might to not think about it, or to pass the day off as just another commercial holiday, she couldn't help but wonder what Seto was planning.

_'If **anything**,'_ Téa thought morosely to herself. If he was scheming something, he made no indication of it. And White Day was quickly approaching…

If Seto was suddenly going to surprise her by being romantic, it wasn't as if she would dislike it, but she hoped that after St. Valentine's Day, Seto wouldn't need the excuse of a holiday to be sweet to her.

A little voice in her head told Téa that probably wasn't the reason why he'd been so indifferent to her the past month: it was more likely that he was trying to put "that incident" out of his mind.

_'But it's almost been a month…'_

Téa's face connected with one of her open palms. What was she thinking? Hadn't they both agreed **not** to rush things? Besides, even if the gods of weather and fortune were on their side this holiday, that didn't mean they were ready for that next step. There was probably a really good reason why they hadn't yet slept together, a reason that neither of them had touched on just yet.

They both felt ready —at least Téa felt ready to deal with any possible consequences— but…

There was still something else, and she knew it.

She just didn't know what "it" was.

"Oh, hello Kaiba!"

Téa looked up abruptly when Chieko greeted Kaiba, who strode into the studio. He offered a curt nod to Chieko, who smiled and continued to speak without being prompted. "I was just telling Téa about how wonderful this dance studio is… though I'm not sure I'll be able to join you in practicing as much," she added as she faced Téa again.

"Why's that?" Téa turned toward her friend curiously, wondering what bomb Chieko was about to drop. However, the blonde's smile seemed to imply that whatever Chieko was thinking was good, so…

"Well, a famous fashion designer has just taken me under his wing. I will at last be able to pursue my real dream!" Chieko looked thrilled. Though Téa was mildly upset that she might be losing a friend with the strongest interest in dance, she knew that fashion design had always been Chieko's true passion. She'd even announced it to the entire class on her first day in school, and she hadn't seemed the least bit ashamed to say so.

"Which designer?" Kaiba asked, out of courtesy to the conversation more than personal interest.

"Jacques Mode!" Chieko bubbled enthusiastically. "Isn't it wonderful? I'm so glad that such a globally-minded man has made his base of operations here in Japan. It really is so lucky…"

"Jacques Mode?" Téa gaped. "I- I have a dress by him…"

Chieko's caramel-colored eyes widened. "You do? Oh, how lovely— promise you'll show it to me today!"

Seto turned to leave and took a moment to lean in toward Téa and whisper something in her ear. "That dress. Wear it on the 14th. Six o'clock sharp upstairs at the entryway, all right?"

Téa turned a curious stare toward Seto, who merely smirked and started to head upstairs. Chieko was still looking at her expectantly.

"I'll show you the dress Chieko, don't worry!" Téa laughed. "Any more big surprises before we head upstairs then?"

To Téa's surprise, her friend nodded slowly, averting her gaze to the floor. "Well, I _am_ excited about my interning with Jacques Mode, but…"

"But…?" Téa prompted. As soon as the word fell from her lips, Téa remembered the link between the designer and her own family. But there was no way that Chieko knew that the man who'd indirectly caused her parent's death was connected to Jacques Mode. Only Seto, Yugi, Mokuba, Sergeant Konami, and Téa herself knew that. Part of her was still disgusted with how Theodore Laroque —alias Theodore Iwana— had managed to live his life for months after he'd arranged for the deaths of the Gardners'— on the Big Five's orders. He was behind bars now, but…

"Well, remember how I met my fiancee back in December?" Chieko began. "I don't think I ever got to tell you about it, and now..."

"Now…?" There had to be a reason why Chieko was being so hesitant about things lately.

_'But why? What would Chieko have to hide from me?' _

Chieko lowered her voice and spoke so low under her breath that Téa thought her friend might have been talking to herself.

"I don't understand it. Kaiba is so generous, and yet all of the Hiromas seem to have a horrible grudge against him. Even Katsuro- but when we're not around his family, he's practically perfect…"

'_Hiroma?_'

The name struck a chord in Téa's mind, but she couldn't recall where she'd heard it before.

When she caught sight of Seto's reflection, standing rigidly in the doorway of the studio, she understood.

'_But there's no way… Hiroma's got to be a common family name, right?_'

Judging by the way Seto's hands clenched into fists at his sides, he obviously didn't think it was just a mere coincidence. But even so… what could Téa say? What could she possibly do?

_"STAY THE HELL OUT OF MY PAST!"_

'_Lesson learned,' _Téa thought firmly to herself. If there really was some connection between Chieko's fiancee and Seto's biological family, it was up to Seto to pursue it.

Seto, and Seto alone.

* * *

At last, White Day arrived.

Téa wanted to laugh at the idea of it all; some candy confectioners decided that if they made such a great killing on St. Valentine's Day with the female demographic, why couldn't they do the same with the men? Sometime during the 1960s, a marshmallow confectioner decided that men should express their 'soft, sensitive' side by giving marshmallows and marshmallow-filled candies as gifts to the women they admired.

The name 'Marshmallow Day' didn't stick, but it still made Téa laugh every time she'd thought about it. The silly holiday had only existed for a generation, and yet it meant so much to her to have Seto return her feelings and **show** it…

But maybe he just wasn't that expressive of a person. Nothing changed during school. Seto didn't bestow her with any fancy jewelry or a handmade card. Joey, Tristan, Yugi, and even Duke and Ryou all bestowed their own forms of White Day gifts on Téa, but there was still nothing from the one man Téa most wanted to receive something from.

_'I'm so selfish,'_ Téa thought as she shoved a fluffy, bunny-shaped marshmallow into her mouth. The overwhelmingly sweet flavor had to be reason enough to explain the tears forming in her eyes.

After she'd stashed the other boys' presents into her satchel, Téa decided to tidy up her desk. To her surprise, a note written in neat print on a tiny white card dropped out of her desk and into her lap.

"Don't forget— Wear the Jacques Mode gown tonight. —Seto"

That was all the note said.

Téa forgot about how upset she was over not receiving a gift or a card from Seto; he probably had something wonderful in mind if he wanted her to wear that dress (actually, he was **insisting** on it! This was the second time he'd reminded her, after all…), and it simply wasn't her place to doubt him— not again. Not ever.

* * *

It was different this time.

For starters, she didn't have a multitude of butterflies in her stomach flapping away nervously. She didn't get scared about tripping down the stairs, or about the prospect of dancing with Seto —wherever they were going. If it was to some charity ball or other important event, Seto was doing a great job keeping his lips sealed. Not even Mokuba was saying anything, and Téa had tried everything she knew how to do in an attempt to bribe the younger Kaiba.

'_Back then,_' Téa recalled, '_I didn't know how I felt. I was just on the verge of figuring it all out when everything went wrong…_'

So was that her lot in life, then? To have a taste of the amazing, the wonderful, the incredible and the almost-impossible, only to have it come crashing down and burning away before her eyes?

Téa was determined to believe otherwise.

So no matter what strange thing Seto had planned and was keeping secret, Téa was sure she was going to have a good time. She had to believe that about herself— and about Seto, too.

At precisely six o'clock sharp, Téa inhaled a deep breath and relaxed. She looked good. Better than good, even: she looked _perfect_.

_'Like a princess_,' was Téa's initial thought when she first put on the Jacques Mode blue gown. It featured a neckline that accentuated the curves of her chest without being overly showy, and the silver sparkles pressed deep into the fabric allowed for a smattering of simple accessories. Now that Téa's hair was longer, she bothered to style it with some peach oil and a curling iron, but she used the same silver hair clip as she had when she first accompanied Seto to the Anniversary Ball in this gown. The gloves and bracelets remained the same too, but Téa decided to forego her mother's sapphire necklace— if she caught Seto staring at her chest again, she would know he had no jewelry to use as an excuse!

With one last check in the mirror, Téa swept out of the upstairs bathroom and headed down to the entryway below.

* * *

It took a great deal of self-restraint not to do a variety of things the moment Seto laid eyes on Téa. For one, he was filled with the desperate urge to run his hands up and down her body, and tangle his fingers in her hair. She looked so perfectly soft and touchable, and she smelled absolutely incredible…

But he refrained.

He also stopped himself from blurting just what he'd planned, where they were going, and everything else that had been running amok in his mind the past few days. Namely what had happened on St. Valentine's Day, and what both of their stances exactly were on that subject.

It _had_ been a month…

'_I'm not going to rush this. I'm not going to screw things up._' Seto had to mentally repeat the words over and over, like a mantra. Eventually, he'd start believing them.

Eventually.

They were nearing their final destination when Seto spoke to her for the first time that evening.

"Close your eyes."

Téa quirked an eyebrow up in questioning, but she obeyed. Seto pulled the silk handkerchief out of his suit's breast pocket, extending it so he could blindfold Téa. She protested when she felt the fabric slide around her face, but when Seto shushed her with a firm finger against her lips, she silenced. Once she was assured that he would guide her all the way to their final destination, she placed her gloved hand in his and let him lead the way.

'_There's bound to be someone who thinks it's a little bit funny that two people dressed to the nines are walking the streets of Domino, and one of them is blindfolded, right? Someone's going to say something and give it all away…_' But in the midst of that thought, Téa decided she **wanted** to be surprised.

Whether Seto had arranged it or not, Téa couldn't tell— but wherever they were sounded completely silent. It also seemed big, too, though Téa had no idea where that perception came from. It might have had something to do with the tiniest of sounds echoing off in the distance, or the fact that she felt chilly, as if she'd just stepped into a large, air-conditioned lobby.

Which, in fact, she had: she just didn't know it yet. Seto had the chauffeur drop both him and Téa off at the Maple Hotel, where Kaiba paid an exorbitant amount to ensure that their arrival went smoothly, and that the night would be a perfect recreation of the 50th Anniversary Ball— minus the boring speeches, the annoying reporters, and the crowds of other people.

It would just be the two of them, and the rest of the night together.

He carefully led Téa to the bank of tower elevators, and once they emerged on the topmost floor, Seto gently turned Téa toward the magnificent, sparkling cityscape of Tokyo and removed the blindfold.

It took a few moments for Téa's eyes to adjust to the different lighting, but when at last she realized where she was, she gasped sharply and brought a gloved hand to her mouth.

"Oh, Seto…"

He couldn't help but smile proudly; that was just what he wanted to hear from her. A breathy gasp, an exclamation of his name… it didn't hurt that she was also flushing a pretty shade of pink, or that she looked happy enough to start crying. He didn't **want** her to cry, though…

Before he could come up with some words to 'comfort' her, Téa spun on her heel and hugged Seto tightly. "Thank you, thank you, thank you… I know it's silly, being this crazy over just a view, but I've missed this place, I've thought about the Ball so many times—"

He silenced her with a kiss.

By the time they separated, Téa's lungs felt icy and cold, probably from the lack of air. She'd never felt so tightly pressed against anyone, so attached and connected… it was a different kind of feeling, clearer and warmer than the lust and desire she'd felt for Seto on St. Valentine's Day. This **was** going to be a different day. It was a new day, a new time, and she had the chance to make new decisions.

'_Good decisions_,' Téa reminded herself. She smiled and linked her arms with Seto's as he led her up the tiny staircase into the Grand Ballroom.

* * *

"I can't believe you had them prepare the exact same menu," Téa laughed. "Right down to the Chicken Apple Marinade!"

Seto couldn't help but grin; Téa's smile seemed to be contagious. "Not _everything_," he admitted at last. "We haven't had dessert yet."

Téa blurted the first words out of her mouth before she'd really thought them through. "You mean you're not going to _personally_ prepare me dessert?" Téa wasn't talking about cheesecake or chocolate fondue. There was a certain suggestiveness in her voice that Seto had never heard before— but he liked it.

But if he said something in honest reply, they would never get around to what Seto really planned for the evening. Instead of giving in to his impulses, he decided to stand up and force the rush of blood back through his legs. After a moment of standing rigidly still, he offered his hand to Téa.

"Dance with me?"

Téa suppressed a small giggle; she wondered if Seto had danced at all since the 50th Anniversary Ball in August. If not, what guarantee was that he wouldn't step all over her feet?

Seto pressed a small button on a remote in his pocket; immediately, a stereo concealed within the elegant paneling of the ballroom began to play a soft, almost orchestral music. When the vocalist of the song started to sing, Téa's gentle smile widened.

"Even the same song…" She started to sing the words under her breath as she swayed with Seto. Surprisingly, he moved with a great deal of grace and elegance; so much so that Téa nearly forgot she was dancing. She felt warm and safe in his arms, and the room around them was dazzling with soft glows and the haze from the low lighting. Though their last dance like this had been months ago, the movements came to her as naturally as breathing; she found herself leaning back as he dipped her lower, tantalizing her with a near-kiss as he brought her back again.

"I would say 'lovely necklace,' but I notice you're not wearing one tonight," Seto murmured, his voice sounding just a bit gruffer than normal. The fact that she wasn't wearing jewelry was actually a point in his favor; it would make giving her his White Day present all the more special.

Téa laughed under her breath. "I had a feeling the first time you said that you weren't looking at my necklace."

"Are you telling me that you didn't decide on that neckline on purpose?" Seto spun her around, pulling her in extra-close as her spiral ended.

"Oh, I did," Téa laughed. "In fact, Jacques Mode specifically told me it was a 'flattering' neckline."

"Anything you wear would look flattering on you," Seto whispered. When the music stopped, Téa's movements stopped of their own accord, trained to freeze when the last chord played out. She found herself staring up at Seto, only a few centimeters away from him.

"Do you really mean that?" she asked, the hesitation plain in her voice. It would be insult to her if Seto actually replied 'no,' and it certainly wasn't the answer Téa was expecting, but she felt compelled to ask the question anyway.

"Yes." Another gruff answer, short and somehow laced with unspoken implications.

Téa blushed out of habit more than actual embarrassment, and when she finally dared to look in Seto's eyes again, she couldn't find the answer she was looking for in his eyes. Instead, she pushed herself up the extra few centimeters in her heels that it took to bring her almost-level with Seto and she kissed him. Though they'd spent plenty of time kissing since they'd initially forged an 'official' relationship in December, this time felt different. Téa felt almost lightheaded, but gravity seemed to be pulling down on her especially hard, as if she might fall at any moment…

Her lips went slack against Seto's, and before he could even react, Téa collapsed against the cool marble floor.

* * *

"Ohh…"

She felt like she was riding one of those horrid tea-cup rides at a theme park. Everything was spinning and swirling, and it all seemed to be a mass of darkly-tinted colors…

"Téa?" Seto's voice. She knew that much, but why was it echoing like he was speaking to her from down a long hallway? He repeated her name a few times, and at last the haze of color coalesced into a singular shape: him, beside her. They were still in a place vastly darker than the lit ballroom they'd been in before, and now, Téa had the sensation that they were moving along at a quick pace.

"Wh—"

The word wouldn't form on her lips. Her tongue wouldn't cooperate, and she felt nauseous.

'_Food poisoning? A flu bug? Or maybe it's just that time of the month…_' Téa grouched to herself. She felt horrible, and if she was really so ill because of her gender, she vehemently wished she could turn into a boy for one week a month.

"We're on our way home. You're going to be okay."

"I… f-fainted?"

Seto looked a bit grim, but his head dropped a few centimeters: answer enough for Téa.

She wanted to cry. "I'm sorry, Seto…" Her words slurred together, her s's all coming out like the hisses of a snake.

"It's all right, Téa." She could feel the warm pressure of his hand on her back. Her skin felt hot and sticky, but cold and clammy at the same time. "It's all right."

Then the blackness enveloped her once more.

When Téa awoke next, Seto was closer to her, gently nudging her awake. Once her eyes opened, he whispered something incoherent to her and gently tugged on her arm. Everything still felt so disjointed and nauseating, so Téa decided to forego even trying to talk. The March air was blistering cold at this time of night —whatever time of night it was, because it was still pitch black outside— and Téa wanted nothing more to be enveloped in Seto's arms, surrounded by a pile of fluffy blankets.

At last they entered the Kaiba mansion, while the driver brought the limousine back to the garage around the rear of the house.

"Can you stand? Do you think you can make it up the stairs?"

At least his voice wasn't echoing loudly in her ears this time. Téa understood his words perfectly, but it took her a few moments to steady herself and find enough moisture in her throat to speak.

"Yeah. I don't know what's wrong with me Seto, I'm so sorry for ruining tonight—"

"You haven't ruined anything." The tone of his voice was so firm, so commanding that Téa couldn't think of anything to say in reply. Seto seemed to see her silence as an opportunity, so he reached into his jacket and withdrew a narrow box covered in what looked like light gray velvet.

"I wanted to give this to you earlier, but…" he paused, a wane smile curling his lips. "Well, here."

Téa's fingers were shaking as she took the box from Seto, but she didn't know whether it was because she was sick or something else. The dim lighting of the outside entryway lights was just barely enough to illuminate the contents of the box. It was a slender necklace composed entirely of bright diamonds, aligned first in single sets, then doubles, then in tiny squares of four. In the centermost setting, four diamonds surrounded a beautiful sapphire.

"I think I'm going to faint again," Téa murmured.

"Does that mean you like it?" Seto asked, a smirk plastered on his face. He looked a bit silly, staring at her expectantly like that, but at the same time, his happiness seemed genuine, especially after he was afraid something had ruined their night altogether. He didn't want her to be sick, he didn't want anything to go wrong, and above all else, he didn't want to screw up and have anything be his fault…

"Yes, I do," Téa whispered breathlessly. "Oh, hold me. I really am going to topple over."

Seto gladly obliged as Téa shifted forward into his arms, but he didn't expect her to start crying. He felt the first few droplets hit his neck and slide down beneath his collar.

"Téa?"

"I love you," she stated simply, her voice cracking. "And I can be honest here and say it hurts, it really hurts—"

He was pretty sure she wasn't talking about 'love hurting' the way many people thought of it in that metaphorical sense. He gently twisted Téa away from him and examined her for a moment.

"One last thing before I carry you off to bed, princess," Seto smiled. "And this time I'm going to get it right." He didn't say anything further as he leaned forward, his lips meeting with Téa's. They moved together in a slow tempo, all at once barely touching and crushing together with fierce intensity. His tongue touched hers gently, and only once, before he pulled away. Téa wavered in place, still dizzy, still flushed. She clutched the open necklace box in one hand, her eyes sparkling with unshed tears.

But above all else, she looked happy, and that was what counted.

"Happy White Day, Téa."

Those were the last words she heard before she melted into Seto's arms and he carried her upstairs.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> **I realize that this is a short chapter, but I've said it before, and I'll say it again: some chapters are planned that way. There's just no way for me to cram a month's worth of story action into a chapter, so I condense it and try to make certain events as poignant and memorable as possible. Trust me, there IS significance in this chapter! Now that we're into the second half of the story, loose ends will start to get tied up, new plots will arise, and old subplots will come to a close... keep your eyes peeled!**
> 
> **\--Az**


	22. Dangerous Transitions

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> The Big Five are now the Big Four, and they refuse to let Téa Gardner keep them in hiding. But how can Téa fight what she doesn't know is coming?

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> **What Doesn't Kill You  
> Chapter 21: Dangerous Transitions  
> A Yu-Gi-Oh Fanfiction**  
> **By:** Azurite - azurite AT seventh-star DOT net  
> **Site: **seventh-star DOT net  
> **Conceptualized/First Written:** 6/28/05, 10/26/05  
> **Completed/Final Edit: **10/31/05 - Happy Halloween, everyone!  
> **Posted: **11/8/05
> 
> **Don't Forget!** All Review Replies are now hosted at my LiveJournal. Look for a section in my Memories called 'Review Replies,' and you can choose from the story/chapter of your choice to see what I had to say to your reviews! Thanks for your continued support!
> 
> **Note:** I've changed Marik's name to 'Malik' because despite this being set in the dub universe, there's just no reason for me to condone the usage of the dub's messed-up names. I could probably change all the names to the Japanese ones, but trust me, it would take WAAAY too long, and would screw up several other minor plot points (Bakura being from London, Joey's Brooklyn accent, the usage of honorifics, etc).
> 
> **Thank you** to **Miss Matched** for all her help with this chapter...!

"Something must be done about her."

Silence filled the room after a moment, as each of the four men looked at one another. It was dark; hard to see each other, but after all this time, they knew each other by silhouette. But one of their own was missing. The fact that Crump was gone from his place at the table (as incompetent as he was) unnerved them all, yet none of them said so.

"There is no question as to that," a voice snarled in response.

"She's cleverer than we gave her credit for," said a broad-shouldered man in a thick accent. "And now she has us all on the run. Even if we do get rid of her, how will it help us?"

The only immediate answer to that question was silence: silence that was broken as one man's fist connected with the surface of the table sharply.

"Crump is dead because of that brat!" he growled, "It doesn't matter what happens afterward, we must get rid of her!"

The glass tabletop beneath his fist splintered, a vein of glass the width of a single hair forming on the dust-covered surface. A small cloud of residue arose from the crack, but the men most tempted to cough refrained.

This was no place for rich, intelligent men such as them... but they were in hiding. They had to suffer, all because of that girl…

"He didn't die at her hands," a slender man spoke. "He was foolish and got scared. You heard what those special police said."

"I don't care," the rotund man growled. "Téa Gardner must die!"

* * *

Most male Domino High students wore simple uniforms of navy blue jackets paired with trousers of the same color; girls wore skirts in a sky blue with a carnation pink jacket to match. Such was the attire of almost every public Japanese high school; the only way someone could stand out was if they _weren't_ in uniform. Even so, when two large men in suits walked up through the main courtyard of Domino High school early during the lunch period of the 18th of March, no one batted an eye.

No one knew that the two men concealed guns underneath their jackets, or that their expensive sunglasses disguised the gazes of assassins who no longer possessed the ability to feel remorse.

No one knew where they were headed— so when Téa went missing that day, no one had any answers.

Normally, Téa spent her lunch periods in the dance studio, but today they'd been lucky enough to have a free study period right before lunch. No one actually bothered to _study _during their so-called free study periods, so Téa decided to head to the dance studio a bit early with Chieko. She promised Kaiba that she would return for lunch so that they could eat together for once.

But the lunch bell came and went, and Téa didn't come.

Yugi, Tristan, Duke, and Joey all showed up, each looking equally perplexed at Téa's disappearance. None of them seemed particularly keen to strike up a conversation with either Malik or Bakura, which left them only one choice: find out where Téa was.

The boys all stared at Kaiba, watching as he twitched at random intervals while he stared at the clock.

"You waitin' for time to fly or somethin'?" Joey asked. His 'joke' went unheeded. Kaiba remained fixated on the time. After five minutes of Joey staring at Kaiba staring at the clock, Kaiba relinquished his gaze and sighed.

"She's not here yet."

Joey knew thatshe couldn't be anyone but Téa, and judging by the expression on Kaiba's face, if she didn't show up soon, the guy would be irritated through next month. Though his skills as a peacemaker were never very renowned, Joey realized he had to make the attempt; Téa and Kaiba's 'little spats' seemed like the sort of things that blew everything to high heaven and back again.

_'Eh, nothing's ever simple in love and war.'_

Or something like that, anyway.

"I'm sure she just went to the bathroom or something…" Joey told Kaiba, but the CEO refused to listen. Fifteen minutes had passed now, and he wanted to know where Téa was. Kaiba yanked his ever-present Duraluminum briefcase from his side and immediately stalked out of the classroom, even though there were only fifteen minutes left in the lunch period.

"H-Hey, Kaiba!" Yugi rushed after Kaiba in the hopes that they could look for Téa together, his indoor sneakers squeaking loudly on the floor and causing a white rubber streak to sear its way into the linoleum. Yugi stopped, panting furiously once he caught up to Kaiba. It didn't take much longer for Duke, Joey, and Tristan to catch up.

Kaiba didn't seem too keen on waiting for Yugi, and part of him wondered why he'd stopped at all. But the truth was, if Téa _wasn't_ in the dance studio, he would have no idea where to begin looking for her. Only her _friends_ would know something like that…

"We could split up," Yugi suggested once they entered the main hallway. On this particular cold, March day, the school was thick with people trying to keep warm, and with lunch about to end, students would constantly be milling about. But if something really **had** happened to Téa, then they didn't have much time to find her.

That was when Duke spotted Chieko, who was busy patting her glistening forehead with a small hand-towel.

"Hey, Chieko— have you seen Téa?"

"Hm? Oh, she was in the dance studio," Chieko answered. Her face took on a worried expression as she continued, "These two gentlemen in suits from the Domino Police Department said they wanted to speak to her, so I left."

"In _suits_?" Joey repeated incredulously. Something sounded awfully fishy about that…

One look at Kaiba's face confirmed it: they were both remembering the special police the Big Five had tasked to kidnap Téa once before. If their hunches were correct, then those guys probably weren't cops, but another set of special police, out to do who-knows-what to Téa. Neither of them wasted any time barrelling through the approaching crowds and headed down to the dance studio as fast as they could run, Yugi and the others hot on their heels.

* * *

"How can I help you?" Téa was on edge the moment these two guys had stepped in the door. They didn't look like any police she'd seen before, but if she just called them on their play, she might get hurt— or worse. She couldn't risk letting them have the advantage by having her turn away, but thankfully the mirrored panels of the dance studio made it easy for her to keep an eye on the two suits.

And they were probably keeping an eye on her, too. But at least she had enough distance between them where they couldn't tell how fast her heart was racing. Téa was sure she would break out in a sweat and her fight-or-flight instinct would kick in if they got too close to her.

While they lingered near the doorway, Téa edged toward the corners, where she tried to think of something she could use to defend herself— if the situation came to that. There was no way she could unscrew the barres on the wall fast enough, and the other dance club members had moved all the spare classroom desks out of the studio after winter break ended.

_'There has to be something…'_ Desperation started to ebb into her system, making her jittery and paranoid. This couldn't be happening, right? Not here, not now, when everything was finally starting to fall into place!

"Let's just get right to the point. You have something we want."

"Huh? What are you talking about?"

_'Play the innocent card. Get them to trust you. Anything, something…' _The longer she played coy, the more time she would have to try and find something to use as a weapon— or at the least, create a distraction with. She had to get out of there!

One of the suits rushed Téa before she could even blink. His grip on her shoulder was iron-tight, and he squeezed her painfully. As the man's jacket fluttered down to his side again, Téa spotted something strapped to his side that caused the blood to drain from her face: a gun.

Forget distractions. Forget weapons and trying to escape. Her best bet at that point was to just do what they said and hope they didn't kill her then and there. When the SP clutching her saw Téa's gaze fixed on his holster, he smiled wickedly.

"No more games, Gardner. If you don't want to end up like your parents," he paused as he removed the gun with his free hand, pressing the barrel against Téa's forehead, "then you'll do exactly as we say."

There was a click as he cocked the hammer and switched the safety off.

Téa nodded, unable to make a sound.

* * *

A girl's soprano shriek from somewhere in the vicinity of the dance hall caught the boys' attention as they continued to charge through the halls, despite the shouts of their fellow classmates and the various teachers wandering around.

Kaiba and Joey just barely skidded to a halt when they saw a small crowd congregated around the door to the dance studio. When they heard an unfamiliar voice speak, everyone froze, and Kaiba felt his blood run cold.

"Just back off slowly kids, and Miss Gardner doesn't get hurt. Don't make any trouble for us."

"I-I thought they were cops," a girl murmured, sounding like she was on the verge of tears. "T-That's why I told them where the studio was…"

Téa rose her chin and gazed at the girl straight on, the expression on her face amazingly unafraid. "It's okay," she whispered. The girl still looked upset, but she managed to smile awkwardly at Téa, who still had a gun pressed into her temple.

One of the suits frowned at Téa and thrust the barrel of his gun under her face. "Shut up."

Téa only stared at the 'special police' coldly and pressed her lips together. She closed her eyes and took a deep breath as the crowds started to part— but a row of students refused to move.

"Well, well, well, if it isn't Mr. Bigshot himself," one of the suits muttered in a stage whisper. When Téa opened her eyes to see who the suits were talking about, her heart swelled with relief— it was Seto. Beside him, Joey, Tristan, Duke, Yugi, and Chieko stood, each with varying degrees of anger on their faces.

"Let her go," Seto said coldly, his eyes narrowed. He'd become a master of disguising his feelings, even to the point where he believed his own deceptions. But at that moment, it was safe to assume he was terrified. He'd been in life-or-death situations before; had a gun pointed to his own head, but_…_ this was different. _She_ was different. She couldn't possibly—!

"Or what?" the suit holding the gun to Téa's head sneered. "In case you haven't noticed, rich boy, we have a gun to your girlfriend's forehead. If you don't get out of our way, we'll blow her brains out."

Chieko trembled slightly beside Yugi, as if tempted to move and part the way for the SPs. Yugi glanced up at her, and in a moment, her wavering expression found resolve, and the blonde continued to stand her ground.

"P-Please Yugi— do you know what's going on here?" Chieko's voice had always sounded so clear and assured; hearing her so afraid gave Yugi pause. He wasn't sure how to explain something so complex in only a few sentences.

"I'm pretty sure these guys work for this group of people called the Big Five. They're the people that tried to kill all of us —including Mokuba and Kaiba— before. They're also the ones responsible for the deaths of Téa's parents," Yugi finished. This was all old news to Kaiba, Joey, Tristan, and Duke, but Chieko and the other students gathered in the hallway had no idea. An astonished gasp filtered its way all the way from the fore of the crowd where Chieko stood, still trembling to the back, where many students were cramming together in an effort to see what was happening.

"Where are the papers you were talking about?" the suit with the other gun demanded in an impatient tone. "Tell us where they are and this'll go by a lot faster." He obviously didn't like the way things were looking— students surrounding and blocking the whole hallway, teachers peering out from their classrooms. If they wasted too much more time, the police would arrive and everything would go to hell.

Téa fumbled for a quick answer, hoping to lead the SPs to a place where they could get caught— or where she could lose them and escape with her life, at the least. Back in the studio, she'd told them that the Big Five didn't just want her dead— they wanted the information she still had that could incriminate them. She could show the SPs where it was, if only they _didn't_ kill her on the spot.

Amazingly, the two men agreed, and they led her out of the studio, guns cocked and pointed straight at her.

That was when she spotted Seto's briefcase.

"I-In his briefcase," Téa stuttered, feigning a frightened tone of voice. The truth was, even with the guns to her head, she was still resolute in her desire to put the Big Five and all their lackeys behind bars once and for all. She was sick of being the target of their schemes and plans, all because her parents had been smart enough to find out what they were up to: extorting money from Kaiba Corporation and its employees, and ruthlessly arranging for the deaths of anyone that didn't follow their plans.

At Téa's words, Seto's eyebrows rose, but he knew he couldn't afford to doubt her. Maybe she was playing a game with the two suits…?

_'She's taking too big of a risk…!'_

But if he didn't open his briefcase, Téa might get shot anyway. This wasn't a very favorable situation to be in, but it wasn't as if he had a better plan. Seto silently prayed that he was right, and Téa really **did** have something in mind. Otherwise, this would end all too soon.

"Not you!" One of the SPs snarled as Seto bent to open his briefcase.

The man flicked his gun in Chieko's direction. "You. You open the case and get the papers."

Chieko looked startled, but when Téa glanced at her and gave a small nod, Chieko nodded and stepped forward. "Fine."

Seto signaled to Chieko what the combination was, and she quickly opened the case. To her relief, there _were_ papers in there— probably not the ones Téa was talking about, assuming such papers even existed. But nonetheless, it was better than opening it up and having nothing. If that had happened, then Téa—!

"Which papers are they again?" Chieko asked without looking up at Téa. She was trying to find a set of papers that would most convince the men that they had found what they were looking for. Even if they didn't let go of Téa immediately, at least while one of them inspected the papers, the others could distract the second SP and hopefully get Téa out of harm's way. But the pressure was building and Chieko wasn't sure she could keep up her act for much longer…

Téa's voice had taken on an odd tone when she replied. "The ones in the folder marked 'Mamboleo'."

Chieko looked up at Téa, and though all eyes were on the two of them, somehow the two managed to communicate something unspoken.

"Right, here they are," Chieko responded, plucking a folder out a random. No one else saw that she had also grabbed the first loose Duel Monsters card she'd found in the suitcase. It was the only thing in there besides random Kaiba Corporation paperwork, but hopefully Téa could think of something to do to distract the SPs if this plan of hers didn't work out. Chieko carefully closed the case with a click.

After that, everything was automatic— instead of walking forward and handing one of the SPs the papers, Chieko stood up sideways and handed the files to Téa. In her head, she could hear the steady tempo of the song Téa had named: 'Mamboleo' by Elissa. There was no folder in Kaiba's briefcase under that name; it was all just a ruse. It was a good thing Chieko knew what Téa had been talking about, or else their little plan might have fallen apart completely.

* * *

Chieko spun quickly on her heel, grabbing Kaiba's briefcase as she went. She swung the case hard and fast, her unexpected movement startling everyone present. Luckily, only the SP with the gun caught the brunt of the blow to his knees. He crumpled to the ground with a shout of pain, while his gun skittered across the floor. Before the other SP could raise _his_ gun at Téa, she danced around him and shoved the Duel Monsters card Chieko had given her into the tiny space between the gun's hammer and the cylinder. Unable to make contact with the bullet chamber, the gun jammed and clicked uselessly. In the second it took for the SP to look at his gun in wonderment, Téa brought her knee up fiercely into the man's groin, and he too crumpled to the floor in pain.

The man's gun dropped from his limp hand onto the floor, sliding to a stop just in front of Téa's feet. The appreciative murmurs and cheers suddenly stopped when Téa bent down and plucked the gun from the floor. She removed the card —a Gyakutenno Megami— from the gun and clicked the hammer back into place.

"You have a cell phone, right?" Téa feigned disinterest in the target, and she listlessly aimed the gun up and down the SP's body— starting at his kneecaps and working her way up to his face. The man trembled as the barrel got closer and closer to his face as Téa leaned in, her rear leg thrust out in a lunge. After a moment of fumbling, he managed to extract a small cell phone from within his breast pocket. He quickly dropped it beside his wrist, keeping his gaze locked on Téa's.

"Call _them_," Téa whispered in a low voice as she motioned to the cell phone with the gun.

"Call who?" the SP under her foot snarled back. It seemed that he was getting his attitude back, and Téa didn't care for attitude where the Big Five were concerned. This was _her_ battle.

In response, Téa only jammed her foot deeper into his face, threatening to crush the man's jaw. She pushed the barrel of the gun directly into the man's cheek and smiled coldly. "Crump, Gansley, Leichter, Nesbitt, Johnson— I don't know, _pick_ one!"

"Crump's dead," the SP finally said, surprising Téa and the others just a fraction. "Had a heart attack before the police even came to pick him up. Heard it was your fault."

Téa fell silent, her eyes clouded with disbelief, but the feeling quickly faded. "It's no problem of mine. He deserved it for what he did to my family. Now… _call_ them!"

Despite having a foot on his face and a gun barrel pressed to his cheek, the man obeyed. When the phone started ringing, Téa turned to Joey and handed him the gun.

"Keep this on him. I want to talk to the Big Five myself." There was a strange, icy look in her eyes, unlike anything any of her schoolmates had ever seen in her eyes before— but Joey trusted his friend, and he knew how important this was to her. Téa's parents had been murdered by the Big Five, and yet they were still at large, still trying to hurt more people and get more and more money.

"No problem." Joey shoved the revolver even further into the man's face, barely suppressing the bit of glee he felt at doing so. The tables were turned on the Big Five— though Joey and the others had all thought they'd been permanently trapped in the Virtual World of their own tampering, they'd somehow escaped and wreaked havoc on Téa's life— and they obviously weren't satisfied unless every secret that the Gardners knew was locked away—permanently.

The phone clicked, and a gruff voice answered on the other end. "Well, is it done?"

"Hello, Gansley," Téa murmured in a low, cold voice.

Silence.

"I know you're still listening. And I know you're wondering how a 'tiny little scrap of a girl' like me could have possibly disposed of what were likely your two last, best men. I won't spare you with the details, but needless to say, Gansley, you and the other members of the Big FOUR are in for it now."

"…Is there any reason why **we** should be afraid of **you**?" Gansley said. His words were boastful and overconfident, but his tone betrayed the surprise and fear likely pulsing through his veins at the moment.

"Oh yes, Gansley. You picked the wrong family to mess with, all the way from the beginning. This is war, and it's not over until all of you are behind bars— or worse."

"Worse?"

Téa gave an dispassionate sideways stare at the phone before letting it slide from her hands. With lightning-quick reflexes, she picked up Kaiba's Duraluminum briefcase, disposed of on the floor after Chieko had slammed it into the first SP's knees, and she slammed it down forcefully, breaking the cell phone into hundreds of tiny bits. She didn't need to give an explanation as to what she had meant by 'worse'— she had just displayed it for all to see.

The sound of sirens wailing in the distance, steadily drawing closer brought everyone's attention to the windows. A group of Domino Police Department squad cars pulled up to the front gates of Domino High school as officers emerged and closed in on the school.

"Well," Joey grinned, releasing the gun pressed up against the SP's face, given that the man had fallen unconscious, "I guess our work here's done."

"Yeah," Téa sighed tiredly, "Just another day in the life of an 'ordinary' Domino High student…"

Joey only laughed in reply.

* * *

Two people who had gone unnoticed amongst the thick crowds backed away and drifted their own separate ways as the crowds began to scatter. Some people were eagerly thrusting their way forward, hoping for a chance to spot the two muscled men Téa and Chieko had felled; others wanted to talk to Kaiba or Yugi or Joey about the whole situation and how much they knew about it.

For Bakura's part, he couldn't care less about the idiotic 'Big Four' — there were greater powers at work, operating from a distance. One of them was watching Téa— he was sure of it. Well, **almost** sure. The truth was, in the past four days since Téa blacked out at the Maple Hotel where she'd gone with Kaiba, Bakura had been unable to turn anything conclusive up about _why_ she'd fallen unconscious. It couldn't be as simple as Téa having a little fainting spell; the next day when Bakura spied on her, she'd looked as right as rain, though she had complained a bit about cramps.

No, there had to be some other presence that had been watching her, unseen— and Téa, oddly sensitive to that sort of thing, reacted by doing the only thing her body knew how to do in an emergency: shutting down.

It would be all too easy to blame it on something like a lack of eating, or food poisoning, but Bakura knew —somehow he just _knew_— that there was more to it than that. And Kaiba, fool that he was, didn't even think twice about it. Once White Day was over, he returned to his normal self, and his relationship with Téa remained a closed-subject at school. The two barely even acted a couple, save for the rare lunchtimes they spent together.

It was entirely possible that they were all putting on a wretched facade, a thought which brought a strange sort of joy to Bakura's heart. It was entirely possible that the feeling was misplaced— something leftover from his host, whom Bakura had been forcefully suppressing for nearly a week. It was starting to take its toll, but until Bakura found the answers he was looking for, he could put up with a bit of weakness.

Just… a bit…

* * *

Unbeknownst to Bakura, another person headed in the opposite direction of him was none other than Malik Ishtar. He too had been keeping an eye on things lately, but he was being far more discreet about it than Bakura was.

He could easily afford to not spy on Kaiba and Téa so diligently, if only because he _knew_ what was to come— though it put him in a very precarious position. He had to stay in Japan and watch over the couple, and watch over the turn of events to make sure they happened the way they were meant to. But the slightest interference on his part could alter the very course of destiny, and seeing Bakura obsess over Téa threatened to send Malik over the edge.

All it would take was a simple warning to prove that he was being honest, that he had good intentions— and that Bakura did not. The tomb robber in a high schooler's guise was more dangerous than anyone gave him credit for, but there was nothing Malik could say or do without destroying everything. Worse, part of him continued to doubt his birthright— the inscriptions of the prophecy on his back, and on the panels housed at the Domino Museum in the ancient Egyptian exhibit he manned.

How much harm could he possibly do by finding a way to stop Bakura before he went too far? Would it damage the future entirely if he found out just who was the cause of the strange feelings he'd been having lately, and the 'presence' surrounding Téa so often?

What it got down to was something rather unfortunate: there was simply no way of knowing.

* * *

"How exciting!" Serenity Wheeler exclaimed when Téa told her about being held hostage by the two SPs.

Téa wanted to throttle her friend, but it wouldn't look good for the third-year class president to be seen choking the daylights out of a brand-new first-year student. At long last, Serenity was starting high school, just as her Téa, her brother, and all their friends were getting ready for their third and final year of school. Their first year had been filled with duels, tournaments, and all sorts of mysteries; their second year hadn't been any different, and it had ended with practically every student in Domino High getting interrogated by the Domino Police.

Four days after the two SPs from the Big Five came to Domino High, a wealth of new students filled the halls of Domino High, one of those new students being Serenity. She'd already made quite the impression on the second and third-year students, when she'd come to the school in November and slapped Seto Kaiba right in front of the entire student body. To make matters worse, everyone knew she was Joey's sister, but no one seemed to care about her family ties — they all wanted to meet the spitfire redhead that was ironically named 'Serenity.' While Joey attempted to do damage control and keep lustful older boys away from his sister, Tristan and Duke redoubled their efforts to capture Serenity's attention once and for all.

Meanwhile, Serenity seemed perfectly content being oblivious to the boys who pestered her, and instead she stayed glued to Téa like a second skin.

"Exciting isn't quite the word I'd use to describe it," Téa mumbled under her breath as she walked with Serenity through the courtyard. They'd had an extended assembly for all students, welcoming them to the new school year, and now everyone was stumbling toward the entrance halls to find out what classes they were in this year.

"Compared to my junior high, where barely anyone knew about Duel Monsters and the most exciting thing that happened at school was the Sushi Surprise?" Serenity replied with a smirk.

"Okay, okay, but trust me— having a gun to your head isn't exactly the highlight of your typical high school day."

"I'm just glad you're all right," Serenity said, her expression changing from excited and happy to serious and solemn. "The police arrested those two men, right? Do you know if they found out anything more?"

Since Sergeant Konami of the DCPD maintained contact with Téa, the girl was well-aware of any developments in the continuing 'Big Five Fugitives' case. Unfortunately, there weren't any within the past four days— and it might well have been Téa's fault.

_"We might have been able to repair the SIM card in the cell phone that SP had," Konami told her the morning following the incident. "Unfortunately, it was too damaged to extract any data from it. We can't trace the call that you made to Gansley— and even if we could, I'm sure by now he's disposed of that phone and moved elsewhere." _

Téa mentally cursed herself for acting on her impulses like that; if she hadn't gotten so upset about everything, the Big Five might be rotting in a jail cell right now. But they weren't— they were still at large, and they still had so many people's blood on their hands!

Serenity's gentle hand on her shoulder startled Téa out of her reverie. "Don't worry, Téa. I'm sure something will turn up. Try not to let it get to you."

_'Easier said than done,' _Téa wanted to tell her friend. She still missed her parents terribly, and she couldn't stand knowing that they'd been murdered and that their killers were still roaming free.

* * *

"Aw—" Joey started muttering a string of colorful curses under his breath the moment he caught sight of his name on the new class roster.

"And the dog is freed from his leash," Kaiba smirked. After two years of enduring classes with Joey, Yugi, and Tristan, at long last they were separated. More precisely, Yugi was in a separate class from Joey, Tristan and Duke, who were in a separate class from Téa and Kaiba. However, Malik and Bakura were both in Téa and Kaiba's class, as was Chieko.

"Hey, you're in my old homeroom," Téa exclaimed when she caught sight of Serenity's classroom assignment: 1-B. "Hopefully that'll bring you good luck!"

"I hope so too," Serenity whispered. While before, Serenity had been confident, now that she was actually a student at Domino High, she was starting to get nervous. For one, everyone seemed to know her without her knowing them. Second, it wasn't as if she could surround herself with Joey, Téa, and the others all the time— she had to learn to make friends and defend herself if necessary.

"I'm still in a bit of shock that we're not in any classes with you, dude," Tristan said to Yugi. "What happened?"

"I decided to go vocational ed," Yugi explained. "I think we'll still have gym class together, though…"

"That means you'll be in at least one class with Kaiba and me," Duke said, elbowing Yugi in the side. "You're taking business, aren't you?"

"Yeah. I figure it'll help me run the Game Store one day."

"Forget the game store," Duke chuckled. "You're the presiding stockholder over Industrial Illusions. Think big, Yugi!"

Yugi only blushed and stared at his feet. He was still a bit too hesitant to really do anything with all the power he had over Industrial Illusions. Ever since he'd beat Pegasus at Duelist Kingdom, he'd had the wealth of the entire company at his feet, but Yugi was benevolent enough to let the company go running as it had for the past several years. No one heard from Pegasus, or knew what had happened to him. The media claimed he was dead; Yugi and the others liked to think they knew better, but the truth was, they didn't. They'd all decided to move on from that time.

The tardy bell rang shrilly, and the crowds started to disperse and head to their classes.

The halls continued to empty, leaving the motley crew of semi-friends behind: Yugi with his erratic hairstyle and ever-present Millennium Puzzle; Joey with his uniform shirt untucked and his hair in a disarray; Tristan and Duke, both trying to edge ever-closer to Serenity, who hung close to Téa and Kaiba; and Malik and Bakura, who hovered at the outskirts of their little circle.

"Well, I guess this is it—" Yugi finally managed.

"Hey, we don't have to be all upset about it, right?" Tristan laughed awkwardly. "I mean, we're still in _some_ classes together…"

"It's not like we won't be friends anymore just 'cause we're not in a few classes!" Joey assured Yugi, but he didn't look too confident himself. Everyone knew that their third year together would be the one that determined their future: if they didn't do well, they were destined to work low-paying jobs with no real happiness or future behind them. Each of them wanted something different from that. But it couldn't be denied that being in school together wasn't enough; Domino High was packed with students and people constantly busied themselves with clubs and extracurriculars. Assuming they actually had a normal school year for once, how would they ever find time to spend together?

"Joey's right!" Téa grinned. "Come on!" She smirked as she plucked a black marker from her satchel. She gestured for everyone to stick their hands out, and after a few protests and some cajoling, she got everyone into one circle, with all their fingers touching one another. Téa swept the nib of the marker against the top of everyone's hands, including her own, and drew a large face complete with a perfectly happy, dopey smile.

"No matter what!" Téa said as she finished the face and capped the pen.

"No matter what!" Everyone repeated— even Kaiba. Téa smiled brilliantly at him —and each of the others in turn. The gesture was enough to reassure everyone, and soon they were rushing off down the halls with wider, more confident smiles on their face.

Téa refused to let her worry show, and kept that same brilliant smile on her face despite the fear and doubt flitting into her heart. Malik and Bakura happened to both glance backward at the same time and spy the odd look in Téa's eyes, but the moment each of them realized the other was watching, they both glared at one another and stalked to class, keeping as much distance between them as possible.

Kaiba, for his part, kept his free hand securely around Téa's. He could still feel the residual stickiness of the ink from Téa's marker on his hand. Needless to say, he never expected to become 'formally initiated' into Yugi's little gang, but…

Remembering the bright smile and the look of fierce determination in Téa's eyes was reason enough for Kaiba to grin, ever-so-slightly.

Maybe this year wouldn't be so bad after all.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> **I'm actually glad that I'm getting these out so fast! I know they're not quite action packed yet, but trust me: we're almost there! Besides, do you really want a cliffhanger every chapter? **
> 
> **Remember that Review Replies for previous chapters will go up soon. For Chs. 19-21, they'll go up after about a month has passed from the release date of the chapters, since I posted them all within a week of each other. This gives everyone enough time to catch up with the story if they feel the need to. Don't forget to review and let me know what you think of the story so far! **
> 
> **-Azurite**


	23. An Ancient Enemy

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Kaiba has been acting strange lately, but why? When Téa finds out, she might not like the reason-- and it'll change everything!

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> **What Doesn't Kill You  
> Chapter 22: An Ancient Enemy  
> Version 2.0 - **Thanks for the quick fix, gladdecease!  
> ** A Yu-Gi-Oh Fanfiction**  
> **By:** Azurite - anzu DOT kaiba AT gmail DOT com  
> **Site: **seventh-star DOT net  
> **Conceptualized/First Written:** 5/7/05  
> **Completed/Final Edit: **11/11/05 - It really didn't take over six months; it was just May when I first came up with the chapter file. Honest!  
> **Posted: **1/8/06
> 
> **Don't Forget!** All Review Replies are now hosted at my LiveJournal. Look for a section in my Memories called 'Review Replies,' and you can choose from the story/chapter of your choice to see what I had to say to your reviews! Thanks for your continued support!
> 
> **Note** that when I refer to any card game strategies or names in this fic, they'll be using the dub names and/or English TCG translations where available. Note that cards like the God Cards cannot be used in a real duel, so I apply anime-strategies to their use. For almost all other cards, I stick to the English TCG attack, defense, effects, and so on. This kind of translating does _not_ apply to the names… as I stated before, I don't condone 4Kids &amp; Funimation's bad mistakes (for example, changing Malik to Marik or Isis to Ishizu), so I'm retaining the original names in those cases. Bear with me. :)
> 
> Also note that I've been updating all the previous chapters to date. There are few story changes, but several tweaks in spelling/grammar, and coding.
> 
> **SPECIAL NOTE!** The web's first fanlisting for Seto and Anzu, Blue Eyes and Apricots, has been accepted by The Anime Fanlistings network as the official fanlisting for the pairing! A brand new layout, tons of goodies for you, and over 300 members strong! So go check it out on the seventh-star DOT net domain, or Google it today!
> 
> **Thank you** to **Yami) White Rain** and **Mamono** for their help with this chapter!

The desire to kiss her goodbye was far too great for Seto Kaiba to resist. He'd restrain himself —make it light and chaste and perfectly innocent, because he was already running behind schedule as it was, and he couldn't afford to get wrapped up in her scent or her curves again. He'd already woken up an hour and a half off-schedule because of the temptation she presented.

Alas, when her lips started moving not-so-innocently under his, it became quite clear that he wasn't going to be able to sneak out of the house with any amount of ease.

"Mmm, Seto…" Téa opened her eyes blearily, and realized that Seto was standing above her, not lying beside her, and he was wearing altogether too much clothing. When she realized it wasn't a dream (she started feeling goosebumps creep up and down her arms, which she'd taken out of their warm, blanketed sanctuary) her blue eyes opened wide. Seto wasn't just wearing clothes— he was fully dressed with his briefcase at his side.

"Where are you going?" She managed a sideways glance at the digital alarm clock on their end table and squealed in surprise. "It's only 5 o'clock in the morning! You can't have something so pressing to do at Kaiba Corp—"

"It's not that," Kaiba silenced her. The truth was, he would have rathered Téa just discover his little note in the bathroom, but with her awake, he would likely have to do more explaining than he really wanted. He could try and omit certain parts, knowing they would upset Téa, but then he would have to make a horrible show of fetching the note from the bathroom and disposing of it so Téa wouldn't know…

"Then what?" She couldn't bring herself to sit entirely upright; she was still too exhausted, and the sheer comfort of the warm bed was tempting her to sleep once more.

"I'll just be gone for a couple of days— I'm working on something important."

He couldn't tell her what it was— it had been hard enough trying to formulate the right words in the note. The whole reason why he'd bothered trying to wake up so early in the morning and writing the note in the first place was to _avoid_ this kind of confrontation. Not that he was afraid of confrontation, least of all with _Téa_ (actually, he rather missed the verbal spats they used to get into), but… this was a touchy subject. Something that had been bothering him off and on for some time, and it was eating away at his conscience. He had to do something about it.

"Oh… I'm too tired to question you right now. Please call?"

Thank the Powers That Be for exhaustion. Seto half-wished he could take credit for her being so worn out, but alas; she'd really been practicing out all the night before with the Domino Performing Arts group. Now that the mutt's sister went to school with them (it was still mind-boggling; Seto swore she'd been in the first year of junior high when he'd met her in Battle City), she and Téa tended to stay out extra-late, supposedly eating dinner and talking about girly things together.

"Don't worry," Seto allowed himself a private smirk. If everything went as planned, then he would _definitely_ call her as soon as possible. "I'll call."

* * *

"And he just left at five in the morning?" Serenity stared at Téa, the disbelief plain on her face.

"Yeah, no explanation whatsoever—" Téa offered a silent greeting to Malik, who was just passing by with a cell-phone pressed to his ear.

Now that it was finally April, the hallways steadily emptied at lunchtime, and more and more people moved outside to stare at the cherry blossoms and enjoy their lunch in the warm springtime air. Inside, where Téa spent most of her time in the dance studio, it tended to be as bare as bone. Thus, there were no nearby conversations or noises to drown out what Malik was saying into the phone.

"Happy Birthday, sister. Yes… the exhibit is set up just fine. It's well-protected." Malik paused as he shifted himself into a more comfortable position against a wall. Téa tried to be inconspicuous as she paused, pretending to rummage through her satchel in search of something. Serenity was glancing over a bulletin board posted outside one of the classrooms, looking at the new club announcements.

"Everything's going along like we predicted… What? Why didn't you stop them?"

Téa wondered what new kind of trouble Isis was dealing with now; she hoped she was merely misinterpreting things, and Malik was making some sort of reference to a birthday party prank or something. But somehow the idea of 22-year-old Isis Ishtar having a birthday party complete with pranksters didn't quite fit Téa's image of the woman.

"I see. Well, we'll have to deal with it when it happens— there's nothing I can do until then. Yes, I—" All of a sudden, Malik looked up and spotted Téa staring at him. He didn't look angry, just a bit surprised. He raised his chin a fraction of a centimeter and walked into an empty classroom, shutting the door behind him. Whatever he continued talking about to Isis, Téa was no longer privy to it.

_"There is a prophecy that Isis and I never told you about— inscribed upon the stones now housed at the museum. I am here to ensure that it comes to pass."_

_'A prophecy…?'_ Téa had only been back to the museum on that one adventure with Seto, when Yugi and the others neglected to show up. She hadn't really spent any time looking at the three tablets that were the main feature of the exhibit. All she knew was what she remembered from her first visit to the museum, when Isis had been in charge. Yugi as the reincarnation of a 5,000 year old pharaoh, and Seto…

Téa shook her head vehemently in an attempt to not think of the prophecy. Malik had told her it was one she probably wouldn't want to hear anyway.

_'Besides— I make my own destiny.'_

* * *

She had just turned on the news as a sort of background noise for her cooking in the kitchen that day; Mokuba was looking a bit listless, and Téa thought a full dinner for just the two of them might do him some good. She didn't mind the distraction; she was trying _not_ to think of why Seto hadn't called since he'd left four days ago. She tried to keep her inner explanations simple: Seto hardly worked at all the past few months, and if he did, it was in short bursts, when he wasn't around Téa (which was rarely ever). He probably left to work on something incredibly important, and he was throwing himself into his work the way he used to.

Téa tried not to think of it as a bad thing. Instead of going on vacation and relaxing at retreats, her boyfriend, the teenage corporate tycoon decided to take off for parts unknown and surround himself with piles of work.

_'Well, I hope he's having fun.'_

Work seemed to challenge Seto in ways that nothing else these days could anymore. After all, they were just 'normal' students— there didn't appear to be any big bad enemies to fight, tournaments to duel in, or even the usual rivalries to quell. Seto, Yugi, and Joey all seemed to be getting on rather well as of late…

"Reports from the Duel Dome on the outskirts of Tokyo say that Seto Kaiba is back and busier than ever— though no one can precisely say for sure what. Power outages in the surrounding areas seem to indicate an extreme overuse of power from Kaiba Corporation's famous Solid Vision holographic systems, though again, no one knows just what Mr. Kaiba is testing out. Requests for statements by Mr. Kaiba have been ignored, but insiders at Kaiba Corp. have informed us that Mr. Kaiba is working on a recreation of his most recent duel with Duel Monsters champion Yugi Moto…"

The report continued, but Téa didn't hear a word of it.

_'He's **what**?_'

Téa fumed with silent rage, completely ignoring the boiling-over pot of water she was supposed to be tending to on the stove.

_'He could have told me! Why didn't he—'_ Truthfully, it wasn't so much that Seto was simulating what Téa had thought was a long-finished duel. If he'd just **told** her about it, instead of her having to find out from the NEWS, of all places, somehow, she supposed she would have been able to handle it better. She would have _talked_ to Seto, and found out why he wanted to duel again, when it had been over a year since Battle City, with no indication on either his or Yugi's part that they ever wanted to duel again…

_'He couldn't have just decided to simulate this out of nowhere. But…he really kept something this big from me? Why?' _

Mokuba entered the kitchen from his room upstairs, greeting Téa with a cheery "Hey, Téa— oh." The moment he realized where Téa's gaze was directed, and the second he heard the news report, his mouth closed into a tiny line.

After the story finally ended and switched to a commercial, Téa turned around, her posture rigid, but trembling.

"Did you know about this, Mokuba?"

The ebony-haired boy bit his lip; there was no good answer to that question. In response, he just hung his head.

"Why?" Téa looked up at him, and Mokuba was astonished to see tears in her eyes. "Why didn't he tell me? Why didn't **you**?"

Was it all some sort of Kaiba family plot against her? What had she said or done to warrant all the secrecy, all the lies?

"Because he knew you'd get upset like this, Téa!" Mokuba tried to explain. "He knew you hated Battle City and everything, but…"

"But—?" Before Mokuba could answer, Téa shook her head violently. She switched off both the television and the stove and stormed out of the kitchen toward the garage. "I'm going to the Duel Dome. You can either come with me or not."

_'I want answers. And only Seto can give them to me.' _

Mokuba realized that sending a furious Téa straight to Seto at the Duel Dome would probably make things much worse than they had to be. If at least Mokuba managed to calm her down and somehow explain things, well, maybe…

He quickly raced after Téa, ignoring the grumblings and protests of his hungry stomach.

* * *

"You wanted a rematch, Seto Kaiba?" Yami Yugi demanded. "Well you've got one!"

Three God Cards were already on the field, while Kaiba had his single trademark Blue-Eyes White Dragon. Back in his Battle City attire, Kaiba fixed Yami Yugi with a fierce glare.

"Things are going to end differently this time, you pompous windbag!"

It felt good to duel again— good to be in these clothes, in this arena, surrounded by his monsters again. It was a feeling that he'd lost long ago, but something as of late had propelled him to rediscover it.

And now here he was, once again dueling 'Yami' Yugi. Though the odds seemed stacked against him, this time Kaiba was sure there was a way he could win… even with his opponent leading at 2200 Life Points, while Kaiba had only 1300. Life Points or the number of monsters you had on the field didn't matter, not when you had _skill_…

"Even _you_ must admit that your Blue-Eyes White Dragon is powerless against my Egyptian God Cards," Yami Yugi said in that all-too smug tone of his. Worse, the expression on his face was completely serious, as if he expected Kaiba to believe that _his_ Blue-Eyes White Dragon, one of the only three in the world (of which all three were in _his_ deck) was powerless.

"Make all the smug pronouncements you like…" Kaiba began as he drew a card from his Duel Disk II, "But know this! There's got to be a way to beat your God Cards, and I won't stop until I find it!"

Yami growled under his breath, his face morphing into a fierce scowl, a common expression whenever he dueled Kaiba.

"Now… I activate the magic card Polymerization!" Kaiba pulled the two other Blue-Eyes White Dragons from his hand and placed them on his Duel Disk, sliding Polymerization into one of the Magic/Trap card slots below the upper level monster area. "This allows me to fuse my three dragons together to form a Blue-Eyes Ultimate Dragon!"

Bright blue-white light flashed, and Kaiba felt a thrill of satisfaction sweep through his veins. He didn't quite understand why he still felt so connected to the Blue-Eyes cards; they were rare, to be sure: they belonged to him and him alone. But as Yami Yugi was fond of proving time and time again, they were not the most powerful creatures in Duel Monsters. Yet Kaiba could not see himself constructing a deck without his dragons.

The massive, 4500 attack creature reared its three massive heads and roared loudly, the sound almost deafening to the human ear.

"And that's just for starters," Kaiba pronounced triumphantly. He pulled another magic card from his hand and pressed it into another Magic/Trap card slot. "Next… I play a magic card that doubles my dragon's attack points… Megamorph!"

It was a trick he'd seen Téa use in her play-duel against Mai back at the Kaiba Mansion some time ago. He didn't know why he'd never thought of it before, but it was a damned good strategy, and he would have been a fool not to take advantage of it when the right cards were in his hand. The attack power of the Blue-Eyes Ultimate Dragon skyrocketed to 9000 points, more than enough to wipe out the remainder of Yami Yugi's life points— if Kaiba managed to destroy the God Cards.

Obelisk only had 4000 attack points, which made it the easiest target, but Ra and Slifer were something completely different…

Still, he was confident. He had to be.

"Now my Blue-Eyes is more powerful than any monster on the field!"

"There's more to power than just attack points!" Yami Yugi shouted back reflexively.

Kaiba wanted to laugh. It was typical of Yugi to say such things.

"And just what is _that_ supposed to mean?" Kaiba asked, while he maintained a feral grin. Special effects or no, there was just no way that any one of the God Cards could do enough damage to get through his Blue-Eyes and finish off his life points. Yugi had already used all of the God Cards' effects, hadn't he…? And it would be pointless to try and sacrifice his life points to try and destroy the Blue-Eyes Ultimate Dragon, or to alter Ra's attack and defense values…

"It means my Egyptian God Cards possess powers far beyond mere monsters!"

_'Mere… monsters?'_ Kaiba's blood boiled at the thought of his precious Blue-Eyes being called a "mere monster." Part of him knew Yugi was right, but it would be a cold day in Hell before Seto Kaiba would admit Yugi being right about anything.

"They what?" It wasn't possible. Yugi couldn't have discovered a new ability for the God Cards—

"By sacrificing two of them," Yugi intoned, pulling Ra and Slifer from his monster slots and pushing them into the graveyard, "I can bestow upon the third… infinite strength!"

The card that had once been Kaiba's —Obelisk the Tormentor, the mighty Divine-Beast Warrior— started to glow.

"They're melding… pooling their energy!" It was unlike anything Kaiba had ever seen before— and he'd witnessed all of the duels in which the God Cards were used. He thought he had come up with every last strategy to counter each of their attacks and special abilities, but…

When Kaiba glanced at his Duel Disk and saw its digital readout of his opponent's monster, he was positive something had short-circuited in the wiring. But despite pressing several buttons and even hitting the screen, nothing changed: Obelisk's attack was at 'infinite.'

"Now my Obelisk the Tormentor is the strongest monster in play!" Yugi proclaimed.

"No! I can beat your God Cards! I won't lose to you again!" It almost felt as though he were outside of his own body when he spoke. It may have had something to do with his lack of food and sleep the past four days, or maybe it was just this deep-seated obsession that he couldn't possibly get over. There was no way he could just throw all those duels, all those strategies, all those rare cards away like they'd meant nothing…

Yami Yugi refused to listen to Kaiba and raised a hand in a fist. "Obelisk the Tormentor! Show him what true power is all about! Attack with Fists of Fury!"

As was typical of any card set in Attack Position that entered a battle with a God Card, the Blue-Eyes Ultimate Dragon immediately reared back all three of its heads, each one's gaping maw filling with bright spheres of blue, green, and red, each surrounded by crackling lightning. The blood-red of Obelisk's fists collided with the trio of colors that formed the Blue-Eyes Ultimate Dragon's attack, bursting into a blinding array of light.

"My dragon…!"

A cold, depthless feeling rose in Seto Kaiba's core as he watched his Ultimate Dragon writhe in agony and then disappear in a crackle— along with the rest of the simulation, Yugi included.

Kaiba let out a sigh and started walking back up toward the control room of the Duel Dome's largest open arena. He didn't even bother to look up at the technicians to know they were probably running around like the bunch of incompetent chickens they were, clucking about how it _couldn't_ have gone wrong, they'd done _everything_ right…

And so it was when he reached the top level and entered the stark gray room.

"System overload! The simulation is malfunctioning!"

"I'm sorry, Mr. Kaiba! I was certain our calculations were correct this time, sir!" a technician practically wailed. Kaiba looked the skinny man over; his hair was straggly and a mess; sweat was causing his bangs to stick to his forehead. He hardly looked like the kind of person that could postulate every possible special ability the God Cards possessed, let alone a calculated strategy against each one.

"If you'd just give us one more chance, sir!"

"So you can fail again?" Kaiba asked blandly. "No, sorry." He didn't even bother looking at the two crestfallen technicians in the eye. He just crossed his arm over his chest and allowed the duel to replay itself in his head… over and over. _He_ was the duelist, _he_ was the champion— therefore it had to be _him_ that came up with the one way to defeat the Egyptian God Cards, once and for all.

"Please sir, we're close to postulating a winning stratagem—" the same sticky-faced technician tried. There was very little in the world that irritated Kaiba more than people that begged and whined. Close to the top of the list were people that couldn't maintain their own appearance, and people who thought they were know-it-alls. (Kaiba knew he didn't fit a single one of those categories, because he never whined for anything, he always kept his appearance immaculate —except for that one time at DV8, but that didn't count— and he was well-aware that he didn't know it all. But he wanted to know it all, and there was nothing wrong with being on the quest for that knowledge!) Quite unfortunately, the hapless technician fit all three of the categories, and that only meant one thing in Kaiba's mind.

"Well if I were you, I'd start postulating myself **a new job**! You've had more than enough time to find a way to beat Yugi's Egyptian God Cards!" The truth was, he'd had teams of strategists and programmers working on the simulation ever since he'd been defeated in Battle City. The project had an off-and-on status ever since then, but recently Kaiba felt the need to revive the program in full-force. He couldn't quite explain why, but lowly technicians hardly had the right to ask about _his_ reasoning.

"Now get out!"

Though it was on Kaiba's orders that the technicians 'get out,' Kaiba was the one that actually left the control room.

_'There's got to be a way to defeat Yugi's Egyptian God Cards… and I think I might know where to start looking…'_

As Kaiba strode down the glass-paneled hallway that overlooked the arena, his eyes fell on a slender silhouette just ahead of him in the hallway. All at once, the grayness of the place seemed to melt away, and the temperature-controlled hallways seemed to drop to a frigid temperature.

"Téa…"

By the look on her face, she'd seen everything. Every last card set, every last insult hurled… Kaiba's face burned out of involuntary embarrassment; he couldn't seem to find the right words to say to her that would pacify the rage which was so clearly written on her face. For once, Kaiba couldn't come up with any reasons at all, even though he knew he had them, he was _sure_ of what he was doing, even in the depths of his heart…

"Why?" No pretenses, no tears. It almost seemed as though she were looking _through_ him, for her eyes weren't moving at all. She hardly even blinked, and for once in his life, Seto Kaiba felt truly intimidated.

It wasn't as though he expected her _not_ to find out… just not now, not in whatever manner she'd found out. He wanted to be the one to tell her—

"I— I need to."

"I want a real reason, Seto! WHY!"

Seto's own blood started to boil at the insinuation that his reasons for wanting a rematch with Yugi, for wanting to beat him once and for all were not _good_ enough for her. He had never questioned _her_ reasons about the decisions she made!

This was a different situation, but…

_'She can't possibly understand!' _

"You're not a duelist," Seto said, looking away from her. "You may have seen the duels, but you don't know what it's like—"

"You don't know anything!" Téa snapped. She clenched her fists until they were white, while her face flushed crimson. She hated hearing those words coming from him—he was supposed to believe in her! Wasn't **he** the one with an 'infallible' photographic memory? Didn't he remember that she **had** dueled, and that she'd nearly died for the sake of other people's duels?

Téa's harsh tone started Seto and abruptly reminded of the few _other _times in which she'd raised her voice at him.

_'Times I'd rather forget._' He shook the memories off with a brisk movement of his head, and once again, his gaze rose to meet with Téa's form.

"I'm always there," Téa said, trying to fight the tremors that shook her form and cracked her voice. She had truly thought that Seto had gotten over his obsession about defeating Yugi in a duel. So much had happened, so much had changed since their first duel. Téa couldn't deny the importance of Duel Monsters, but with the way Seto was obsessed with victory, one had to wonder if he realized it was just a game or not.

Téa took a deep breath and continued to speak in an even tone. "—whether I want to be or not. I'm always stuck as the victim. I'm sick of it – "

"Always the pawn, you mean?" Kaiba interrupted coolly, his eyes flashing. "If you're sick of it, why don't you fight back? _That's_ why I'm doing it!"

His words seemed to form into a physical force, one that hit her right in the hollow of her chest. She felt cold, confused, and horribly detached from reality. It made no sense. None of what he was saying did; he was like he'd changed into a different person.

_'No, regressed. Into what he once was…_' That wasn't the man she'd fallen in love with. Where was the Seto Kaiba _she'd_ come to know and love?

"I can't—" It wasn't that she was saying she couldn't be stronger, or that she couldn't fight her own battles. She could. She **wanted** to. She was more than ready and willing to, especially when it came to things like the deaths of her parents and the Big Five still at large.

_'But I— I can't keep standing here and talking to this… this person!'_

Whoever he was, he wasn't the Seto Kaiba _she_ knew.

Téa sucked in one deep breath, releasing it in a shuddering sigh. Her gaze fell to the floor, and she turned around and ran away before Seto could speak another word.

* * *

  
_'I don't get it. I still don't get it. No matter how hard I try…' _Frustrated with the lack of answers available to her, Téa kicked a small stone near her foot into the nearby lake at Domino Park. It plunked into the water, the ripples reflecting all the brilliant lights from the nearby city.

It was night now, but Téa hardly cared about being out alone in the dark and the cold. She just wanted to understand what was happening, and when everything had started to change without her knowing…

Goosebumps raced up her arms while nausea threatened to claim her balance, but she kept on walking, mindless of where her feet were taking her.

'_Why would he have changed just like that? It seems so sudden. But…_' At least, it was sudden to her. Mokuba had known all along that Seto was going to the Duel Dome to simulate a rematch with Yugi. But for how long…?

Where had Seto's 'new' fighting spirit come from? It seemed completely out of left-field, because up until this point, _other_ things had mattered. Things like their relationship, like Mokuba, like finding the Big Five and getting them behind bars, like keeping Kaiba Corporation running strong…

_'What happened?_'

Maybe he'd had another encounter with Yugi. But that didn't make any sense either. Yugi and Seto had seen each other plenty of times since Battle City ended, but the encounters never seemed to provoke Seto into trying to duel Yugi again.

Unless there had been something else…

But she couldn't go back there, not now. She had nothing to apologize for, anyway. Seto had hurt and confused her, and she wasn't any more the type to come groveling back to apologize anymore than Seto was himself. She could only hope that this whole thing would be over in a few days…

But something told her it wouldn't be that easy.

* * *

"Seto…"

Mokuba doubled the quickness of his pace just to keep up with his brother's long strides; when his big brother was determined to get something done, he didn't waste any time, nor did he let anything stand in his way.

The younger Kaiba frowned as he realized that they were walking farther and farther away from Téa— assuming she hadn't already found her way out of the Duel Dome. Mokuba felt horrible about not having intervened in the fight that his brother and Téa just had, but…

He remembered the moment he and Téa entered the Duel Dome's upper level and saw the duel— the flashing lights, the massive monsters. And they heard it all: the jeers and jibes, the summoning of monsters, and the declarations of attacks. It was almost as if a real battle were occurring between Seto and Yugi once more, but Téa knew better. The news reports had said Seto was using up a lot of energy to _simulate_ something, and if the old, Roman-style coliseum was any indication, that simulation was a recreation of the Battle City finals.

Mokuba had snuck a glance at Téa's face, and found himself surprised by the hurt and grief he saw there.

And then when it all ended and the system overloaded, Téa's gaze no longer pierced the curved glass windows that overlooked the Duel Dome arena.

"Mokuba, please… I need to talk to him alone."

"But Téa—" Mokuba protested. He glanced up at Téa, surprised to see a thin line of tears tracing their way down the curves of her cheeks.

_'She's really—_'

Mokuba hated seeing her cry. He hated thinking that after everything they'd all been through, his older brother's needs and desires would get him into _another_ fight with Téa, and make everything horribly awkward again. But… didn't Téa understand Seto by now?

To Mokuba, it was simple, but difficult only when he tried to think of a way to explain to Téa that she didn't need to fight with him, that things would be okay…

Mokuba never got the chance to come up with any explanations. Téa's chin lifted and she stared at Mokuba. Though her tears stopped falling, the hurt on her face was as plain as the moon in the sky.

"Please."

Something about the broken tone of her voice and the downward-curve of her lips broke the last of Mokuba's resolve, and he let his chin fall to his chest in a droop.

"Okay," he agreed at last. His arms and legs felt heavy as he turned around and headed toward the arena's opposite entrance, near the other side of the C-shaped hallway. His next breath came out as a sigh, a whispered repetition escaping him as he took one last glance at Téa. She'd turned around so her back was facing Mokuba, but even from the distance, he could see her clenched fists and her slightly shaking form.

Mokuba frowned himself and sucked in a deep breath before rounding the corner and slipping out of sight. "Okay."

Even after Mokuba revealed himself —right as Téa ran past him and out of the upper halls of the Duel Dome— Seto still didn't speak. It had been more than ten minutes now, but his brother was still as silent as the grave, intent on doing something and heading somewhere.

He tried again. "Big Brother?"

"I'm going to Duelist Kingdom," Seto abruptly announced. "Ready the Blue-Eyes White Jet." With those words and nothing more, Seto strode off down a narrow hallway to the side of the one they'd been walking down; it led to the lower-level basement where the Blue-Eyes White Jet rested on a rising platform. Mokuba gawped in astonishment for a moment before scurrying down the path in the opposite direction, leading to the control tower.

"But I thought Pegasus was dead!" Mokuba protested. "Isn't he?" His voice came out quieter and somewhat strangled compared to before; Mokuba had never liked Pegasus, and he knew his brother felt the same way. But for Seto to willingly leave Japan —and Téa, after that fight they'd had!— behind meant that he was absolutely, 100 positive that Pegasus was alive and had what he needed.

Seto scoffed. "Even if he is, I doubt he left this world behind without coming up with a way to defeat the God Cards." Seto then shook his head abruptly, his smirk short-lived. "Pegasus isn't dead. The man's too stubborn to die."

* * *

The cool April winds started in early that evening, sending all manner of cherry blossom petals and stray garbage fluttering about the park. Téa sat on a bench overlooking the lake, letting whirlwinds of petals and trash blow around her. It wasn't until a flyer hit her smack in the face that she even bothered to stir in the face of the winds.

"Huh? 'New Egyptian exhibit opens up at Domino Museum of History…' What the—?"

As Téa's eyes skimmed over the paper, they narrowed as they read one line after another. Before the last few letters left her gaze, she rose to her feet and broke out into a sprint. She needed answers— and she knew just where to get them.

* * *

Far away and still concealed within the darkness of the earliest hours of the morning, a very alive Maximillion J. Pegasus stirred in his sleep.

He had no dreams; he hadn't since the Millennium Eye had been removed from his left eye-socket and he lost the prophetic powers it provided. Dreamless sleeps were all that he knew, and it suited the retired creator of the wildly popular Duel Monsters game just fine.

Pegasus kept sleeping, even as a mysterious figure slipped its way into his room and made its way toward the vault. The figure didn't bother trying to unlock any locks or not trip any of the security devices; it just reached through the solid steel and placed a single card atop the pile already within the briefcase in the vault. The figure's fingers slipped slightly as it pressed the card into the top of the deck, and for a moment, it froze solid, as if a bolt of electricity stilled it as its fingers slid through the very core of the cards.

A moment later, the figure pulled away and disappeared, leaving no trace of its handiwork behind.

At that precise moment, the unexpected happened, and Maximillion J. Pegasus found himself within a dream. He stood on warm sands during the dim light of dusk; the sun was just barely beginning to creep over the horizon, and much of the sky was enveloped in darkness. All except the part where the three massive Gods towered, each of them staring down at Pegasus as if they truly saw him with their own eyes.

"The God Cards…?" Pegasus mused aloud. Each of the massive creatures —the Winged Dragon of Ra, shimmering in its golden glory; the massive Obelisk the Tormentor, warrior of ages past; and blood-red Slifer, slithering and sliding about in the sky— writhed in apparent agony, surrounded by bursts of light. All at once the tiny specks of light burst into one blinding array, swallowing the Gods completely.

Pegasus barely got a glimpse of the source of the light: an iridescent blue pyramid with the all-too-familiar Eye of Horus emblazoned on its front. However, unlike all the other Egyptian artifacts and Millennium Items that Pegasus had encountered, this one had a crimson jewel set within the middle of the eye, glowing as if it were the all-seeing eye of some greater invisible force.

The eye seemed to catch sight of Pegasus, and he gasped in shock and terror— and then he woke up.

Sweat covered his brow, and he couldn't help but tremble despite the balmy island weather. "What a horrible nightmare," he muttered to himself. "That's it. No more white wine spritzers before bedtime for me!"

Still, Pegasus couldn't quell the sense of unease that settled in his stomach. He rose on shaky feet, sliding a pair of Funny Bunny slippers on his feet before he walked over to the window.

_'Looks peaceful enough… yet I sense **chaos**. I may have lost my Millennium Eye some time ago… but I can still see something terrible is about to unfold…' _

* * *

"Malik! Open up!" It was well past visiting hours to the Domino Museum, but luckily after several visits, Téa knew full well that Malik literally _lived_ in the museum. If he knew anything about this mysterious new exhibit with a mummy and a slab that looked like it came from one of the tablets in Malik's exhibit, he had to tell her about it.

After nearly five minutes of continual banging, at last the doors swung outward, revealing a rather haggard looking Malik. Once he rubbed his eyes and realized that the person who'd been shouting from the other side of the glass was none other than Téa Gardner, he stared in surprise.

"Téa, what—?"

In response, Téa simply thrust the flyer into his face. Malik took the paper from her hands and scanned over it carefully, and then he let out a long sigh.

"I knew about this. Isis told me about the new exhibit coming to Domino."

"And that's it? Even though that thing looks like it came off the slab here at your museum, and THAT—" Téa stabbed at the black-and-white picture on the flyer, "looks _exactly_ like the same symbol on all of the Millennium Items?"

Malik's gaze fell to the floor, and he shifted to the side to allow Téa to enter the darkened hallways of the Museum.

Unlike her last visit here, she didn't feel quite so unnerved about being here alone with Malik. Maybe it was because a bit of time had passed and she'd gotten used to him being back here in Domino— and not being _evil_ and all. Maybe it was because she was still so upset with Seto, and still so confused about this new exhibit that she managed to squelch the feelings in her that would have otherwise warned her of danger.

Whatever, the case, Téa entered the museum without a second thought, and followed Malik back to the Ancient Egyptian exhibit.

Once they reached the wide open room, Malik used his thumb-sized black remote to turn on the ambient lighting. He walked right to the three tablets, the second one being the most complete, and featuring the most telling images: Yugi and Seto dueling each other with the Dark Magician and the Blue-Eyes White Dragon.

"The tablet you see in this picture isn't related to these tablets— not in the way you're thinking, anyway."

Upon closer inspection, Téa realized Malik was right; the tablet shown on the flyer was a triangular chunk with the engravings of the three Gods surrounding a strange-looking Eye of Horus. Though a triangle surrounded all of the God engravings and the mysterious Eye, it didn't look like any of the previous depictions of the Millennium Puzzle that Téa had seen before.

"Then what _is_ it related to? That pyramid in the picture—" Téa pointed to the other item depicted on the flyer: a pendant not unlike Yugi's Millennium Puzzle, except it was right-side up, while Yugi's hung inverted. The eye was also positioned differently, and it appeared to have the same stone as the triangular tablet's Eye embedded within it.

"I'm not entirely sure. Isis and I both knew about the excavation when it started three years ago—"

"_Three_ years ago? But that was when Yugi first assembled the puzzle—!"

"Precisely. It's taken all that time for the archaeologists to finish the project and get it ready for exporting to various museums. Isis tried to stop them using her authority as the Secretary General of the Egyptian Supreme Council of Antiquities, but they managed to get past her somehow," Malik said with a furrowed brow.

"**That** was what you were talking about the other day, then," Téa whispered in realization. "When you said 'Why didn't you stop them?'… Sorry, I couldn't help but hear—"

"I know. Where the Pharaoh is concerned, you and your friends have every right to be worried…" Malik looked at the flyer once more. "But I'm not sure there's much we can do except check the exhibit out when it opens tomorrow."

"The minute school gets out, we'll _all_ go?"

Malik looked her, seeing the myriad of emotions flicker past her eyes. Fear, worry… and anger?

_'Better not to ask._'

"All of us. Tomorrow, we'll go."

* * *

The moment the promise was made, the rear jet engines on the Blue-Eyes White Jet flared to life.

Mokuba stared at the monitors in the control tower and the tarmac below, the Blue-Eyes White Jet finally level with the rest of the landing strip that Kaiba built along with the Duel Dome. The young boy adjusted the headset wrapped around his ears and brought the microphone near his mouth.

"Blue-Eyes White Jet, you're cleared for take-off."

Kaiba heard his brother's announcement just as he slid his helmet on. He wasn't doing this because he was running away— he was doing this because he _had_ to. That was reason enough.

"I hope you know what you're doing, Big Brother," Mokuba mumbled into his microphone.

The engines roared, sending the jet hurtling off into the sky just as Kaiba replied: "I was just hoping the same thing."

By the time Kaiba was over the island where Pegasus hosted Duelist Kingdom, dawn had already broken. In fact, it was already 9am on Friday, which meant that Kaiba had effectively traveled _back_ in time. He'd made the eight-hour flight solo, with little to no food or entertainment. Instead, his thoughts were entirely consumed by what he was about to do —what he _had_ to do. For just a moment, he wondered why he'd come this far —not speaking in distance-terms, but just to this point in his life, in his career. First the need to simulate a rematch with Yugi, and now…

Kaiba shook the feeling out of his head and shrugged his helmet off his head. It was time.

* * *

"Your red wine, sir."

"Merci, Croquet," Pegasus smiled as he took the proffered wineglass from his most loyal manservant's hand. Whoever said that it was bad manners to have wine in the morning had never sampled the rich flavor of Chateau Pegasus's full-bodied red wine. It was perfect any time of the day.

That was when Pegasus saw him. Reflected in the rounded crystal of Pegasus's wine glass was none other than Seto Kaiba himself.

_'So, things are on course…'_ Pegasus had actually been expecting his visit, but he wasn't about to let Kaiba know that. The poor boy hadn't believed in the powers of the Millennium Eye up until the point where his soul had gotten taken away; Pegasus highly doubted that he had changed since they'd last met.

"Can it be! My dear friend, Kaiba-boy?" Pegasus drew a small bit of delight as he watched Kaiba's lips curve even deeper downward. The boy got annoyed so easily!

"Spare me the pleasantries, Pegasus…" Kaiba scowled. "You and I have never been friends, so let's not start pretending that we are."

The nearer he drew to Pegasus, the easier it was for the Duel Monsters creator to see that there was more than just irritation on Kaiba's face; there were clearly defined dark circles rimming his eyes, and even a little redness there. In fact, he looked quite gaunt. If the news that Pegasus had heard was right, then perhaps things weren't going all that pleasantly for Kaiba-boy…

"Oh my. Sounds like someone needs a hug!" Pegasus smirked. He rose from his chair and faced the approaching duelist fully, allowing his long sheath of silvery hair to conceal the disfigured part of his face where the Millennium Eye once rested.

Kaiba only eyed Pegasus in disgust, stopping a good meter away. "No thanks. But since you mention it, there **is** something I need." He didn't even give Pegasus a chance to feign interest and ask what it was that Kaiba needed. "Listen. I've come to your little 'fantasy island' in search of a card powerful enough to beat Yugi's three Egyptian God Cards."

_'Exactly as predicted_.' It certainly was helpful that Pegasus had his sources about the future, even though he'd long ago lost his Millennium Eye. Alas, poor Kaiba-boy, again in the dark… Pegasus smiled as he lifted his wine glass to his lips, swirling the drink around a bit before speaking.

"And you believe I might have this all-powerful God-smiting card because…?"

"Because you created the game, Pegasus," Kaiba replied, the smirk on his face matching Pegasus's own.

'_Good to know his logic hasn't failed him— **yet**_.' Pegasus suppressed the desire to laugh at the obviousness of Kaiba's words, but he refrained. He had a very specific role to play in all this, and the only reason why he agreed was because he himself wanted to know the truth… about Yugi, Kaiba, and the Millennium Items. The one who had informed him about Kaiba's coming was the same one who promised him those truths… so long as everything went _perfectly_.

"Once upon a time, Kaiba-boy, but I'm retired now," Pegasus said after taking a sip of his wine. "The only things I create these days are places like this for the fishies to enjoy."

"I know you, Pegasus," Kaiba bit out immediately. Pegasus let a chuckle escape him that time. Kaiba-boy really hadn't changed at all. He was still bragging that he knew things that he had no clue about… his own future, his own destiny!

"You created the God Cards… and would've never let them out of your sweaty little hands unless you'd also created a way to beat them— just in case!"

Pegasus's eyes narrowed. There was a definite drawback to Kaiba not having changed, regardless of who he consorted with these days. He still spoke like the foul-mouthed teenager he was, without a shred of manners to his world-renowned name. If it hadn't all been part of plan, Pegasus would have denied Kaiba what he needed out of spite.

"I may have one card that would help, but you can't have it." Pegasus delighted at watching Kaiba's arrogant smirk slide off his face and contort into an angry and frustrated frown.

"What!"

"I'm sorry, Kaiba-boy, but I don't think you deserve it. True, I may not see as well as I once did…" Pegasus shifted his hair to the side, revealing the scarred skin that folded over his left eye-socket. Pegasus smiled when Kaiba reeled back, clearly disgusted by what he saw. "But to be honest, it doesn't take a magic eye to see just how thoroughly Yugi has trounced your sorry behind again and again… quite frankly, it's embarrassing!"

Kaiba only grit his teeth for a moment before regaining his composure. "Well since I'm such a disappointment, you should have no trouble defeating me in a duel!"

Pegasus spoke with carefully measured sarcasm. "And **why** would I want to duel **you**?"

"Because if you'll put up the card I need to beat Yugi… I'll wager these!" Kaiba reached into his trenchcoat pocket without hesitation, withdrawing his three precious Blue-Eyes White Dragons in his hand. Pegasus's smile widened ever-so-slightly; this, too, he had known would happen. It was pure benefit if he happened to win this duel; like the God Cards, there were only 3 of the Blue-Eyes White Dragon in the world. At one time, there had been four, but Kaiba had seen to it that the fourth one was destroyed. Now he was the sole possessor of the 'engine of destruction' that held such greater meaning for him.

Only he didn't know it yet.

Pegasus laughed loudly this time, knowing it would serve the dual purpose of irritating Kaiba and ridding himself of the suppressed temptation.

'_Poor fool has no idea what he's doing_!'

"Wow. You'd risk your precious Blue-Eyes White Dragons just for a chance to trounce little Yugi?" Pegasus set his wineglass down and closed his eyes. He was becoming quite the actor, if Kaiba-boy was truly eating all this up without a bit of hesitation. "My, my, my, seems you're even more desperate than I thought!" He opened his eye and stared at Kaiba with narrowed brown eyes. "Well, I guess I could dust off my deck. Kaiba, my dear and devious friend… let the games begin!"

* * *

"So what's goin' on with this exhibit now?" Joey asked as he, Yugi, Tristan, Duke, Serenity, Téa, and Malik exited Domino High. He'd long ago noted Kaiba's absence, but Serenity adamantly insisted that Joey **not** ask Téa about it. Joey passed this message on to the other guys, who all reluctantly agreed not to mention him.

"I saw a flyer for it last night," Téa explained. "It opens today. Here." She unfolded the paper that she'd found last night and shown to Malik; it was now a little bit worse for the wear, after she'd crumpled it into a ball several times, folded it, and then tried to flatten it with a textbook.

"Whoa— looks like Yug's Millennium Puzzle!" Joey exclaimed in surprise. He squinted at the black-and-white image printed on the flyer, his lips curving into a frown. "But somethin's a bit off…"

"That's what we're going to the museum to find out," Malik said. "Isis told me that the excavation team shouldn't have been able to leave Egypt without her say-so, but the council voted without her. Both of us suspect something got to the council first."

"Like a wad of dough, you mean?" Duke asked cynically. "Even government bodies are subject to bribery, Malik."

Malik stayed silent and let his gaze drop to the ground. However, he met the curious stares of both Yugi and Téa, indicating to them that he didn't believe bribery had a thing to do with Isis's failure to stop the exhibit from going international.

"Hey, come on! This is gonna be great!" A pair of rowdy students shoved between Joey and Serenity, not even turning around to apologize for their rudeness as they ran toward the gates of the school.

"I wonder what all the commotion's about?" Téa wondered aloud. "I doubt everyone is going to the exhibit."

"Dunno, but I haven't seen this many people running from school since they served that meat loaf surprise last year," Tristan laughed. He snuck a glance at Serenity to see if she'd found humor in his joke, but it was impossible to discretely glance at her without drawing the attentions of Serenity's older brother or best friend. Joey and Téa both flanked Serenity on either side, to prevent Tristan or Duke from breaking out into another fight over the redheaded Wheeler girl.

A steadily-growing crowd of Domino High students congregated around the main gate, blocking anyone from exiting the school.

"Wonder who all these guys are waitin' for?" Joey mused aloud. He stood on his tiptoes and caught sight of a motley gathering of people waiting with their arms crossed over their chests— almost all of them armed with Duel Disks.

"What in the—?"

"Lemme see!" Yugi said, hopping up.

The moment his spiky hair bounced into view, someone from the duelist crowd pointed and exclaimed "It's him!" All at once, the crowds parted, clearing the way for Yugi and his friends to step forward.

"I never thought he'd show!"

"Told ya he's a lot smaller than on TV!"

Yugi gasped, partly out of surprise, and partly out of insult. When he realized the crowd of duelists blocking the gates was even larger than he'd first thought, his eyes widened.

"Let's go!" Someone shouted, and the duelists began to move forward. Yugi was jostled backward by the other Domino High students and his own friends, and soon he was being squished like a sardine into a can.

"No way, me first!"

"Get out of my way!" one particularly bulky man in sunglasses shouted. "If anyone gets the God Cards, it's me!"

A smaller kid with blond spikes tried to squeeze his way through the approaching crowd, but the movement and size of his fellow duelists crushed him and pushed him out of sight even as he squealed "Please just gimme one shot at those God Cards!"

"What's goin' on with these guys?" Téa asked, even as she was being jostled from all sides. Joey, closest to her and Yugi, valiantly fought off the pushes of several of the bulkier, more insistent duelists, but with more closing around him every minute, it was growing increasingly difficult. Tristan and Duke followed suit, while Téa, Serenity and Malik faced the rear, their backs to the crowd of belligerent duelists.

"Life at the top, Téa," Tristan grunted. "Everyone knows Yugi's the best duelist around, so they all wanna piece of him and those God Cards!"

"It might also have something to do with Battle City being broadcast on TV last night," Duke added as he strained against the force of the crowd.

"Oh great," Téa mumbled under her breath. Her eyes widened as she felt an unfamiliar hand grope blindly at her chest; she wheeled around on the ball of her foot and delivered a swift jab with her heel into the foot of the offending boy. The would-be duelist yelped in pain and hopped off, creating a small opening in the crowd.

"Téa!" Joey hissed under his breath. "Try and sneak Yugi out 'round back while we hold 'em off."

"You sure?" Téa asked. Still, she didn't want to stick around any longer than necessary, especially if there were other perverted duelists around.

"Yeah, me and Tristan'll handle things here!"

"Thanks, Joey—" Yugi began, but Téa noticed their window of opportunity closing, so she grabbed Yugi's arm and tugged him away.

"You can thank him later. Let's go, Yugi!" She pulled Yugi out of the crowd, and soon enough, she, Serenity, and Malik were dashing through the crowds.

"The usual plan, T?" Joey smirked, standing shoulder-to-shoulder with his best friend.

"On three, partner," Tristan agreed.

Both of them shouted 'three!' simultaneously and broke their way through the crowd, heading toward the front gate that Yugi, Malik, and the girls had just run out of. It didn't take the crowd long to realize they'd been duped, and they started to break free to try and find Yugi.

"Quick, after 'im!"

"Forget about those nobodies!" someone yelled, and immediately Joey and Tristan came to a screeching halt.

Duke, who'd just managed to escape the smothering crowd stood on the sidelines and shook his head in resignation. "How did I know something like this was going to happen?"

"Now wait just a minute…" Tristan began, his eyebrows drawn down in anger.

"What'd you say!" Joey yelled, his Brooklyn accent thick and heavy.

"I said, you're **nobody**!" the bulky duelist in sunglasses repeated. When Joey and Tristan started to growl, the man's smirk only widened. "Yeah, that's right! And everybody knows it, too! Well, just about everybody who's anybody, that is!"

"Why does he sound so familiar?" Tristan groused. "Makes me want to kick some ass."

"Listen up! **Nobody** but nobody calls me a nobody, ya bunch a' nobodies, got that?"

"Outta the way! We wanna take on Yugi, not you!" the bulky duelist snapped.

"Yeah, right! We want the King of Games, not the King of Lame!" the same blond boy who'd been crushed earlier seemed to have found both a place to stand and an ego large enough to get his attitude going.

"The Duel Monsters champ, not chump!"

"The Master of the Gods, not the Master of the Clods—"

"Hey, I think I get the point already!" Joey interrupted, looking irritated. "But you gotta prove yourselves first by duelin' a top contender, and I think I know one!"

Tristan fixed Joey with an amused stare. "Who, Kaiba?"

Joey refrained from slapping his friend upside the head. Instead, he pointed at himself and announced to the crowd, "Me! Joey Wheeler! So if you wanna get to the King a' Games, you'll have to go through me, the… uh… uh **da godfaddah a' games**, capice!"

"You might want to have a Duel Disk actually on hand before you go challenging anyone, nimrod," Duke shouted from the sidelines. Joey scowled, but Duke had a point. Suddenly, Duke tossed Joey's Duel Disk at him, his deck pre-loaded. "Next time I'll just let the crowd step all over your stuff," Duke snapped. Joey thrust two fingers up in a silent thanks, and then slid his duel disk onto his arm. The Life Point counter immediately loaded and registered his cards, the lights flashing.

"All right, so who wants some?"

"Won't take too long," the man in sunglasses said. "Let's do this!"

"Okay," Joey smirked. "Ladies first!"

The man's scowl deepened, and the duel began. "Funny. Take this! I summon Injection Fairy Lily in attack mode!"

Lily, the beguiling Level 3 monster, didn't look like much, but if the controller gave up 2000 life points, her meager attack of 400 could be increased to 3400 in the Damage Step. Nonetheless, Joey was a champion at beating the odds, and one after another, the duelists fell, much to both Tristan and Duke's surprise. Neither of them had ever seen Joey take on so many opponents, one right after the other— and since he was winning, it showed that Joey's deck remained strong, even though people could easily deduce what his stronger monsters were.

The bulky duelist was beaten, and soon the little blond boy was up. Midway through their duel, the boy announced he would sacrifice his grotesque duo of monsters, Inpachi and Fenril, in order to summon Maju Garzett, a decaying Fiend-type creature that possessed teeth dripping with blood and an eyeball too big for its single socket.

"Attack! Sludge regurgitate!" A volley of purple slime came hurling at Joey's Gearfried the Iron Knight, covering it in muck and causing it to rot away.

"Hey, didn't nobody teach you 'Say it, don't spray it!'? Some manners!" Joey frowned as he drew a card. Once he realized what he'd drawn, he chuckled under his breath and smirked. "Aww, boy, **now** you're in trouble!"

"I sacrifice Baby Dragon, Rocket Warrior, and Little-Winguard…" Joey exclaimed.

A murmur went through the crowd; only the God Cards required a sacrifice of three monsters, right? Surely Joey Wheeler didn't possess one of the Gods!

"…to summon Gilford the Lightning! That means all the monsters you got out on the field are destroyed, pal! Lightning Sword!" Gilford leapt forward, his blood-red cape billowing behind him. A bolt of lightning struck down from the cloudless sky, destroying all of the blond boy's monsters in an explosion of light and heat. The boy's Life Points immediately dropped to zero, and he cursed under his breath.

"Aw nuts!"

"Ha! Maybe now you'll learn to have proper respect for Joey, da Godfaddah a' Games!"

Téa, Serenity and Malik stared at the proceedings from around the corner. None of them could see how large the duelist crowd was, so Yugi dared to speak up. "Is the coast clear yet, Joey?"

Yugi realized his mistake just as soon as he heard the murmurs of the crowd start up again. Soon, faces peered in his direction, and he realized he was caught.

"Hey, it's Yugi! He's back!"

Téa yanked his arm urgently, and started to pull him away down the avenue once more. "Let's go, Yugi!" Something about crowds of angry duelists frightened her like nothing else. You'd think she would have been used to it, after all the duels she'd seen and even been through, but… she couldn't shake the feeling of being smothered in the crowd, and she only wanted to get away.

The smaller boy barely had time to protest, and was soon dashing off behind Téa, yelling "Whoa!" as he went.

Joey and Tristan took one look at the oncoming crowd and swallowed. All at once, the hoard of duelists trampled them to the floor, and the two of them lay twitching on the street.

"Yeah, they respect ya," Tristan mumbled.

"I coulda been a contender…"

* * *

"Quick Yugi, this way!" Téa led the way, dashing down various avenues and side-streets. The truth was, she had no idea where she was headed, but she was following her instinct. Hopefully, it would lead them away from the crowds hunting Yugi down.

"Whoa! Those guys just won't give up! We need to find a place to hide…" Serenity panted.

The quartet paused to catch their breaths, and just as they rounded a corner, they were astonished to see the Duel Monsters crowd nearby, looking for Yugi everywhere. Yugi and Téa pulled back in surprise, retreating to the shadows of the avenue with Serenity and Malik.

"Someplace where we'll be safe from that Duel Monsters mob… someplace they'd never look!" Téa muttered.

"Then I suppose it's a good thing we ran all the way over here," Malik whispered. "Look." He stretched a finger out across the way, beyond the sights of the duelist mob. The Domino Museum of History was barely a block away. The museum had a wide open plaza with stairs leading up to the entrance, but if they managed to get up those stairs without being caught, they would be safe.

"Are we going to go for it?" Serenity asked with a smile.

Téa glanced at both Yugi and Malik, and they nodded.

"One… two… three— GO!" And they were off like shots, reaching the museum before the duelist mob even noticed they were there.

* * *

Kaiba was only impatient because he was tired; the sooner he got this little duel over with, the better. He could return home to Japan, defeat Yugi, and…

And…?

Well, he'd cross that bridge when he got to it.

When Pegasus at last returned from his sanctuary fully dressed (and in those same grotesque burgundy suits that he'd worn back during the Duelist Kingdom tournament), Kaiba was practically half-asleep. It wasn't until Pegasus spoke in that condescending air of his that Kaiba even bothered to look at the man.

"So what do you think, Kaiba-boy? Is this the latest in Duel Arena technology or what?"

Kaiba rolled his eyes. Croquet had led him down to a dungeon-like arena beneath Pegasus's sanctuary. It had a horribly un-welcoming and all-too-familiar feel to it; a feeling Kaiba didn't care to explore. Now that Pegasus had arrived and was waving his arms around like some sort of delusional seagull, Kaiba grew only _more_ uncomfortable.

"This place is an outdated joke. But then, so are you, so I suppose it fits," Kaiba said nastily.

"Now, now, Kaiba, let's not get nasty… not just yet, anyhow."

Kaiba felt bile creeping up his throat. He hardly eaten anything in the past nine hours, let alone slept. It certainly didn't help that Pegasus was being his usual know-it-all creepy self.

"Look, enough small talk," Kaiba snapped.

Pegasus's lips curled into a devious smirk, and the two of them took their places in the dungeon arena.

"Let's duel!"

Unlike the Duelist Kingdom duels, both Pegasus and Kaiba started with 4000 Life Points, and would abide by the "new" tournament rules that said monsters of Level 5 or higher had to have one or more monsters sacrificed in order to bring them onto the field.

"I'll start things off," Pegasus said as he drew a card from his deck. He took a sideways glance at it and started to chuckle under his breath.

"Oh dear! I'm afraid you're about to enter a world of pain, Kaiba-boy! A world of chaos! A world of absolute mayhem!"

Kaiba felt his stomach flop around and bounce off his liver and his kidneys. 'Sick to the stomach' didn't quite do Kaiba any justice, considering he knew just what card Pegasus was about to play.

"That's right! A world… of toons!" Once Pegasus set the card on the glowing arena, a giant pink cloud appeared on the field, a bright green book cradled in its depths. The book popped open with an assortment of flashing lights, confetti, and balloon words, looking all too-cute for a serious duel.

Kaiba groaned. "Ha. Don't tell me you're still actually using that idiotic Toon World card." Kaiba delighted in watching Pegasus flinch. "Well, this is going to be easier than I thought."

Pegasus only responded by slapping a card down onto the arena table. "I summon… Toon Gemini Elf!" A pair of voluptuous female elves, scantily clad in matching dresses of blue with fur trim bounced onto the field and cackled maniacally.

"And this, for later," Pegasus smiled, laying a card face down in the Magic/Trap zone of his field. "It's your turn, Kaiba-boy."

Kaiba already knew what moves he was going to make, long before Pegasus even told him it was his turn. "I summon X-Head Cannon!" The mechanic marvel sprung up in a burst of gold light on Kaiba's side of the field. "Also, I'll throw two cards face down."

He ended his turn without words, grimacing while Pegasus's lips curved up into yet another devious smirk. For a moment, Kaiba wondered if he was becoming delirious and imagining things, but was it possible that even without the Millennium Eye, Pegasus still possessed foresight? That look on his face seemed to say that he knew what was coming, but…

_'Nonsense! He's been in seclusion since Duelist Kingdom nearly three years ago. He's even tricked the media into thinking he's dead— but I knew better. I doubt Pegasus knows a thing about what's going on in the outside world, let alone what's in **my** deck!'_

So Kaiba told himself, anyway.

"Ooh, I'm so scared, Kaiba! Two cards face down, oh mercy me, what will I do!" Pegasus said, the sarcasm thick in his voice. Kaiba's scowl deepened, watching as an expression of false enlightenment overcame Pegasus's face and he withdrew a card from his hand. "Oh, I know! Play THIS! Card of Sanctity!"

A warm glow showered down from the overhead projector, brightening the entire field in a bright haze. "Isn't it pretty?" Pegasus continued. "And it allows us each to draw until we both have six cards in our hand… just what I needed." The two duelists both drew until they had six cards in hand, at which point Pegasus smirked in that all-knowing way again and threw a magic card onto the field.

"And now I'll activate the magic card Cost Down, which means that—"

"Do you ever shut up?" Kaiba grimaced. Maybe it was due to to being concurrently tired and hungry, and at least a little concerned about the way he'd just told Téa off… but he had no time nor patience for someone like Pegasus now. He was here just to get the card he needed and get back to Japan. Defeat Yugi once and for all, and then…

"I know what it means: now you can summon your strongest monsters to the field more easily. Please… what do you take me for— some kind of rookie?"

Pegasus was already prepared with a snarky comeback: "You're not quite _that_ good, Kaiba-boy." With Kaiba at a loss for words, Pegasus continued his turn. "I summon the Toon Dark Magician Girl! But I won't be using her just yet… first, I'll attack with the Toon Gemini Elves! And I think I'll have them target… **you**." The obvious advantage of Pegasus still running his toon deck was that it possessed the unique ability to bypass an opponent's monsters and target a player directly. The second the two busty elves came flying toward Kaiba, he realized what a mistake it had been to invent 'solid' vision technology.

Two sharp heels dug into his back as the elves jump-kicked him, sending him careening to the arena floor. Kaiba winced, but rose to his feet without complaint. He glared angrily at the Life Point indicator, watching as the numbers decreased to a pitiful 2100 points.

"Cartoons are so violent these days," Pegasus chuckled darkly. "But we're not through yet. My elves have another ability— when they deal damage to a player, that player loses a card from his hand." The elves sprang forward again, this time snatching Monster Reborn directly from Kaiba's hand and sending it flying into the Graveyard. The elves laughed in that same cackling way of theirs, and bounced back to their side of the field.

"Aren't my toons simply magnificent, Kaiba-boy!" Kaiba only glared at Pegasus in response.

"Oh, don't look so sour! Think of it this way, at least it will be them stopping your little quest to the top and not Yugi-boy for the umpteenth time!" Pegasus spread his arms out wide, still keeping his hand carefully concealed from Kaiba. The man wasn't as foolish as he let on…

"Now, let's get on with it, shall we? Oh, Toon Dark Magician Girl! Your turn!" Pegasus called out in a sing-song. The childish-looking magical girl looked even more sickening and twisted now that Pegasus had made her into a toon. She came hurtling toward Kaiba, but this time, he was prepared.

"I guess that it's true that when you get old, the mind is the first thing to go, because you forgot all about my face down cards, and now it's going to cost you!" Kaiba flipped over the trap card, activating it by calling out its name. "Attack Guidance Armor!" The grotesque armor appeared on the field, styled like the maw of a great beast.

"This trap's like a magnet that redirects your own attack right back at you," Kaiba smiled. He watched with a measure of pleasure as Pegasus squirmed, his eyebrows furrowed on his head.

"No, you wouldn't!"

"Oh yes I would, and I will!" Kaiba smirked. "Guidance Armor, attach to the Toon Gemini Elves!" The armor sped across the field to the elves, who were squished between the plates of armor before they had the chance to squeal. And squeal they did, once the armor tightened around them and the "eyes" of the device glowed red. The Toon Dark Magician girl turned around, entranced, and changed her attack to target the Toon Gemini Elves.

The Elves screamed in a high-pitched synchronous wail as the Toon Dark Magician Girl raised her wand and proceeded to pound the Elves with all her tiny might. The Toon Gemini Elves flatted like pancakes on a skillet and burst into pieces, while the magical girl laughed happily. Pegasus glared as his Life Point counter dropped to 2900 points.

"But they were just innocent toons! You'll pay for that!" Pegasus said with a snarl. "I activate the magic card Monster Reborn to bring them back!" A blue light illuminated the field as a swirl of eerie smoke plumed from the Graveyard— and with another ridiculously colorful "POOF!" the Toon Gemini Elves were back on the field.

"And I'll play Ultimate Offering!" Pegasus's Life went down by another 500 points as the trap card activated. "Now, for every 500 Life Points I give up, I can summon one additional monster. And if I sacrifice Toon Gemini Elf, Kaiba-boy, this first monster will be quite a powerful one!"

Pegasus shifted the Elves to his Graveyard, causing them to disappear within a circle of twisting light and smoke. His Cost Down card gleamed while Toon World started to emit a sickening pink smoke.

"Introducing the Blue-Eyes Toon Dragon!"

A disgrace. A complete and utter disgrace to Duel Monsters, to everything that card stood for—!

Kaiba grit his teeth in frustration. The appearance of the card that was his own personal pride and joy, warped and distorted into a sick caricature only fueled him on further. Pegasus had to be beaten, once and for all. Forget that he was the one that discovered Duel Monsters, that spent all the time and money and effort creating them, and that he once possessed powers that no mortal man ever should… forget it all!

_'I'm going to crush him… once and for all.'_

"Looks rather vicious, doesn't he?" Pegasus spoke, his eye closed against the angry expression on his opponent's face. "But don't you worry yourself, Kaiba-boy, he's actually quite docile… well, compared to the next toon, that is!"

Pegasus slapped another card onto the arena platform and grinned. "Ladies and gents, the Toon Summoned Skull!"

Kaiba wanted to groan aloud, but he wasn't about to give Pegasus the pleasure of knowing how irritated those monsters were making him.

"Sure, I'll have to give up another 500 of my Life Points, but then, you know what they say, Kaiba-boy! You have to spend Life Points to take Life Points! Of course, you know all about that! Yugi's been taking your Life Points for what, going on three years now! Oh, I'm sorry to keep bringing that up!" Pegasus smirked in a manner that betrayed his lack of sincerity.

Kaiba ignored him and drew his card.

_'Perfect. Just what I needed.'_

"I activate the Magic Card… Dark Core! Now by discarding one card from my hand, I can remove any monster from the game!"

"I see… well then, I'm sorry, Blue-Eyes Toon Dragon," Pegasus said apologetically, "But I guess this is goodbye…"

"Not quite, Pegasus. You won't be getting off that easily." Kaiba paused as he shifted his own cards around. "Because I'm discarding the Y-Dragon Head from my hand so I can remove X-Head Cannon from the game!"

"What?" Pegasus uttered in astonishment. "But X-Head Cannon is your own monster! What are you scheming?"

Again, Kaiba ignored him, and continued on. Pegasus had only 1900 Life Points left. Even with the damn Toon Monsters on the field, this would be easy if he planned it all out right…

"I also activate the magic card Soul Release. It removes one more monster from the game, and I'm using it on my Y-Dragon Head."

"Why are you removing your own monsters!" Pegasus cried. From the look on his face, he was genuinely bewildered by Kaiba's tactics, a thought which brought a wide smirk to Kaiba's face. Pegasus's self-imposed seclusion from the rest of the world likely meant he hadn't kept up with the latest strategies, and had instead left the creation and release of Duel Monsters to Yugi, the primary shareholder of Industrial Illusions stock.

"And now I summon Z-Metal Tank!"

"But that makes no sense," Pegasus said through gritted teeth. "Unless—"

"Unless I still have one more card to play, Pegasus" Kaiba interrupted him, his arms crossed over his chest. "And it so happens I do! Activate Return from the Different Dimension!" The other trap card that Kaiba had been keeping reserved activated. His Life Points decreased by half, leaving him with only 1050, much less than Pegasus— but for what he was about to do, it was more than worth it.

"It's well worth half my Life Points to bring back all my monsters— a nice trick to know when you want to summon more than one monster in a turn!"

Pegasus jaw dropped in astonishment as the X-Head Cannon, the Z-Metal Tank, and the Y-Dragon Head all appeared on the field, looking for all the world like a ferocious assembly of mechanical monsters.

"And as you're well aware, these aren't ordinary monsters," Kaiba announced smugly. "They combine!" There was a great burst of light and the whirring of mechanical parts, and when the holographic smoke faded, a grand mechanical beast stood in the place of the three individual machines. "Together they form the ultimate XYZ-Dragon Cannon!" Off Pegasus's terrified look, Kaiba's smile only widened further. "Yes! Now I have all the firepower I need to blast any card I want out of the duel! If you say you're still gonna win, then it's time to change your tune! Go! Destroy Toon World!"

"No!"

"CANNON FIRESTORM!" There was a brilliant burst of golden light and flame as it discharged from the tank cannon, the artillery guns, and the dragon mouth on the massive machine Kaiba had summoned, all of it rushing toward Pegasus at impossible speeds. The explosion was so bright and the holographic technology so realistic that Pegasus practically flew from his place in the arena. He landed with a thud as the lights around the arena faded and died.

"That's all, folks. Now let's see what you've got to beat the Egyptian Gods."

Kaiba ignored Pegasus as he groaned in pain, and instead he walked toward the briefcase Pegasus had brought with him from his upstairs sanctuary vault. His fingers traced over the cards before plucking them from their velvet interior, and his eyes widened upon reading the text.

"Looks like you had two cards up your sleeve!" Kaiba frowned at Pegasus. It was just like that loon to try and trick him with every opportunity. He'd probably been so self-absorbed that he hadn't even considered the possibility of losing the duel, and so had foolishly left two amazingly powerful cards in his case…

"What do you mean, two cards?" Pegasus called as he struggled to get up. "Kaiba, there was only one!"

Kaiba, exhausted and relieved to have won the duel at last, ignored the genuine fear in Pegasus's voice. "Yeah right. Nice try, you snake!" And with a whirl, Kaiba left the dungeon sanctuary, the cards he needed in hand.

* * *

"Tell me again, why are we guardin' a stupid museum?" a young man with spiky hair and a thick Australian accent accent.

"You're not supposed to question the boss's orders," a taller muscled man beside him responded. "There's a reason for everything."

"Ugh, not the whole fate and destiny speech again," a third man rolled his eyes. He brushed aside some stray deep red hairs that stuck to the side of his face and scowled as he leaned up against a nearby wall.

"Shut up," the tall blond responded, pressing his sunglasses further up his nose.

The three men would have looked extremely out of place near the entrance to the Domino Museum of History, were it not for the fact that all three of them were dressed in impeccable gray suits. Not a single one of them looked the least bit comfortable in the suits though, as they all kept fidgeting and looking around. Still, they were the only ones in the vicinity who even remotely looked like they worked for the museum.

Their boss had made sure of that.

"What are we waitin' for, exactly?" the Australian asked again.

"For those dumb kids," the redhead muttered under his breath.

"Watch your mouth, Alister!" the blond snapped. "Remember, the boss is keeping an eye on things from a distance, so I wouldn't act like this isn't important. Besides, there's more to it than just babysitting some kids. And there's a reason why the boss went to all the effort of bringing this exhibit here, and we're here to make sure that his orders get followed. So just stand straight and shut up!"

The two other men scowled, but they said nothing further.

None of them noticed the white-haired teenager lurking in the shadows off to the side. He disappeared into the depths of the museum as soon as the men were done speaking.

* * *

"The museum is the last lace those demented duelists would think to look for you!" Téa smiled when they'd reached the Domino Museum at last.

"Hope you're right, Téa," Yugi murmured, still trying to catch his breath. "I hope Joey, Tristan, and Duke will all get here soon…"

"Yeah, if they didn't get trampled by the du—" Téa's sentenced died a quick death when she spotted the posters and signs indicating the Egyptian exhibit they'd come to the museum for. Entranced, Téa moved toward a poster on the wall, which showed where the dig had taken place, and the artifacts they'd found— including that bizarre blue pyramid that so resembled Yugi's Millennium Puzzle.

"Come on," Téa intoned flatly. "Let's go check it out."

Téa's eyes took a few moments to regain their usual light quality, and there was a distinct haze preventing her from thinking too clearly. She wasn't entirely sure what had just happened -what she had just _felt_\- but it was far from the ordinary. She _swore_ she had heard voices chanting, singing…

Still disoriented from what she had just experienced, Téa didn't notice Malik's concerned stare turn to her. The expression on his face plainly indicated that he'd seen Téa's expression change rapidly in the course of a few moments, but he didn't say anything aloud.

_'A vision... but what did she see?'_ It was an impossible question for Malik to ask, and the answer wasn't his privilege to know. Malik sighed in resignation, about to follow Téa, Yugi, and Serenity into the exhibit, but he stopped dead in his tracks once he looked up. It wasn't a bad feeling or the sight of the blue pyramid on the exhibit posters that startled Malik into stillness; it was the appearance of Shadi.

Neither Yugi, Serenity, or Téa seemed to notice the ghostly Tombkeeper, and they didn't seem to miss Malik's presence much as they walked off. Malik would have felt a bit insulted, were it not for the frighteningly calm look in Shadi's eyes. Still, the mysterious man didn't appear very often, and Malik knew full well to beware of him. After all, he was the same person who'd told him that the Pharaoh would have the answers about why his father died, leading Marik to think the Pharaoh they waited for was behind his father's death. As it turned out, Malik couldn't have been further from the truth, but at the time…

"You are not having doubts about why you are here, are you?" Shadi rarely ever bothered with names, though Malik suspected there was an ulterior motive in why Shadi never used a name with him.

"Of course not." Malik's eyes flitted toward the exhibit, making sure he could still keep the others in his sight.

"Not having any… _feelings_, are you?" Malik was about to retort that he wasn't some dead husk quite yet, and he was perfectly allowed to have _feelings_, but one look in Shadi's eyes made it clear that Shadi was implicating something unspoken. How Shadi knew about _that_ was beyond Malik, but…

"Of course not," he repeated in the same calm tone of voice.

"Be careful," Shadi said as he turned, his robes swishing with an invisible wind. "Darkness approaches."

One blink and half a second later, he was gone, leaving Malik alone in the entryway.

Malik shivered; not out of cold, but out of the odd feeling Shadi left him with. Malik already knew all about the prophecy and what was to come of that… but Shadi seemed to be talking about something different. The fact that he'd appeared at this particular place at this exact time… maybe the exhibit really was more than it appeared?

There was only one way to find out.

* * *

Once Malik rejoined them, the quartet made their way to the rear of the exhibit, where the main attraction was positioned. It was a large glass case with a mummy inside it, complete with its ceremonial burial coffin. Yugi leaned forward and read the inscription on the brass plate fixed to the case.

"It says 'The Tomb of Anubis - The Egyptian Lord of the Dead'."

"But I thought Anubis was an Egyptian god," Serenity murmured in confusion. "He wasn't a real person— was he?" All eyes fell on Malik for answers.

"You would be correct," Malik replied after a moment. The feeling he'd gotten after speaking to Shadi still hadn't faded. In fact, it had only increased, the deeper they went into the exhibit and the closer they got to this mummy. "Anubis was once a very important deity, but after the great king Osiris died at the hands of his brother Set, he was no longer considered the Lord of the Dead. Osiris took that role, leaving Anubis as the jackal-headed god of embalming."

"Wow, that sucks," Serenity said at last. "He got totally betrayed and left with next to nothing."

"And isn't Anubis considered to be a 'dark' god nowadays?" Téa asked. "I mean, when he does show up in folklore, it's never as a good guy…"

"Who knows where those stories came from," Malik answered. "Legends often have their basis in history. Perhaps that is why this exhibit claims to have the body of Anubis, Lord of the Dead."

"If he's not Anubis, I wonder who—" Yugi barely had time to finish his sentence before a rumble tore through the ground. It started low, merely shaking their feet and the few low signs, but soon enough everything in the room was shaking.

It seemed as though only Malik heard the voices, chanting in Hieratic…

No one saw the mummy's empty eye sockets glow a faint blood red, light swelling from a sourceless place.

Within a minute, the shaking and quaking stopped. The silence was broken as the sounds of other people talking in the museum echoed from nearby halls. None of them seemed to be screaming or wondering what had happened; to the rest of the world, it was as if nothing out of the ordinary had occurred.

"We didn't just… imagine that, did we?" Téa asked in a shaking voice. She knew she'd had strange visions and weird feelings here and there, but imagining an earthquake seemed a little out of bounds, even for her.

"N-No, I don't think so…" Yugi replied in a voice just as tremulous as hers. His hands had instinctively clutched the Millennium Puzzle, which still seemed to be quaking in his clammy grip.

"Oho— what a quake that was!"

"Grandpa?" Yugi exclaimed in surprise. Indeed, Solomon Moto was hunched over one of the nearby exhibits, holding onto it for support. "What are you doing here?"

"Oh well," Solomon straightened out, "Great minds think alike, it seems." He gestured toward the exhibit that he'd been looking that: the mysterious blue pyramid.

So— you came to see the pyramid, too," Malik spoke for the first time since the quake. Solomon's eyes widened slightly at seeing Malik face-to-face for the first time. Even during Battle City, the two had never met in person before, and now, neither Solomon nor Malik could shake the strange feeling they had around each other. Of course, neither knew what to make of it, and Solomon merely attributed it to his recent scare from the quake.

"Yup," Solomon said, turning away from the group. He examined the plate attached to the pyramid's glass cabinet. "This says it's called 'The Pyramid of Light'. In all my years of Egyptology, I've never come across this relic before," Solomon continued.

"But it says here that it belonged to an evil sorcerer who tried to bring about the end of the world!" Serenity read, looking frightened. "Maybe that Anubis guy?"

"Myth mixed with legend, most likely," Malik said. _'Still…'_

"Well, I guess it's safe to say that his plan didn't work," Yugi said in a falsely cheery voice.

"The legends say that a brave pharaoh destroyed the sorcerer with the mystical dagger of fate!" The rest of Solomon's words went unspoken, but when everyone's eyes fell on Yugi's Millennium Puzzle.

_'The same pharaoh whom many believe possessed your Millennium Puzzle…'_

"Come, I'll show you," Solomon said, gesturing the small group of teens toward the rest of the exhibit. "See, there's the knife!" Indeed, a curved blade still wrapped in its colored sheath rested between the folded hands of 'Anubis.' Unlike other Egyptian sarcophagi, this one did not depict the jackal-headed figure with a staff and flail in his hands. In fact, if one looked close enough, they would have been able to see painted ropes binding the jackal's arms to his chest, much like the ones that had been attached to the mummy, long before they had rotted away…

Téa shivered, not liking the mixture of nausea and cold that swept through her body. She couldn't help but feel like somebody was watching her. But no one else was even in the exhibit room…

"What's it say here on his sarcophagus?" Serenity queried, spotting a series of faded hieroglyphs. Both Malik and Solomon leaned in and squinted to read the glyphs. It was Solomon who spoke first.

"Let's see… It's some sort of prophecy. 'The eye that sees what's yet to come: its vision shall be fulfilled unless blinded by events predetermined, thus both light and shadows be killed."

Téa looked at Malik for some sort of confirmation regarding Solomon's rather odd translation, but before their gazes could meet, there was a blinding flash of brilliant white light.

* * *

When Yugi opened his eyes, he found himself in an endless starry abyss, with two very familiar shapes looming massively overhead.

"The Millennium Puzzle! And the Pyramid of Light!"

In the distance, an unfamiliar voice chanted in Hieratic, speaking words that held no meaning for Yugi whatsoever. Quite suddenly, pain lanced through Yugi's body, and he lost consciousness, leaving Yami in his wake. The same pain flared through Yami, causing him to drop the Duel Monsters cards he found himself clutching. His heart wouldn't stop pounding, and sweat continued to pour down his brow.

A low chuckle sounded from close by, and when Yami opened his eyes, he could just barely make out Kaiba standing not that far from him. In the few seconds that it took for Yami to regain his composure and the blurriness in his eyes to clear, another figure appeared behind Kaiba: a thickly muscled man with the head of a jackal… wearing the Pyramid of Light on a rope around his neck. He grabbed Kaiba roughly by the skull and hauled him up nearly half a meter in the air, heedless of Kaiba's struggles.

Quite suddenly, the jackal spoke in a language Yugi _could_ understand, and in that same voice that he'd heard earlier…

"From the light comes the dark!"

And just as quickly as the vision had come, it was over. When Yugi opened his eyes again, Téa and Serenity were both leaning over him, equal measures of worry and concern lining their pretty faces.

Téa, for her part, was trying her hardest to ignore the images that kept sliding past her mind's eye. The Millennium Puzzle and that 'Pyramid of Light' colliding in a night sky. A blood red gem set into the center of the eye of Horus, gleaming at her maliciously. Infinite pain and sadness welling up in the core of her being, threatening to smother her completely…

She fixed a firm, concerned expression on her face as she regarded her fallen friend.

"Yugi?"

"Téa, would you tell me the story about the bunny?" Yugi mumbled, his head swimming.

"I'm gonna pretend that was the concussion talking and forget all about it, 'cause right now we've got bigger problems…"

Téa looked up hesitantly and was startled to find Malik standing so near to her, a distant expression on his face. He looked completely out of it, but somehow the look on his face told Téa that he, too, had experienced something _odd_ when that brilliant white light flashed. He blinked a fraction of a second later, his gaze dropping to meet Téa's. For a moment, there seemed to be a jolt of -something- that passed between them, but the feeling faded as quickly as it had come.

Neither of them noticed the three men in suits from the entrance look at one another and nod slowly before returning to the exhibit entryway.

Yugi fumbled to sit up and stared in shock and horror: the body of 'Anubis' was gone, and the Pyramid of Light had also gone missing with him!

A policeman raced into the building, having heard the alarms once the glass was broken. "The mummy's body has been stolen!" he yelled to three shadowed figures in the doorway. "And that's not all! He nabbed the Pyramid of Light, too!"

"Grandpa, stay here!" Yugi told his grandfather, who was struggling to sit up. "I have a feeling Kaiba's in danger. I have to warn him!"

Téa stared at Yugi, horrified. "Wh-What did you say? Yugi, what's going on?"

"Just keep an eye on Grandpa, please?" Before Téa could protest or ask a single further question, Yugi dashed out of the museum, leaving Téa, Malik, Serenity, his grandfather, and Anubis's empty casket behind.

The only one who followed was the starkly contrasting shadow of a white-haired youth with the devil in his eyes.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> **No, Isis isn't really the Supreme General of the Egyptian Council of Antiquities, but it IS a real position, unlike the weird one they gave her in the dub. That real position is filled by Zahi Hawass, who you may have seen on any number of History Channel or Discovery Channel specials about Egyptian tomb excavation. He's a cool guy. Anyway...**
> 
> **Action! Excitement! Dead guys? Yes, ladies and gents, we have the plot of the Yu-Gi-Oh Movie, also known as the Pyramid of Light. You'd think it'll be mostly the same, but trust me, with Seto and Téa "together…, Malik being present, and Pegasus being far from dead, this will be one plot twist you won't be able to predict! Stay tuned for more… and I hope you liked this latest long chapter!**
> 
> —**Azurite **


	24. Legends Once Lost

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Nothing is as it seems after Kaiba returns from Duelist Kingdom. He's dead-set on defeating Yugi in a real duel this time, but why? Will his obsessive desire to be #1 threaten his relationship with Téa, destroying it once and for all?

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> **What Doesn't Kill You  
> Chapter 23: Legends Once Lost  
> A Yu-Gi-Oh Fanfiction**  
> **By:** Azurite - azurite AT seventh-star DOT net  
> **Site: **seventh-star DOT net  
> **Conceptualized/First Written:** 6/28/05 (this was just when I started the chapter planner file. Fufufufu!)  
> **Completed/Final Edit: **1/16/06  
> **Posted: **3/3/06 - I'm very sorry about the long wait, but I always get my chapters beta'd by at least 2 people, or I won't post them. So if you'd like to see faster updates and a better fic, volunteer to be a beta! I need reliable people, though!
> 
> **Don't Forget!** All Review Replies are now hosted at my LiveJournal. Look for a section in my Memories called 'Review Replies,' and you can choose from the story/chapter of your choice to see what I had to say to your reviews! Thanks for your continued support!
> 
> **The whole name thing** doesn't apply to Duel Monsters cards. So while you'll read about Malik and Isis, you won't read about Osiris the Heavenly Saint-God Dragon. Instead, it'll be Slifer. I know it's a bit stupid, but again, if I changed all the names to their original Japanese, I'd have to go back and change so much more than that. I'm also more familiar with the English TCG card names and rules, while the Japanese translation of many cards is subjective. Ergo, I'll stick to the Upperdeck Entertainment translations, thanks.
> 
> **Thank you:** to **Janime Lee** and **Winterwing3000**, my beta-editors for this chapter. Interested in being a beta-editor for WDKY? Let me know in a review or email!
> 
> * * *
> 
>   
> **RECAP:** Kaiba left Téa and Mokuba alone to simulate a rematch duel with Yami Yugi at the Duel Dome. When Téa finds out, she's furious— especially when Kaiba can't give her a decent explanation as to why he's doing this, when so much time has passed between Battle City and now, and neither he nor Yugi have had any interest in a rematch up till this point. Téa leaves the Duel Dome, while Kaiba heads to Duelist Kingdom to defeat Pegasus once and for all and get the cards he needs to defeat Yugi's God Cards, once and for all. He does beat Pegasus, but what does Pegasus know that Kaiba doesn't? And what will Kaiba do if and when he _does_ beat Yugi?
> 
> The answers might lie in an unexpected place— at another museum in Domino, where a mysterious trio is in charge of bringing an ancient Egyptian exhibit featuring the mummy of "Anubis, Lord of the Dead" and the Pyramid of Light to Japan. Both Téa and Malik have had visions— but they don't know what to make of them, so they think there's no reason to reveal what's happened to anyone else. To make matters worse, Yugi's had a vision of his own, and he thinks Kaiba's in grave danger, but he won't tell Téa why before he goes off and running!

There were some things that you could never forget. For Mokuba Kaiba, he supposed that he's had more than his fair share of excitement in his lifetime, and that if he kept on living such a thrilling life, he'd eventually forget about the less exciting things. It was all part and parcel of being Seto Kaiba's younger brother.

Nonetheless, what happened after Seto returned from Duelist Kingdom would be forever engraved in Mokuba's memory— somehow, he was sure of it.

That particular day, his elementary school didn't have Saturday classes, so he spent the morning sleeping in —or trying to sleep, as the case was. He hated being alone in the mansion —or at least, he hated _feeling_ alone. He knew Téa had probably returned home some time last night, but as for when, Mokuba had no idea. On top of that, she probably _did_ have classes that day, so by the time Mokuba woke up from his hardly restful sleep, she was already gone.

_'She's probably not too hot on coming back and having a heart-to-heart with Seto once he gets back,'_ Mokuba realized with a grimace. That meant that Mokuba had to play pacifier again, once Seto returned from Duelist Kingdom. Who knew what his brother had done there, assuming Pegasus was alive like he said, and had been willing to help Seto (as if). So Mokuba, entirely unaware of what new excitement would befall him that day, ate a meager breakfast and left the house for the Duel Dome.

* * *

  
_Beep. Beep. BEEEEP! _

The beeping grew annoyingly louder, despite all Mokuba's attempts at shutting 'that stupid alarm' off. After a few moments of blinking in groggy surprise, he realized he was not at home in bed, and that there was no alarm clock to send hurling against the wall. In fact, Mokuba's face was plastered to the plexiglass of one of the many control panels in the Duel Dome simulation arena, and the shrill beeping he was hearing was coming from one of the many devices in the room.

Mokuba only had to glance once at a nearby radar screen to realize what was going on: Seto was back. Or at least, he was on his way back. The shrill beeping indicated that the Blue-Eyes White Jet was within landing distance, and if someone didn't get to the landing strip _fast_, there would be nowhere for the massive jet to land. That was the beauty of the Duel Dome— though it was located on the edges of the city, tucked between a few hills and carefully preserving the natural forests, its architecture allowed for maximum efficient use of the tiny amount of space. Buildings had to be shifted aside and a runway extension activated before the jet could even come within kilometers of the Dome!

All at once, the adrenaline started pumping through Mokuba's veins, and he tore out of the control room as fast as his legs could carry him.

Ten minutes later, he was panting furiously as he watched his brother step out of the Blue-Eyes White Jet, looking as calm and composed as ever. But as Mokuba caught his breath and managed to raise his head to look his brother in the eye, he noticed something… _strange_. He couldn't quite put his finger on it, but it gave him a sick feeling to his stomach. It didn't help that Seto walked right by without sparing him so much as a glance, only three short words: "Bring Yugi here."

* * *

Mokuba didn't like being kept out of the loop. He hated not knowing things— probably a trait he shared in common with his brother. But when his brother was the one keeping secrets from him, it hardly helped. Seto was short on patience and details that Saturday afternoon; he kept barking out fierce orders for any and all employees in the Duel Dome to ready the place for a duel, and to make sure that they were gone by the time their "special guest" arrived.

His younger brother was tasked with finding Yugi, as if Seto expected Mokuba to possess some innate psychic ability that would tell him where the famous duelist was that late Saturday afternoon. The Turtle Game Store was closed, and Domino High was already abandoned— but just as Mokuba was about to give up, he spotted Yugi's trademark hair style emerging from a nearby building: The Domino Museum of History.

"Yugi— I've been looking all over for you! My brother sent me to find you and he said that it's real important that you bring your Duel Disk right away!"

Whatever had happened, this order was the clincher: Seto had gotten some cards that would help him defeat Yugi, or else he wouldn't have readied the Dome for a duel, or asked Mokuba to find Yugi— and not return until he did.

"Wait… so he's okay then?" Yugi asked curiously.

Mokuba glanced at Yugi, confused for a moment. It seemed Yugi thought there was something _wrong_ with Seto— though, this sudden urge to start dueling again did seem a little bit strange, even to Mokuba.

"I wouldn't say he's _okay_," Mokuba admitted at last. "All I know is that Seto hasn't been acting like himself lately. I think he's gonna totally lose it!" Of course, that wasn't true, but Mokuba was running on very little sleep and a great deal of fear. He didn't know what was going on with his brother. He didn't know anything about what was happening.

Yugi looked thoughtful for a moment, and then he nodded. "Okay. My Duel Disk and deck are at the shop, so we'll have to go there, first."

"Really?" Mokuba seemed astonished that Yugi had agreed so easily, but then he remembered that Yugi wasn't an egotistical duelist that turned down challenges from people he'd already beaten before. Even with Mokuba as the messenger, that's what this whole thing was, anyway— Mokuba was sure of it. Perhaps Yugi actually _did_ care about what was going on with Seto, even if the two of them never really got along like friends. And with Téa angry at Seto for _not_ telling her about his duel simulations (though Mokuba figured he himself had some blame to take for that), _someone_ caring about Seto was better than just Mokuba on his own.

Who better to knock some sense into Seto than Yugi?

"Let's go!"

* * *

"Way to hold back the crowd, champ!" Tristan bit out sarcastically to Joey. It had literally taken hours to comb through all the duelists that had bombarded them since their untimely exit from Domino High, and now there was probably no way that Yugi and the others were still at the museum. They decided to head to the Turtle Game Store, in the hopes that Yugi and the others would already be there.

"Oh, like you helped?" Joey snapped. The tone in his voice wasn't malicious, though; more like exhausted. Joey had long since removed his Duel Disk from his wrist, and he was massaging it as they ambled along at a comfortably slow pace. "Then again," Joey laughed, "You duel worse than my mom!"

"You're just lucky I'm worn out, man," Tristan growled.

"Ladies, ladies— will the two of you just _shut _it?" Duke bit out. "At least you got rid of them. We'll have to ask Téa and Yugi what was at the museum, unless they all want to go again for our sake. After all that crazy dueling, I'd say we deserve a bit of slack from them."

"Yeah," Joey and Tristan agreed simultaneously.

At the moment silence broke, they all rounded the corner toward the Turtle Game Store and Yugi's house— just in time to hear an engine start up.

"Check it out!" Joey jutted his chin toward the store, where a sleek black limousine waited.

"What's Kaiba's limo doing at Yugi's place?" Tristan mused. The only reason why they recognized it as Kaiba's limousine was because of the license plate: the standard white with green text, from the Shinagawa municipal office. To anyone else in Japan, it would sound like a perfectly ordinary plate, except for the fact that Kaiba's license plate number was the extremely rare 01 plate. His license plate had only two numbers: zero and one. The other two slots on the plate were printed with embossed dots, with a small "Se" character to the left. Plates with only one or two numbers were extremely hard to come by, except by lottery, but doubtless Kaiba had pulled some strings at the registration office and gotten the "Number One" license plate.

Joey, Tristan, and Duke dashed toward the limo, getting close enough to spot Yugi within, but by the time they called out their friend's name, the limo was speeding off down a hill and out of sight.

"Three guesses where he's going," Duke muttered. "And the first two don't count."

The sun was setting to a crisp, clear day, coloring the sky in shades of brilliant orange and red. The brightness of the setting sun only made the giant dome on the horizon ever the more apparent. Not just any dome— the Duel Dome.

"Five hundred yen says there's going to be a duel within the hour," Tristan said. "We better get going."

Joey and Duke only nodded as the two of them sped down the hill as fast as they could.

* * *

"I don't know about this," Solomon grumbled as he crossed his arms over his broad chest. "For Yugi to take off like that…"

"I'm positive he saw something," Téa said in a low voice. After the mysterious quake, the disappearance of the Pyramid of Light and Anubis's mummy at the Domino Museum of History, the police had swarmed on the museum. Téa also got the strange feeling that she was being watched, but whenever she looked around, she never noticed anyone or anything out of the ordinary. Sure, Yugi's grandfather, Serenity, Malik and Téa were all still waiting near the entrance of the museum, which was flooded with police and museum staff, but…

"Something tells me Yugi won't be coming back," Malik stated in that eerie, calm voice of his.

"What?" Serenity looked absolutely astonished, though this was far from her first encounter with Malik. Like Téa and the others, it had taken a bit of convincing before Serenity believed Malik was pure-hearted. The sprightly redhead remembered that Malik was responsible for brainwashing her brother during Battle City, and nearly getting him killed. But _this_ Malik didn't seem to have any ill intentions toward any of them; he was just weird.

"Whatever he **saw** caused him to run out of here pretty fast. He said something about Kaiba being in danger, didn't he?"

"He did," Téa admitted, her gaze dropping to the floor. The truth was, Yugi's words had very nearly incited her to run off and find Kaiba on her own, but she hadn't the first idea where to look. Was he still at the Duel Dome, simulating a rematch with Yugi? Or had he gone somewhere to find a way to beat Yugi's God Cards, once and for all. Of course, that thought prompted the next words out of Téa's mouth.

"_Is_ there a way to beat the God Cards?"

Malik blinked for a moment before his gaze shifted back to the police-infested museum. It didn't have the main attraction —the Pyramid of Light and the mummy of Anubis— any longer.

_'Maybe that was the whole point in having in brought here to Japan,'_ Malik thought. The exhibit had left Japan without Isis's say-so, which meant someone else was pulling the strings. But who in the world could have that kind of knowledge, that kind of power?

"For both Yugi and Kaiba's sake, I certainly hope not," Malik responded at last. "It would all depend on how stupid Pegasus is."

"_Is_!" Solomon, Téa, and Serenity echoed in unison.

Malik blinked at them owlishly. "You thought he was dead?"

Everyone exchanged a glance and nodded slowly at Malik.

"Isn't that what all the reports said?" Téa asked after a moment. "After Duelist Kingdom, somebody attacked Pegasus. The next thing we knew, the transfer of stocks went through to Yugi, and Pegasus was never heard from again. The media had a field day about it."

"That's what my brother told me," Serenity added. "Of course, all this was news to me up until the end of Battle City…" Serenity stared at Malik for a moment before dropping her gaze to the floor.

If Malik noticed Serenity's hesitant gaze rise to look at him and then away, he didn't notice it. Instead, he scoffed at Téa's words. "From what I heard, the attack on Pegasus involved him getting the Millennium Eye torn out of its socket. Considering Pegasus was both smart and wealthy enough to be protected from those that might hold a grudge against him, who's out there that you think would have the power to get past his defenses and attack him so brutally?"

It wasn't a question any of them could answer— though Téa had a sinking sensation about who it could be.

_'I only hope I'm wrong.'_

"In any case, what do we do now?" Serenity asked worriedly. "Yugi doesn't have a cell phone, does he?"

"No," Solomon sighed. "I suppose it would have been a good investment, back when Yugi begged me to buy him one last year."

"What about Joey, Duke, or Tristan?" Serenity suggested. "They didn't make it here to the museum, but maybe they ran into Yugi somewhere along the way."

It was a long shot, but it was the best idea they'd heard so far. After all, there was no telling if Yugi had managed to find Kaiba, and even if he had, where the two of them might be. Everything was resting on chance.

Serenity took out a bright pink cell phone and quickly skimmed through her phone book until she reached her brother's cell phone number. Joey wasn't one to brag about his new phone, unlike most boys his age, if only because he didn't want to jinx the managerial job that gave him the money that allowed him to pay for it. He still didn't understand why he'd suddenly been awarded with management of the courier service, but the better hours and pay kept his mouth shut from ever asking.

"Big Brother?" Serenity asked when someone on the other line picked up. "Why do you sound so weird?"

After a few moments, Serenity's faintly hazel eyes widened and she lifted her other hand to her mouth. "Oh! Oh… we'll be there soon!" And then she hung up.

"What's going on, Serenity?"

"Apparently Joey and the other guys spotted Kaiba's limo at the game store. Yugi got in and headed off toward the Duel Dome— that's where the guys are headed now."

"Somehow, I should have known," Téa mumbled under her breath. "Let's go. We need to stop Yugi _and_ Seto before they do something stupid."

* * *

By the time the limousine arrived at the Duel Dome, the sun was just about done setting, casting all of Domino into a brilliant fiery orange color. From high up where the Duel Dome was nestled between a few hills and old forests, you could see the looming shadows of the Tokyo skyscrapers covering the rest of the city in inky darkness. Soon, the twinkling lights of the city would come on, and it would be as if the sun had never set at all.

"My brother's waiting for you on the top floor," Mokuba said at last.

He silently wished he could have led a simple life, but he'd never known what a simple life even _was_. Perhaps he'd hate it. In any case, the only way to get back to what Mokuba hoped was 'normality' was by helping his brother in whatever way possible- and if that meant bringing Yugi to the Duel Dome, then…

The look on Yugi's face as he turned around to look at Mokuba was surprising. It seemed almost sad, but Mokuba couldn't figure out why.

"I got it. Thanks Mokuba." And then he turned around and headed into the main building itself. Three glass tubes stretched up into the uppermost wings of the Duel Dome, where the simulation arena rested on the topmost floor. Kaiba spared no expense when it came to any of the buildings where he conducted business, and that was especially true of the Duel Dome.

"Welcome to the Kaiba Corp. Duel Dome," a female voice spoke from the speakers as soon as Yugi passed through the threshold of the Dome. As he neared one of the glass elevators, the curved doors slid open soundlessly.

"Destination: Sky Top Dueling Platform." The voice fell silent after that, and the only sound was the low hum of the elevator being pushed upward at an amazingly fast rate.

Yugi sighed. Even though it would only be a few moments at the most before he reached the dueling platform, he still wanted to understand why he was doing this. There was no obligation to, and if he'd stayed long enough to listen, Téa probably would have begged him _not_ to duel Kaiba. Yugi briefly wondered if that was because she cared more about Kaiba or…

_'I have to stop thinking like that!'_

But it was easier said than done. Better to think about the duel ahead than events behind.

Yugi's fingers slid over his deck, and almost instinctively, he pulled the three legendary God Cards from their place within his Duel Disk.

"This is what he wants," Yugi said aloud. But he wasn't speaking to himself. As odd as it was, Yugi often felt that when he spoke to his other half —Yami, the former Pharaoh, and known to many as 'the King of Games'— that he was in two places at once. In a realm of nothingness, and then in the real world. Only in the place of nothing did Yami seem to have any physical form. Yami's physical appearance always appeared to Yugi as something similar to his own, perhaps because Yugi could not imagine someone that looked wildly different from himself taking control of his body and championing all the games in the world. To Yugi, Yami looked vaguely taller, with spikier hair and narrower eyes. If anything, he appeared merely as an older version of Yugi himself… as everything that Yugi had always wanted to be, and wanted to have.

A true friend with courage… even to stand against his other friends.

"It's too much of a coincidence that Kaiba would send for us right after the vision we had at the museum," Yugi said at last. "There must be something more going on here, and I'm pretty sure it has something to do with that Anubis guy. It seems like you had some kind of a battle with him 5,000 years ago."

"Perhaps," Yami said, his eyes fixed not on Yugi, but on the God Cards that hovered in the nothingness between them. "But sadly, memories of my days as the pharaoh are clouded. Nor is it clear to me what role the Egyptian God Cards play in all of this."

Despite having another soul occupy his body and mind, not all of Yugi's thoughts were privy to his other self. In fact, Yugi was silently wondering at that very moment if it had been a mistake coming here. He could have stayed at the museum and found more about the Pyramid of Light and Anubis from the exhibit or even his own grandfather. He could have told Téa and Malik just what he saw, in the hopes that they would understand him and counsel him on what to do.

_'But Kaiba was going to get crushed by that Anubis guy!'_ Yugi defended himself mentally. _'There's just no way that he'd call me for a duel right after that vision unless…'_

Unless…?

"I sure wish we knew more about what happened back in your past," Yugi said aloud.

"All that matters is that we face the future together," Yami said. Yugi wondered about the eerie tone in his partner's voice; it didn't seem to be a quality that Yugi's own voice possessed, but then again, Yugi wasn't the embodiment of a 5,000-plus year old pharaoh.

"And I wouldn't have it any other way," Yugi smiled. He pushed aside all thoughts of 'could-haves' and 'should-haves,' including a memory of Téa in tears, begging him to understand— to the furthest reaches of his mind. "Are you ready, partner?"

"Ready!"

There was a brilliant flash of light that only Yugi ever seemed to see. The Millennium Puzzle seemed to wobble and quake on its chain, and in an instant, short, wide-eyed Yugi was replaced with a more confident, masculine side of himself— the side known as Yami, the Pharaoh.

"Time to duel."

* * *

Joey, Duke, and Tristan had run so far, so hard, and so fast, they'd probably completed their year's physical education requirement in the time that they'd run from one end of town to the other. They'd just done something horribly insane, but when it came to Yugi, Kaiba, duels, and everything else in between, there was just no time to waste waiting for a bus or a taxi.

"Kaiba's car is outside, so Yugi must be here!" Joey panted. He still didn't stop running, even though the pain in his legs was burning like wildfire, and Yugi was nowhere in sight.

"Wow, you're a regular Sherlock Holmes," Duke griped. He hated running. He had his own car by now, as he'd been eighteen since February 28th. But despite explaining this to Joey and Tristan, they still insisted that they didn't have time to waste waiting for Duke to get his car and drive them to the Duel Dome.

Duke wanted to choke the two of them, but he hardly had enough strength left in his legs to stand, let enough strength in his arms for a proper stranglehold.

"Hey! Yugi's upstairs!"

The three boys turned toward the sound of the voice, not the least bit surprised to see Mokuba Kaiba standing beside three glass elevators.

"Mokuba…? What's goin' on?" None of them had seen Mokuba in the limousine with Yugi when they'd spotted the vehicle peeling away from the game store, but they recognized the car as being a Kaiba vehicle nonetheless.

"My brother's about to duel him!" Mokuba announced. A second later, his chin fell to his chest. Something about all this just wasn't right— and he'd been playing right into his brother's plan. Just like with Death-T…

Tristan, Joey, and Duke exchanged a glance and immediately tried to cram into one elevator. Mokuba smothered the brief chuckle that escape his lips and headed into an elevator of his own, the shouts and hollers from the next elevator drowned out the moment the glass doors closed.

* * *

The Duel Dome was a massive piece of architecture crammed into a small piece of land. The 'Dome' part of it was actually a semi-spherical network of steel-enforced glass windows, supported by a primary steel beam that connected with the 'floating' simulation control room. A pair of twin spiral staircases that detached from the floating control room led up to the control arena. When the control room was in its usual spot, it led back out to the uppermost C-shaped hallway that granted access to the rest of the Duel Dome. Aside from the single doorway through the control room, the only way out of the Duel Arena was through the three elevator doors on the side of the Dome opposite the control room.

All of the doors connecting the lower spectator galleries to the arena platform closed one by one, each with a resounding slam. In a few moments, it was just Kaiba in the control room, staring out at the three elevators. When at last he spotted that annoyingly familiar head of hair and that too-smug grin, his own malicious smile widened. Soon, this would all end.

He could ignore his exhaustion and hunger for food— all that he had right now was the hunger —the _desire_— to beat Yugi once and for all. And for the first time, perfect victory was within reach!

"Welcome," Kaiba spoke into the activated microphone. His voice sounded much raspier and gruffer than normal, but he didn't care.

_'Glad you came to duel, Yugi- because this time, things are going to be different.'_

The power and assured confidence that Kaiba thought he'd lost to Yugi so long ago seemed to be surging back, like a physical force that he could _feel_ emanating from his Duel Disk, from his deck. With the cards he had, Yugi would play right into his hands— and right into a humiliating defeat.

Kaiba allowed his gaze to drift from Yugi's figure on the arena platform down to the main computer. Kaiba placed his deck on the computer's scanners, allowing the system to scan the embedded chips within. It created a simulation of Kaiba's updated deck against Yugi's most recently used and registered deck.

"Initializing Duel Simulation," a pleasant female voice spoke. The voice went silent as numbers flickered by and monster names appeared and vanished.

Des Feral Imp versus Jack's Knight. Yugi had the upper hand in that duel —Des Feral Imp had only 1500 attack and 800 defense, while Jack's Knight possessed 2000 attack and 1300 defense— but it didn't take long for the simulation to reflect the new cards in Kaiba's deck.

"Calculating player strength…"

Yugi was quickly losing cards in the simulation: he was down to 33, while Kaiba still had 37. It was an easy trick— destroy your opponent's deck and force them to draw until they could draw no more. But it was also a cheap method of winning a duel, and it wasn't a method Kaiba intended to use today. No, today, he would achieve perfect victory…

_'At long last!'_

Finally, the Blue-Eyes Shining Dragon versus the Sorcerer of Dark Magic— and as Yugi's life points neared the low hundreds, a finishing blow…!

"God cards destroyed." The duel was lost, all without the God Cards having any role in the slight diminishing of Kaiba's life points.

Kaiba couldn't help the laughter that escaped his lips then. At last!

* * *

Mokuba scuttled out of the glass elevator and dashed down the side of the arena, concealed by the gutters that led to the galleries. Access to the galleries was closed now; apparently Seto had gone and started to seal off all the exits. There was only one place where Mokuba knew he had to be— and that was in the floating control room. He clambered up the metal ladder that connected to the main platform that the control room was usually fixed to; when Seto had the Duel Dome built, he gave the control room the option to detach from its platform and move about the arc of the dome. Dramatic, popular duels could then be broadcast in several different angles, all because of the cameras and holo-emitters fixed to the control room's outer paneling.

By the time he got into the control room a few moments later, he spotted Joey, Tristan, and Duke emerging from their own elevator and getting out at the top-most galleries, where access was still available. They'd most likely forgotten to push a button in the elevator, so by default, it had taken them to the uppermost floor.

_'But where's Téa?'_ Something seemed awfully wrong about all this. Aside from the fact that Yugi and Seto were dueling again in the first place, it made no sense for Téa **not** to be there. Unless she wasn't showing up on purpose, to protest both Yugi and Seto dueling again…? But somehow that seemed unlikely, even in Mokuba's mind.

Little did he know that Téa intended to be at that Duel, whether she missed the first draw phase or not.

It was just a matter of time.

* * *

"I've got my motorcycle parked near the school— if we run, we can take it and make it to the Duel Dome in fifteen minutes," Malik told Téa. They were briskly walking back in the general direction of the school and the Turtle Game Store— the opposite direction of where they needed to be, but the only direction where they could go to get to the Duel Dome within a reasonable amount of time. The route from the Domino Museum of History was still so clogged with policemen that even if they'd called a taxi from right in front, they never would have made it past the blockades.

"Go, Téa," Serenity urged her friend, before the brunette could even respond. "Grandpa and I can take a taxi. We'll be there in a little bit— but **you** need to be there now."

Téa hesitated at first; she didn't want to abandon Solomon or Serenity. But…

_'I have to be there.'_ It wasn't just a matter of stopping Seto and Yugi from doing something "stupid." It was more than that, but Téa couldn't put the feeling into words.

She nodded at Serenity and then at Malik, and within seconds, the two of them were dashing off toward the school.

Within a few minutes, they were panting as they neared Domino High, the stark-white outline of the school highlighted in a brilliant orange. The sun had set only moments before, so they had to hurry. Trying to get to the Duel Dome in the dark would only present greater difficulties for them. Malik tossed his single helmet to Téa and methodically prepared the bike.

"What about you?" Téa asked as she finished strapping the helmet around her chin.

"Don't worry about me," Malik said as he straddled the bike. "Besides, you have bigger concerns at the moment. The sooner we get to the Duel Dome…" He never finished his sentence. He revved up his bike with a roar. Téa adjusted herself on the seat behind Malik, but she barely had a moment to find the handles on the side of the bike before he went tearing off into the growing dark.

* * *

"I hope you brought your Egyptian God Cards— otherwise this duel isn't going to be any fun at all."

"Kaiba, I'm sensing the presence of something far more dangerous than you could possibly imagine!"

The smirk that Kaiba had been keeping in check found its way to his lips. More blather? Just what did Yugi think he was accomplishing by spouting such nonsense?

"Spare me the fairy tales," Kaiba stated, though his voice came out with a surprising snarl to it. His blood was pumping; adrenaline was rushing in his veins— he just wanted to get the duel started! Normally Kaiba had a much more practiced level of patience, but for some reason, he was aching to defeat Yugi quickly and easily…

_'No! If this is going to be the perfect victory, I'm going to take my time and relish in it!'_

But the moment Kaiba thought that, his chest began to ache. Better to concentrate on Yugi and get him to start the duel already.

"I'm serious! We could all be in great danger!"

"I've heard enough!" Kaiba thrust a hand out, pointing a finger accusingly at Yugi. "If you think you sense something dangerous, you're absolutely right— **because it's me and my deck**! In this duel monsters match, you're about to lose big time!"

He glanced up toward Mokuba in the control room, just out of the corner of his eye. "Mokuba! Seal all of the exits!"

Mokuba hesitated, and in that second, Seto's gaze turned fully on him. Despite the distance between them, the look in Seto's eyes unnerved Mokuba in a way that had never happened before. If he sealed all the exits, there'd be no way for Yugi and the guys to get out… and no way for Téa to get in.

_'Big Brother really wants this… that badly?'_

Without words, it seemed as though Seto was throwing away everything that he and Téa had shared in recent months. He knew that Téa didn't want him to duel Yugi, but…

"If you say so," Mokuba spoke into the microphone, his voice hollow and sad. His finger trembled before at last it made contact with the button, and with a resounding slam, the remaining doors in the Duel Dome shut.

"What's the deal?" Joey shouted, turning around to stare at the remaining windows and doors as they sealed themselves.

"We're trapped, man!" Tristan responded. The boys all watched helplessly as window after window and door after door was covered by steel plates, with no apparent way of breaking through or getting past them.

"Now, what do you say we get down to business already!" Kaiba demanded. It wasn't a question. The last of the rumbles from distant doors sealed themselves off faded away, and soon it was just the boys in the arena.

_'Something tells me that this is not a good idea!'_ Yami Yugi realized, but there was no way out now. No physical way, at any rate. It seemed as if Kaiba had reverted back into the obsessive, egotistical duelist Yami had once known him as; he halfway hoped that being with Téa had changed Kaiba, but it seemed not. If so, Kaiba had no place being with her…

"Kaiba, why don't you stop thinking about yourself for once and listen to what I'm telling you?"

Trying to talk to Kaiba was such a last resort for Yami Yugi (especially in dueling situations), but it had to be done— if not for Téa's sake, then for Kaiba's own… even if he was too stubborn to see it.

"You're in no position to be making demands," Kaiba snapped. "Now shut up and duel!" As an afterthought, he added snidely, "And may the best duelist win."

Silently, Yami Yugi believed that Kaiba was beyond hope. It was honestly saddening, especially when he thought of all the time and feelings that Téa had wasted on Kaiba. But these were thoughts that had no place in a duel.

Yami Yugi shifted his hand and snapped his Duel Disk into place, the Life Point counter activating with 4000 points.

"I guess Yugi's going through with this," Duke observed.

"Kaiba ain't leaving 'im much choice!" Joey gritted out. Like Yugi, he too was having his reservations about Kaiba. Joey had been on the verge of believing that Kaiba **had** changed, and for the better, too. But to demand a duel out of nowhere and trap them inside the Dome? Kaiba was going too far.

"All Duel Dome exits are secure, all dueling systems online," Mokuba announced into the microphone. His voice was still hollow and flat as it had been before; with each passing moment he realized that he wanted no part in this duel, because he knew that breaking Téa's heart came as a consequence. No matter what happened between her and Seto, she still meant more to Mokuba for him to let that happen. But what else could he do?

"You've been taking credit for being the best duelist for way too long," Kaiba stated as he shuffled his deck. He walked over to Yami Yugi, his stride confident and filled with purpose. The two of them traded decks and cut them, and handed them back to each other.

"And to tell you the truth," Kaiba continued when he reached his side of the arena once more, "I'm sick of it. By the time this duel is over, you'll be exposed to the world as a total fraud!"

"Been there, tried that," Duke muttered under his breath. Louder, he said, "Kaiba's going to need more than his usual share of confidence and ego to get him out of this one. I'd ask Joey to wish him luck, but something tells me you're not on Kaiba's side for this one."

It wasn't a question, but nonetheless, Duke glanced over to see what Joey's reaction was. Not including the duelists so desperately after Yugi's God Cards, they hadn't dueled at all in recent memory. The duels that they **had** been through were ones to remember. After all, one didn't just _forget_ the kind of duels they got caught in— each and every one had a much deeper meaning than just "some game."

Joey narrowed his eyes as he stared down at the dueling arena. He continued to grip the rail separating the top-most gallery from the arena below, concentrating on every diatribe exchanged between his best friend and the guy who had once been his bitterest rival. Not even Joey could claim that Kaiba was still a rival the way he used to be, but the way he was acting just seemed so out of left-field…

"Let's duel!"

"I'll start!" Kaiba announced, drawing a card to add to the five already in his hand. "First, I'll summon my Familiar Knight in defense mode! Try and get past him." The silver-clad warrior emerged from a gathering of light from the holographic projectors, and a virtual card appeared horizontally underneath the knight. Kaiba ended his turn, shifting the play over to Yami Yugi, who drew a card of his own.

"Very well, I shall! I play Queen's Knight!" The voluptuous female warrior in scarlet armor appeared on the field, her blonde hair fluttering behind her. She was easily more powerful than the Familiar Knight, with 1500 attack points and 1600 defense points, versus the Familiar Knight's 1200 attack and 1400 defense.

"And now… say goodbye to your monster! Queen's Knight, attack!" As soon as the command went through, the massive screen on either side of the galleries revealed the two knight's attack and defense values. It was the Queen's Knight's 1500 against the Familiar Knight's 1400— an easy victory. There'd be no damage done to Kaiba's Life Points, but not having monsters on the field was a critical weakness.

The Queen's Knight leapt forward and thrust her sword straight through the Familiar Knight's shield. It bent like so much liquid silver, and in a burst of brilliant light, the Familiar Knight disappeared from the field. The light didn't quite fade though, and soon a massive black creature appeared on the field where the Familiar Knight had been. Within seconds, it was clear that the monstrous shape with spikes protruding from every angle was a dragon— the Rare Metal Dragon, to be precise.

"By destroying your knight, I've activated its special ability, which allows you to play a new beast in its place."

Up in the galleries, Joey and Tristan looked astonished. Duke, for his part, continued to stare at Kaiba, who had a bored expression plastered on his face.

"He did **what**?**"**

"WHAT? Yugi's lost it! Why would he let Kaiba play a monster with 2400 attack points?" The dragon was stronger than Yugi's Queen's Knight by a long shot, and it would take a chunk out of Yugi's Life Points if it attacked.

"And you're being so helpful because… why?" Kaiba asked tonelessly. Oh, he already knew why. Might as well amuse Yugi and feign a lack of awareness about Yugi's tired strategies. He resisted the urge to smirk when he saw Yugi close his eyes and smile smugly.

"Because I also get to summon a new monster… King's Knight!" The Familiar Knight's effect dictated that when it was sent to the Graveyard as a result of battle, both players could then Special Summon a creature of Level 4 from their hand. Both Yugi and Kaiba apparently had the luck of the draw, as both of them had Level 4 monsters in their hand— Kaiba with his Rare Metal Dragon and Yugi with his Knight.

But it still didn't make any sense— the King's Knight was barely more powerful than his female counterpart. Even if Yami Yugi now had one more monster on the field than Kaiba, neither of his creatures were strong enough to withstand an attack from Kaiba's dragon.

"When these two knights are in play… I can automatically summon my Jack's Knight!"

"Wasn't there a big to-do about changing the ruling of King's Knight?" Duke wondered idly. "Something about how its effect should only work when it's Normal Summoned?"

"You're whining about that **now**?" Joey demanded. Duke only rolled his eyes and continued to watch the duel.

"And next…" Yami Yugi continued, "I'll place one card face down. Make your move!"

Kaiba didn't respond to Yami Yugi's overconfident tone, and instead drew a card. One glance confirmed it— the start of his victory. Distantly, he thought he just heard something— a deep voice chanting something incomprehensible.

_'Just my imagination.'_

"Looks like your luck's finally run out," Kaiba said. "I'll keep this card face down on the field until the time is right." He placed the Pyramid of Light face down in his magic and trap card zone and waited. The chance that Yugi would have a trap-destruction card either in his hand or already set on the field was slim to none. Such cards, while helpful in a pinch, tended to be useless in a deck like Yugi's, where his main strategy seemed more toward bringing out his most powerful monsters quickly.

But this would be one time when Yugi's most powerful monsters didn't stand a chance.

"Right for **me**, that is," Kaiba continued. "And then nothing in your deck will make a difference. Your move, Yugi."

Kaiba was essentially playing devil's advocate; he had the ability to attack and prevent Yugi from summoning the God Cards by negating any chance of his ever having three monsters on the field at the same time. But that was the exact opposite of what he wanted— so he didn't attack.

Yugi narrowed his eyes in suspicion, but he drew his next card anyway. The moment his fingers brushed against the card, he felt a jolt from deep within his chest. A single look confirmed it: Slifer the Sky Dragon. He had the means to summon the dragon now, but something still seemed so **wrong** about this…

_'An Egyptian God card!'_ Yugi appeared beside his other half with an innocent smile on his face. It was clear that he didn't feel the strange power fluctuating from this place. Or was it really this place, and not Kaiba himself? Yami Yugi couldn't be sure, so he had to keep dueling.

"I sacrifice my three knights to bring forth my ultimate creature!" The three knights turned into balls of colored light and vanished, and all at once the holo-emitters in the arena seemed to overload. A dark, swirling cloud appeared on Yugi's side of the field, and from within that darkness, a streak of blood red slithered and slid out.

"Behold the Egyptian God Card… Slifer the Sky Dragon!" In truth, there was no Egyptian God by the name of 'Slifer,' just like there was no god called 'Obelisk.' But the reasons behind their names were just as much a mystery to Yami Yugi as his own past. "Your monster is completely defenseless against the divine power of Slifer!"

Only those that already knew how the God Cards worked could possibly activate them; otherwise they were just highly decorative, extremely rare cards. Slifer's effect wasn't listed on its card; all it said was _The heavens twist and thunder roars, signaling the coming of this ancient creature, and the dawn of true power._ In truth, Slifer's had the ability to increase its attack power by 1000 points for every card in the controller's hand. Since Yugi had three cards in his hand, Slifer's power was at 3000 for both attack and defense. It was only a meager amount over Kaiba's Rare Metal Dragon, but it would be enough to do some damage.

"Now, my Sky Dragon— attack!"

Slifer attacked with its legendary and overwhelmingly-bright Thunder Force attack, destroying the Rare Metal Dragon on the field. Having Slifer on the field also gave Yugi the assurance that no matter what Kaiba summoned, its attack would be reduced by 2000. Any creatures summoned with an attack of 2000 or less would be destroyed, as would any defense-position monsters set. There was no way Kaiba could bring out his signature Blue-Eyes White Dragon card without making the requisite tributes, and even if he **did** manage to get it on the field somehow, it would have a lowered attack thanks to Slifer's Summon Lightning Impact ability.

Kaiba shielded his eyes from the crimson lightning that flared out from Slifer and its Thunder Force attack. His Life Points dropped to 3400 points, but Kaiba didn't flinch. This was all part of his plan.

"Had enough?" Yugi demanded. A pointless question to ask, since Kaiba would **never** surrender under any circumstances.

Now that Yugi's turn was over, Kaiba drew another card and pulled another from his hand, placing it in his magic and trap card zone.

"Not only am I not afraid of your God Cards, but I'm going to force you to summon all three of them at once!" He activated Obligatory Summon, a simple magic card with the ability to force-summon creatures of the same type of the ones that were already on the field.

There was a collective gasp from Yugi and his friends up in the galleries; perhaps Yugi wasn't the one who'd lost it, but Kaiba!

"Thanks to my Obligatory Summon magic card, you have to bring out every monster in your deck that falls into the same category as the one that's on the field already!" Such summons counted as Special Summons, and theoretically, would only last until the end of the turn, since they affected all Divine-Beast type monsters, but it hardly mattered to Kaiba. He just wanted to prove to Yugi once and for all that he wasn't the best duelist out there.

"Very well then! I play two more Egyptian God Cards: Obelisk the Tormentor and the Winged Dragon of Ra!"

Yami didn't even have to search his deck for the God Cards; his Duel Disk automatically reacted to the activation of Obligatory Summon and shuffled his deck so that the God Cards were the next two cards on the top of his deck. Yugi barely touched them before his Duel Disk glowed with an awesome display of golden light, the other two God Cards appearing on the field beside Slifer.

"You've allowed me to assemble the three strongest and most feared creatures in Duel Monsters, Kaiba— a foolish mistake!" Nonetheless, having the three God Cards on the field all at once didn't particularly comfort Yami Yugi. There had to be a reason behind all this— behind Kaiba wanting this duel **now**, after so much time had passed since Battle City; behind the strange feeling Yami was getting, and behind Kaiba making such a foolish move and forcing all the God Cards into play at once.

"It's no mistake!" Kaiba laughed. "My entire strategy was to draw out your Egyptian God Cards so I can be the first duelist to crush all of them at once!"

Yami narrowed his eyes in suspicion. "And just how do you intend to do that?"

"You're about to find out right now!"

The moment he saw Kaiba's fingers move toward the face-down card on his Duel Disk, Yami realized his fatal error. He'd completely forgotten about that card… but what magic or trap card could possibly affect the God Cards? Unless…

"Reveal Trap card— Pyramid of Light!" The face-down card on the field flipped up, shining as it activated. Yugi couldn't read the text from his distance, but Kaiba's words had caught him off-guard.

"So the Pyramid of Light is more than just an artifact! It's also a card!" And apparently the two were connected, because the moment Kaiba activated the card, a brilliant blue-white light burst forth from the card, blinding everyone watching the duel.

The voice Kaiba had originally passed off as his imagination grew increasingly louder, and judging by the way that Yugi, Joey, Tristan, and Duke were looking around in confusion, they could hear the chanting too.

When the light dimmed slightly, one could barely make out the outline of a pyramid enclosing the arena platform— and the God Cards were nowhere to be seen.

"Looks like your so-called unstoppable monsters have been stopped!" Kaiba announced smugly.

"Impossible!" Yugi looked around, but all he could see were walls of blue-white light, extending upward further and further to a single point.

"See for yourself!" Yugi stared at the wall closest to him, watching it as it faded ever-so-slightly… revealing the Gods trapped behind it.

"Whoa, check it out!" Mokuba stared from the control room, the highest point where one could still see both into the pyramid and what was out of it. He watched in fascination as Obelisk the Tormentor, the mighty Divine-Beast Warrior stretched a massive hand out toward the Pyramid of Light and was immediately shocked by a burst of lightning. The lighting arced up and tangled around the twin mouths of Slifer the Sky Dragon, and it writhed in agony.

"Your monsters are useless!" Kaiba laughed once more, allowing the feeling of triumph to course through his veins. He watched in mute satisfaction as the God Cards vanished, one by one.

"But… how?"

"He actually did it!" Mokuba couldn't help the smile that started to curve his lips; even Téa knew how long Seto had wanted to prove himself, to be victorious once more. Perhaps she didn't understand the way Mokuba did— the reason why Seto needed to be champion so badly. If Seto wasn't the best at **something**, he felt useless. And now it looked like he would finally win…!

His happiness was short-lived the moment Mokuba's gaze drifted back to the playing field from the control panels. Instead of the awesome blue walls of the Pyramid of Light, he saw a depthless nebula of crimson and azure, with a massive golden eye in the center. Where the pupil of the eye would have been there was a vortex of darkness, almost calling to Mokuba to come closer, closer…

Down in the playing field, Yami lurched forward as a sharp pain increased to an almost agonizing level in his chest. He saw the spirit-form of Yugi beside him for just an instant, screaming in pain, before his other half disappeared just as the Gods had.

"What's this?"

Golden lightning crackled around the Millennium Puzzle, and the sharp pain in his chest morphed into a blistering cold, as if everything in his body was being sucked away into oblivion. The feeling that Yami usually got from the puzzle —that comfort, that assurance that Yugi was with him, mentally and spiritually was gone.

"YUGI!"

* * *

Outside the arena, Joey, Tristan and Duke were staring at the quickly-changing walls of the Pyramid of Light. No longer blue-white to their eyes, the walls seemed to have changed to a sickening shade of blood red, with a single gold-rimmed eye in the center filled with the darkest shade of blue.

"Aw man, not more freaky magic!" Tristan groused. Only one look at the eye in the center of the Pyramid sent his stomach reeling, and in order to combat the nausea, he gripped the gallery rail tightly.

"This weird stuff always happens when Yugi duels!" Joey complained. He shouted down to the pyramid that had effectively stopped the God Cards and blocked the rest of the duel from their view. "Hey! Whatta **you** lookin' at?"

The eye seemed to react to Joey's taunt, as the massive vortex of blue suddenly burst forth with powerful winds. A booming voice chanted in an unintelligible language, louder and louder. As if in response, the winds grew increasingly stronger.

"I think you got it mad!" Duke shouted over the roaring winds to Joey. Joey scowled at him, but he quickly focused his attention on gripping the railing as hard as he could. The wind was threatening to tear him and the others right out of the galleries and down into the arena below!

"Just hang on, man!" Tristan shouted to Joey.

"Easier said than done!" Joey closed his eyes against the fierce wind, but when white-hot pain lanced up his arm, he opened his eyes. To his astonishment, red lightning was spewing from the center of the golden eye, burning everything in its path. Joey closed his eyes to the pain once more, and then everything went black.

When the boys next opened their eyes, they all felt light-headed— and for good reason. They barely managed to spot their own bodies lying on the gallery floor, untouched by the vortex of winds from the Pyramid of Light, before they were pulled into the eye and into darkness.

* * *

Mokuba realized things were going out of control the moment one of the ceiling rafters fell from its place and slammed right through the control room roof. One by one, rafters started to fall, and he could barely risk taking a look out the control room windows to see if his brother was still all right. According to the control panels, the duel was still on— but Mokuba couldn't see anything but the blood-red pyramid, with a brilliant beam of blue-white light shooting out from its uppermost tip.

"This is crazy!" Mokuba exclaimed, ducking another piece of falling debris. He had to get out of the control room if he valued his life— and fast!

* * *

They were almost there— just beyond that hill, and the Duel Dome would be in sight. But before they could round that last bend, an amazingly sharp pain filled Téa's chest,and she lost her grip on Malik's motorcycle handles. She lurched forward, nauseous, and quickly wrapped her arms around the Egyptian's waist to try and steady herself. Malik slowed down just a bit, casting a surprised look at Téa behind him.

"Something wrong?"

_'There **is** something wrong. I don't know what it is, but I can feel it… Seto, please be okay!'_ Téa shook her head fiercely and managed to tell Malik to continue driving, but the ache in her chest wouldn't go away.

As long as Seto was okay, Téa could forgive him for restarting his rivalry with Yugi, for dueling with such fierce desperation. He'd probably had his reasons, but Téa had been so shocked and upset by his deception that she hadn't wanted to hear them. Likely Seto had been fed up with her own overreaction and hadn't bothered to clarify his reasons.

In the next moment, they rounded the corner and saw it— the quickly-deteriorating Duel Dome, with a massive pillar of light bursting from its center.

"That blue beam is the same color as the Pyramid of Light from the museum, and I bet it's no coincidence," Malik observed. He could feel the unsteady ground quake beneath the grip of his bike's tires, but they couldn't stop now.

_'Whatever's going on in there, one thing's for sure— it can't be good!'_ But whether it was part of the prophecy or not, Malik couldn't be sure. All he knew was that he had to get Téa to where she needed to be.

Little did she know, her need to find Kaiba wasn't merely a selfish one, based in her own heart, but one dictated by the ancient past.

_'Destiny…'_

* * *

"Yugi! Where are you?" Yami clutched his Millennium Puzzle desperately, turning it this way and that, but he still couldn't feel anything. He mentally tried to call on Yugi, even tried to force him to emerge, but nothing happened. Anger started to swell in his chest where that cold, empty feeling once was, and he turned angry eyes on Kaiba.

"KAIBA! Do you have any idea what you have just done!"

"Well, let's see…" Kaiba closed his eyes and smiled smugly, "I think I've just beaten you!"

Yami gritted his teeth in frustration, but the way it was looking, Kaiba was right. But Yami didn't care nearly so much about his title as the 'King of Games' as he did about Yugi. If something had happened to him because of Kaiba's idiotic desire to be number one and his mysterious Pyramid of Light card, then…

* * *

The first sensation Yugi felt upon awakening was cold. Slowly, his eyes opened, but all he could make out was a vast grayness. As the blurry veil before his eyes lifted, he realized that he was cold because he'd been lying face-down against what looked like a concrete floor. And not just any concrete floor— but one of many, stretching up and up, with staircases reaching up and around, hanging in impossible directions, and heading toward doors that could not be opened if gravity had any play in this realm.

But Yugi knew full well that things like gravity had no part in this realm— the realm of his other half's heart and soul.

"I've gotta find the pharaoh's spirit so we can reconnect!" Yugi mumbled aloud as he struggled to stand. He looked around, but there didn't appear to be anything or anyone in sight, just endless walls, staircases, and doors.

"I'm pretty sure that one of these rooms belongs to him… but which one? There must be a million doorways in this place!"

Well, the only way to find out was by looking around.

He opened doorway after doorway, walking up and down stairs. All he had to do was will himself to walk in ways that would normally be impossible, and he did. He continued to open the upside-down doors, and the doors that hung on precipices of cold stone. Nothing. Endless black in each room.

Emptiness. Confusion.

"Hello? Hello-oo?" Still no one. Not even a spot of light to indicate a doorway through a door, or a hallway with multiple doors…

"Pharaoh, are you here?" No response again. Although Yugi was unsure if time passed in this realm, the ache in his legs and the emptiness in his chest told him that he'd been searching for quite a long time.

"PHARAOH!"

* * *

"Oh, man… I feel as bad as you look, Joey," Tristan groaned as he struggled to his feet. The moment he opened his eyes, he shut them again and blinked rapidly, thinking he was seeing things. But when he opened his eyes a second time, his surroundings remained the same.

"Tristan, I don't think we're in Kansas anymore," Joey said as he looked around.

"It looks like some weird maze," Duke observed.

"Yeah," Tristan agreed. "And we're the lab rats!"

Not a moment later, they all heard a distinctly familiar scream, but all they caught of the word was an echo. All they recognized was the voice of their best friend— Yugi.

"You hear that?" Tristan stared up, unsure if the voice had come from above or below.

"Yeah! It sounded like Yugi. Come on!" Without an apparent clue as to where Yugi was, Joey took off in one direction in a run, not even stopping to check if Tristan and Duke were behind him.

* * *

"It hurts, doesn't it?" Kaiba sneered, asking the question with a drawl. It was apparent his question was completely rhetorical, especially when he continued speaking without any prompt from Yami.

"When you put your faith in the gods and they let you down. If I were you, now's a good time to start praying for mercy."

Yami was sorely tempted to end Kaiba's arrogance once and for all— the same way he had so long ago, with a quick and simple Mind Crush. But at this time, in this duel, Kaiba hardly deserved it. Yami knew he just wanted someone to blame —someone to take the fall for the disappearance of the Pyramid of Light and the mummy of Anubis, and Yugi vanishing for no apparent reason. But as much as Yami hated to admit it, Kaiba was not at fault.

Part of him —the part of him that had learned from Yugi's kindness toward others— reminded him that stubborn Kaiba had led a very tough life thus far, and probably wasn't just talking about the God Cards when he mentioned "the gods letting you down."

Yami blinked fiercely, determined to end this duel, to get Kaiba to realize the truth once and for all— and above all else, to get Yugi back, safe and sound.

"From here on out, I'm planning to take you apart, piece by painful piece!" Kaiba continued. He withdrew another card from his hand and placed it in his magic and trap card zone, activating it. "Let the torture continue with this… the torrential magic of Mystical Space Typhoon! Your face-down card is destroyed!"

The game having switched to Kaiba's turn, he used his chance to summon a creature.

"And if you liked that, then you're going to love this! Peten the Dark Clown!"

The smiling harlequin didn't look like much, were it not for the razor-sharp blade in its left hand. It laughed darkly in that eerie way that holographic Duel Monsters did, and bounced on the soles of its rubber feet. Yami swallowed the bile that had started to creep its way up his throat; it was not that he was afraid of losing, it was that he was afraid that he'd already lost something more precious than any Duel Monsters title.

Talking to Kaiba obviously didn't help matters, but giving up was simply something Yami Yugi did not do. He had to figure out a way to combat Kaiba's revamped deck and surprising strategy— and talk him out of this insanity before matters got worse.

"Don't let his name fool you. He's no laughing matter," Kaiba said, but the maniacal smile on his face indicated otherwise. He must have indicated that Peten should attack, for the clown vanished from Kaiba's side of the field and reappeared a moment later directly behind Yami. Without any creatures on his side of the field to protect him, Peten's dagger sliced right through Yami. Though the blade and monster were both holographic, both the Duel Monsters card and Kaiba Corporation's Solid Vision holographic technology caused the stab that lanced through Yami's chest to feel awfully realistic.

He gasped in surprise as he tried to catch his breath, barely seeing Peten bounce back to Kaiba's side of the field, laughing all the way. His chest was still stinging, hurting far more than any other direct attack had ever hurt before.

"And to top it off, I'll place this face-down on the field!" Kaiba announced, but Yami wasn't paying the slightest bit of attention.

_'That attack… it drained me somehow. But I'm far from finished!'_

Now that it was back to being Yami's turn, he had to think fast. He drew a card, feeling a temporary rush of relief. Kaiba's clown had a mere 500 attack points, while the card he just drew had 1600 attack points, and 1800 defense. It was more than enough to destroy Peten and do some damage to Kaiba… but there was that face-down card. After Peten's attack, Yami had only 100 more Life Points than Kaiba, and he couldn't risk giving Kaiba an even greater advantage.

But he would have to take that chance.

"Magician's Valkyria!" The Level 4 Light Spellcaster was part of Yugi's trademark Dark Magician-themed deck, one that, even with the God Cards in hand, would never leave his side. The Valkyria was a "cousin" to the Dark Magician Girl, and prevented any of Kaiba's monsters from attacking other Spellcasters so long as Valkyria was face-up on the field.

"Attack with Mystic Scepter Blast!"

Magician's Valkyria raised her jeweled stave while green light coalesced at its tip. Within seconds, a blast went hurtling toward Peten the Dark Clown, effectively blowing into tiny little bits, and reducing Kaiba's Life Points to 2300. Kaiba looked upset for only a moment before he raised his hand and flipped over his face-down card.

"Nice try Yugi, but I knew you'd make that move, which is why my face-down card is Deck Destruction Virus!"

A cousin of Kaiba's powerful Crush card and its counterpart, Deck Devastation Virus, Kaiba's new viral infection card had the loathsome ability of taking ten random cards from Yami's deck and immediately sending them to the Graveyard. Worse, the card was a permanent trap. The only benefit for Yami was that the card only activated when Dark monsters of 500 attack or less were destroyed. Kaiba likely had very few monsters that weak in his deck.

Although Peten the Dark Clown was gone, the mayhem had just begun.

"You set off this crippling trap when you destroyed my Dark Clown, and now its viral tentacles will infect ten random cards from your deck and send them straight to the graveyard!" Truth be told, Kaiba preferred this card over his age-old Shrink-and-Crush combination, because it affected Yami's magic and trap cards, too. And if Yami were stupid enough to attack him again, he would only destroy himself. But if he **didn't** attack, he would give Kaiba the means of summoning a creature that he couldn't possibly handle…

"Oh no!" Yami had realized Kaiba's twisted strategy a moment too late, and the holographic tentacles with razor-sharp fangs for teeth came racing across the arena toward Yami. They latched onto his Duel Disk and disappeared with a crackle of lightning.

"Oh yes, Yugi!" Kaiba laughed. "Now say goodbye to 25 percent of your deck!" The Duel Disk II's mechanism immediately forced ten cards to the top of Yugi's deck. The automatic drop-shifting device instantly placed the cards in the graveyard, and locked them in place so not even Yami could tell what they were.

He had a fairly good idea though, as he had yet to draw some of his most powerful, non-God-type cards. But if Kaiba had destroyed them along with his only means of bringing them back, then…

"I hate to be the bearer of even more bad news," Kaiba began sarcastically, "but when you destroyed my Dark Clown, you activated his special ability, allowing me to summon another Dark Clown to take his place!" As Kaiba spoke, another Peten the Dark Clown pushed its way out of Kaiba's deck, allowing him to grab it and immediately summon it to the field. Since the clown was summoned as the result of another card's effect, it counted as a Special Summon, and thereby allowed Kaiba to Normal Summon a monster for his turn.

"I summon Des Feral Imp!" The grotesque green creature with fangs was an equal match for Yami's Valkyria, but that wasn't what concerned Yami at the moment. Kaiba already had two creatures on the field, while Yami only had his one.

"And next, I'll activate the magic of Card of Demise! It lets me draw five new cards from my deck… but if I don't use them in five turns, I lose them in five turns." More specifically, the card allowed him to draw five new cards all at once, with the provision that he would discard his entire hand in five turns. If he had anything powerful in his hand, it would go straight to the Graveyard, but cards that he set on the field would count as being "used." Nonetheless, the pressure was on for Kaiba to finish the game in five turns or less— and he seemed to be rubbing the fact that he _could_ win in less than five turns in Yami's face.

"Now I'll sacrifice my Des Feral Imp and activate White Dragon Ritual… to summon Paladin of White Dragon!" Since the White Dragon Ritual only required a single tribute of a Level 4 or greater monster, the imp with equal attack strength to Yugi's Valkyria was completely expendable. The Ritual counted as a Special Summon, and the 1900 attack and 1200 defense Paladin riding astride a small, blunt-headed white dragon had the special ability of destroying any face-down monster cards regardless of their defense points, making it dangerous to anything Yami Yugi had or could possibly put on the field.

"Paladin, attack! Ionic Spear Burst!" The thickly-muscled paladin in white and gold armor swung his spear high up into the air, while his dragon reared back and roared fiercely. A stream of deep blue and white energy charged across the field, sending Magician's Valkyria flying into a nearby wall. Barely a second passed before she burst into little pieces, disappearing from the field.

Yami's Life Points dropped to 3200, but he couldn't risk another attack from Kaiba's 1900 attack monster. Worse, its name seemed to indicate some sort of connection to Kaiba's infamous Blue-Eyes White Dragon cards, and Yami couldn't possibly risk letting _them_ get out on the field…

_'It's as though when I lose my Life Points, I'm losing my actual life energy…'_ Yami thought weakly. Perhaps the Pyramid of Light had something to do with it? Everything seemed to be centering on the artifact. Even Téa had recognized its strange resemblance to the Millennium Puzzle, and if Yugi's grandfather was right, it had once been the property of 'Anubis,' whoever he was.

_'An enemy from my past…'_

"And now…" Kaiba began as he removed his Paladin of White Dragon from the field, activating another of its effects, "I summon my Blue-Eyes White Dragon!"

"Take a good look, Yugi!" Kaiba said snidely. "It's the monster that's been the bane of your dueling existence ever since our first match! And now he's back… but he's not alone! Any last requests?"

* * *

Powered by forces beyond her sight and control, Téa thrust herself off Malik's motorcycle moments before he shut it off. She broke out into a sprint, heading toward the Duel Dome, which came closer and closer to collapse with each passing second. If the blue pillar of light bursting from the center of the dome was any indication, Kaiba's desperate duel had turned into something much greater than he could have imagined, and now it was all probably out of control.

There were few precious duels between Yugi and Kaiba that tended to be more serious than necessary— there was the first duel that had left Kaiba enraged at Yami Yugi, the subsequent Death-T duel that left Kaiba comatose, and then the life-threatening duel at Duelist Kingdom. Kaiba had cheated by putting his life on the line, but…

_'Seto Kaiba, if anything happens to you, I'm going to kill you!' _Téa thought incoherently as she ran. She didn't even realize the foolishness of her own thoughts as she neared the falling debris that was once Kaiba's pride and joy. She determinedly ignored the crushing pain in her chest and the tears welling in her eyes, and she continued to run blindly, hoping to find Seto and Yugi before it was too late.

"It looks like an earthquake hit this place!" Malik stared in astonishment after he finally caught up with Téa. He was beyond surprised that she'd been able to outrun him, but he suspected that there was more to it than Téa's toned legs and years of dancing.

"What in the world **_is_** that thing?" Téa murmured, half to herself. She could barely make out the tip of some sort of glowing blue shape from the massive crack in the roof of the Duel Dome, but whatever it was, it made her feel sick to her very core. If Malik was right and it had some connection to the Pyramid of Light that they'd seen at the museum before it had been stolen, then…

"That's what I wanna know!" Téa and Malik turned toward the sound of the voice, their eyes widening as they caught sight of a disheveled-looking Mokuba. He idly brushed dust and debris from his vest, but it was clear from the redness of his eyes and the wetness of his cheeks that he was terrified by what was happening.

The strange feeling that had flooded Téa washed away in an instant, instead filling her with concern and worry for her surrogate 'little brother.'

"Mokuba, are you all right? What's going on in there?"

"Are Yugi and Kaiba inside that thing?" Malik added quietly, though judging by the way he was staring harshly at the blue light, he didn't need an answer.

"Yeah, Yugi's in there…" Mokuba started quietly. It was _his_ fault for not even trying to talk his brother out of going to Duelist Kingdom. Even if such an attempt would have failed anyway, Mokuba felt doubly bad about bringing Yugi to the Duel Dome when he'd known full-well what was going to happen.

To be honest, he hadn't known anything about his brother's new cards, or the havoc it would wreak on the Duel Dome, but…

"And so's my brother."

_'Forget the Duel Dome! I just want to see my brother again!'_

Mokuba had barely escaped the Dome with his life, but he was sure that the strange Pyramid that was emitting that blue light was also holding up the remainder of the structure. That meant that there was at least one route back **into** the Dome that Mokuba could think of. But if the Pyramid disappeared when the duel ended, who knew what would happen to that single escape route, and all the people still trapped inside?

"Wow, what is it?" Another voice exclaimed in surprise. The trio gathered in the front of the Duel Dome turned and saw Serenity and Solomon appear from a rise in the hills.

"The taxi wouldn't drive us any closer than a few kilometers away," Solomon explained with a weak chuckle. "The media's going crazy about this light show at the Duel Dome. They don't seem to think that all the electrical outages and earthquakes all over Japan have anything to do with it, though."

"You think they're all connected?" Malik asked.

"I don't think it'd be too far-fetched to assume so," Solomon said carefully. "It's just too big a coincidence that something like this would appear right after the Pyramid of Light was stolen from the museum."

"The Pyramid of Light?" Mokuba blinked in astonishment. "But that's the name of the card that my brother played! It kicked the God Cards' butts!"

Everyone turned wide, astonished eyes to Mokuba, who nodded and recounted the first half of the duel, in which Kaiba had successfully managed to remove all the God Cards from play. Now, despite Kaiba having less Life Points than Yugi, he most definitely seemed to have the home field advantage.

"I still don't understand how all of this is possible," Serenity murmured absently. "I get that this thing is like what we saw in the museum— but this thing is super-sized!" After Mokuba had told them all about the beginning part of the duel, he'd motioned them to the only way to get back into the Duel Dome— through a field of fallen rafters and chunks of broken glass and concrete. It was an unsafe route, but the only route they had if they had any intentions of saving their friends. As it was, it didn't look like even the police and fire departments would venture near the Duel Dome.

"Anubis," Solomon and Malik said at the same time. The two of them exchanged a glance, but it was Solomon who continued to speak. "Don't you remember the legend from the museum? Anubis once tried to destroy the world, using the power of the Pyramid of Light."

It sounded like it went against everything that everyone knew— light as a destructive force, and someone taking an Egyptian god's name in vain to justify mass murder.

"If the myth is true," Malik started, "then our Anubis, whoever he is, is using the Pyramid of Light **_and_** Kaiba to finish what he started in the past! It probably doesn't help matters that the Pharaoh and Kaiba are both stuck inside the super-size version of that ancient artifact. We have no idea of its power."

Unspoken were the words that offered a much grimmer, harsher reality: _The Pharaoh and Kaiba could already be dead._

* * *

Yugi continued to wander the dark, seemingly-endless halls of the Pharaoh's labyrinth. His legs were aching with a blinding pain, but he continued to ignore it. He couldn't give up. He **wouldn't** give up! What would his other half think of him if he did…?

When Yugi looked up, he couldn't help but be astonished— there, right before his eyes, was none other than his other self! But unlike all the other times when they'd appeared in the same "in between realm" together, this time the Pharaoh was hardly there. He was a spirit, and little more.

"Hey!" Yugi called out, but his other self didn't seem to register his voice. He started to move —you couldn't really call it walking, since the Pharaoh's legs were rather nonexistent— and fade, prompting Yugi to call out again, in the hopes that he just hadn't been heard the first time.

"Where'd he go! Hey, come back!"

As soon as Yugi spoke, he spotted his other self again— disappearing into a metal door. Yugi stared at the door in hesitation.

"This isn't his room…" Yugi knew his other half's soul well —at least, he thought he did. What he knew was that his other half's soul room was guarded by a thick metal door with the Eye of Horus emblazoned on its front, with strange veins creeping out from its center. But the door that his other half had just vanished through was a plain metal door, nothing more.

When Yugi finally entered the room, his original suspicions were confirmed. This room was much more massive than the one Yugi recognized as being the place where his other half took residence; it also wasn't sparsely decorated or the least bit dark. Instead, the lengthy room had towering pillars of stone reaching far up into the darkness, each of them fixed with a brightly burning torch. The firelight lit a path lined with mysterious sarcophagi, and the air seemed to be filled with the distinct odor of dryness and age.

The pathway ended at a short stairway that led up to a single stone tablet with another, ornately-carved sarcophagus at its base, but Yugi wasn't close enough to notice anything specific. All he could see was the quickly-fading form of his other self…

"Oh no!" In the instant that Yugi ran forward, the spirit of Yami Yugi vanished like so much wind, while a strange laughter started to echo from every corner of the mysterious room. Yugi looked around wildly, but there was no one in sight. Not even the shadows seemed to move.

"Who's there?" Yugi called out, half out of fright and half out of suspicion. For all intents and purposes, there _couldn't_ be anyone else within this realm, within the Millennium Puzzle. Someone would have needed to get his hands on the puzzle to imbue it with a "part of himself," and as far as Yugi knew, the only person who knew how to do that and possessed the means was Bakura… and no one had seen him in a while.

Not as far as Yugi knew, anyway.

The same booming voice started to chant in an incomprehensible language, and to Yugi's horror, arms started to lift from the coffins scattering the floor. One by one, hollow-eyed mummies rose from their tombs, making all sorts of bizarre noises despite their lack of internal organs. They started to clamber and move toward Yugi, who, out of fright, screamed and ran from the room as fast as his legs could carry him.

* * *

Joey, Duke, and Tristan hadn't stopped running ever since they'd heard Yugi's initial scream some minutes ago, but now they were running low on ideas as to where the scream could have originated from. They seemed to be going around in circles, if that was even possible in a maze-like place such as this.

"Yugi, you in here?" Joey continued to peer into every doorway he came across, calling in vain throughout the massive labyrinth.

"Yugi!"

It didn't matter whether they all called out at once, or how loud their voices got; Yugi seemed to have vanished— if he was ever in here in the first place.

All of a sudden, they spotted movement in the distance, and they stopped. Yugi came hurtling out of a doorway, a look of sheer terror on his face. Joey, Tristan, and Duke all turned relieved smiles in Yugi's direction, thinking their friend would slow down once he spotted them at the other end of the hallway, but Yugi kept running at a pace that would have made a track star proud.

"Hey!" Joey called out to Yugi as he approached.

"Hi!" Tristan managed, but in the second it took for him to look down, Yugi was running between him and Joey, ignoring them completely.

"Talk later, run NOW!" Yugi's voice came as a frantic shout, echoing off the darkened walls of the maze.

"What's with him?" Duke wondered in confusion. When he started to hear Tristan and Joey stammer in unison, he turned around and got his answer: a veritable army of mummies stumbling and groaning toward them, at what looked like impossible speeds.

"ZOINKS!"

* * *

"I don't know what dark powers are at work here, but I can't let them go unchecked!" As it was Yugi's turn, he drew a card and then played one in the magic and trap area of his Duel Disk. "I play Premature Burial to raise Magician's Valkyria from the Graveyard— and I'll boost her strength with Mage Power!

Though Premature Burial was typically equipped to the monster it summoned from the Graveyard, Mage Power worked by increasing a selected creature's attack and defense by 500 points for every magic and trap card on the field, including itself. It was also an equip card, but it allowed other equip cards to work in conjunction with it, as well as other normal or permanent magic or trap cards that might be played on the field.

"It may cost me 800 Life Points," Yami started, readying himself for the inevitable surge of pain that would come with the sacrifice of his Life Points, "but my Valkyria now gains 500 more attack and defense points every time I play a magic or trap card like these two!" Yami set two cards face down on his Duel Disk, watching as they appeared in a shimmer of golden light on the field. His Valkyria's attack and defense values both skyrocketed over 3000 points— more than a match for Kaiba's dragon.

Yami's life points dropped to 2400, and the pain came, as expected, but it was worth it, knowing that Kaiba could be defeated. Maybe this time, he would _understand_…

"Attack, Valkyria! Mystic Scepter Blast!"

A brilliant beam of green light, much brighter and larger than before, emerged from the tip of the angry magician's wand, hurtling straight toward Kaiba's lone Blue-Eyes White Dragon.

"Not so fast, Yugi!" Kaiba smirked as he thrust a hand out. "Attack Guidance Armor will save my Blue-Eyes!"

The same trap card that he'd used on Pegasus in their earlier duel acted as an Equip Magic Card, allowing Kaiba to select the target of his attack. If he wanted, he could have selected another of Yugi's monsters, but the beauty of the situation was that _Yugi had none_. He would have to select the defense position Peten the Dark Clown, which would mean Kaiba wouldn't take any damage, and Valkyria's power would be stopped— for now.

"Now your attack is diverted!" Kaiba smirked as the bright green attack hurtled toward the dragon and abruptly veered off course, hitting the smiling Dark Clown. The Dark Clown was destroyed in an explosion of green light, but Kaiba was still smiling after the fact. He hadn't lost any Life Points, and in fact, things were going perfectly in his favor.

"Since my Deck Destruction Virus is still in play, it infects ten more cards in your deck!"

The same translucent eyeless snakes came slithering toward Yami at unbelievable speeds, baring their fangs. They connected with the Duel Disk and disappeared, leaving Yugi with only ten cards left to draw. Ten cards meant ten turns before the duel would be over, whether Yami wanted it to be or not.

"Soon, you'll lose them all," Kaiba smiled. "But first, I'll bring back an old friend who just hates to say goodbye." At this, Kaiba's Duel Disk II thrust up the third and final Peten the Dark Clown in Kaiba's deck. Kaiba placed it in defense position and grinned maliciously. Not only did he have the awesome power of the Blue-Eyes White Dragon, but he also had his Life Points protected from any schemes Yugi could cook up while he was in such dire straits.

_'This time, I'll prove that **I'm** number one!'_

Prove to **who** was the question, though, but Kaiba didn't care to think of the answer at that moment.

"And next…" Kaiba drew a card, since Yugi obviously was done with his turn. A Blue-Eyes White Dragon. Perfect— it was the last one of the trio, with the first already on the field, and the second already in his hand… right beside Polymerization. This was it!

"I'm going to summon up your worst nightmare, because if you couldn't defeat one Blue-Eyes, there's no way you'll defeat three, especially when they're combined as the Blue-Eyes Ultimate Dragon!" Kaiba played Polymerization and the second and third Blue-Eyes on the Field, watching as his Duel Disk II automatically shifted the cards and replaced them with the violet-colored Blue-Eyes Ultimate Dragon fusion monster.

The massive, three-headed creature infused with the powers of light appeared on the field in a dazzling array of whiteness. It opened all six of its depthless blue eyes at the same time, and when it spotted Yugi on the field far below, it roared, causing the Duel Dome to quake even more.

"If you think he's scary now, just wait until he attacks! Blue-Eyes Ultimate Dragon, Neutron Blast!" With that simple command, three balls of crackling light went hurtling toward the Magician's Valkyria, lighting the whole arena and causing the Pyramid of Light to reflect an eerie display of dying holograms and trapped duelists.

* * *

  
_'Oh god.'_

If Téa were asked to describe the sudden amount of pain that she felt at that moment, she would have rather colorfully likened it to being hit square in the chest by a speeding 18-wheeler truck, or perhaps having a small black hole eating away her chest cavity, causing her insides to convulse painfully. She clenched her first tightly,her knuckles blanching to an almost white, but she couldn't show weakness— not in front of Serenity, who admired her so much; in front of Solomon, who was a prime example of being strong regardless of physical weakness; in front of Malik, who believed she had a greater destiny than even she could imagine for herself, and most importantly, in front of Mokuba. The youngest Kaiba didn't just admire her, he'd actually admitted to being _in love_ with her at one point. And though he was still utterly loyal to his brother, it was obvious to Téa that the boy still cared greatly for her— and she couldn't let him down by revealing weakness.

Téa was still lost in a haze of pain when Serenity screamed. Téa turned pain-filled eyes in the direction of Serenity's voice, but everything seemed to be covered in a blinding blue-white glow, making it all look hazy and undefined. Everything seemed to be warping and moving so slowly…

Malik turned concerned eyes toward Téa. He could tell by the way she was trembling and just barely sweating that she was in pain. If those weren't obvious clues, then her white knuckles and the way she was clutching her hands in tight fists were. But there didn't seem to be much he could do to help her— especially now, when the Pyramid of Light seemed to be destroying everything so long as the duel went on within.

A rafter had just slammed down from the ceiling, taking another chunk of the Dome with it. Worse, it effectively destroyed the one route they'd all taken to get inside the Duel Dome, trapping them inside. If they didn't figure out how to get through to Kaiba and Yugi _and fast_, then they would **all** be dead meat.

* * *

After the haze cleared, Yami found himself nearly face-first with the cold ground. The ache in his chest was undeniable, but this time, he couldn't attribute it merely to the lack of Yugi's familiar presence within the Millennium Puzzle. Bit by bit, he was sure he was dying…

At the moment Yami thought this way, Yugi's head jerked up. He felt a strange ache in his chest, and a strange sadness sweeping through his veins. But what was it? He was no longer connected to his other self, was he?

The pain sharpened at that realization. Yugi knew from the moment that his other self discovered that his past had something to do with being a pharaoh that one day they would have to part ways. But Yugi just never thought it would be like this— so sudden and unexpected, so…

_'So weird.'_ It was the honest truth: Yugi never expected that his other half would retain control, while Yugi got lost in the labyrinthine passages of his other half's mind. He could only hope that the pain he was feeling in his chest was unrelated to what his other half was feeling, and that they'd be back together soon.

"I think we've lost them!" Tristan panted, forcing the weight of his upper body onto his knees. Joey and Duke were just as out of breath as Yugi and Tristan, though Duke seemed to be making more of the effort not to show it. In any case, the mummies weren't anywhere in sight, they weren't hearing any oddly chanting voices, and aside from being out of breath, they weren't any worse for the wear.

What Duke didn't understand was that if they really _were_ in Yugi's "other half's" mind, as Yugi managed to say while they were running, then why did they even get out of breath? Wasn't this place just a dream world?

"So, what were those freaks?" Joey asked, before Duke could even think to voice his own concerns. Yugi just shrugged; he had no idea what mummies were doing in the pharaoh's mind, especially malicious mummies!

The quartet of boys started walking up another nearby staircase, and it was then that they noticed the looming crimson nebula high up above them. It was well-familiar to Tristan, Duke, and Joey, who'd seen the same thing before they'd tumbled _out of their own bodies_ and into the eye in the nebula's center.

"Yugi, what the heck is goin' on?" Joey asked, swallowing in a vain attempt to keep his throat moist. It was true that weird stuff came part-and-parcel with being Yugi's friend, but even this was a bit much.

"We've been drawn into the Millennium Puzzle," Yugi began in a quiet voice as he stared up at the nebula and its fiercely glowing eye. "And that thing up there is responsible somehow!"

Joey, Tristan, and Duke all glanced up, but they noticed that this time, there was no strange, pulling feeling as they looked into the center of the eye. In fact, if one looked long enough (though for some reason, the desire to look _away_ was fairly strong), a strange beam of almost blue-white light could be seen…

"Then what's going on down there!" Duke pointed down, toward the inky blackness in the center of the maze. Below, two massive pyramids collided with one another— one was the Pyramid of Light, with shining blue walls and a glimmering red pupil set into a golden eye. The other was Yugi's familiar Millennium Puzzle, except the "spirit" puzzle appeared to be made out of stone, just like a real pyramid, and not the golden puzzle pieces that comprised Yugi's pendant.

"That blue one looks like the Pyramid of Light that I saw at the museum," Yugi observed aloud, knowing that his friends hadn't been able to make it in time to see the Pyramid, or the mummy of Anubis.

"Yeah?" Joey queried. "Well, it looks like it's beating the crap out of your Millennium Puzzle!"

"Fightin' pyramids and creepy floatin' eyes… wonderful!" Tristan groused.

"It's crazy, but this is par for the course when you hang around with Yugi!" Duke chuckled darkly.

Tristan nodded briefly before swallowing the lump in his throat. He didn't want to keep staring at the grotesque nebula above or the destructive pyramids below, but somewhere in this mysterious place was the answer to getting _out_.

"So… any idea what we're up against?"

"Maybe," Yugi began with his chin nearly pressed to his chest. "I think this all has to do with an ancient Egyptian sorcerer…"

But something still didn't feel right. Hadn't Malik mentioned something in the museum about Anubis being the original lord of the dead, in Egyptian mythology? Why would someone take his name in vain? Any time someone had tried to do something like that with the God Cards —using copies of them, or trying to use their powers without fully understanding them— they got punished. It made no sense, considering the God Cards were just that— _cards_, and the monsters that they saw on the dueling arena just holograms.

Yugi knew better. There was something greater behind all this, behind everything. And today, all roads seemed to lead back to Anubis.

"I knew it was gonna be somethin' insane!"

"He's called Anubis, the Egyptian Lord of the Dead," Yugi explained. "But that's just the myth. If this guy is really the mummy from the museum resurrected, something tells me he's from the Pharaoh's time— which means he's probably got a grudge, but nobody knows why!"

"Lord of the Dead, though?" Duke asked with a raised eyebrow. "Myth or not, I seem to recall a horde of mummies chasing after us not that long ago…"

"Well…" Yugi hesitated before continuing, recounting the story of what his grandfather, Téa, Serenity, Malik and he had all seen at the Domino Museum of History. "Centuries ago, this Anubis guy tried to destroy the world. I'm starting to believe he's trying to make a comeback!"

"Never a good thing," Tristan grumbled.

"There was a prophecy on the sarcophagus at the museum," Yugi recalled. "Something like, 'The eye that sees what's yet to come; its vision shall be fulfilled unless blinded by events predetermined, thus light and shadows both be killed."

"Well doesn't that just sound like a bed of roses," Duke murmured wryly.

"Hey, look!" At that moment, something in the eye up above changed, and it seemed to lighten. For just an instant, they could make out the unmistakable form of Yugi -or rather, Yami Yugi- facing off with a Blue-Eyes Ultimate Dragon.

"Doesn't look like the duel's goin' too well for your friend the Pharaoh," Duke said.

"We've got to do something to help him," Yugi said, but the tone of his voice betrayed his uncertainty. What could they possibly do from _in here_, when the Pharaoh was _out there_? "All I can think of right now is to head back to the tomb of Anubis…"

"You mean back **toward** the mummies?" Tristan asked incredulously.

"Hey, c'mon!" Joey interjected with false confidence. "We already know we can outrun 'em!"

The boys headed back in the direction they came, unaware that the very room that they'd run from not ten minutes ago was glowing with an unearthly red light. The stone tablet over the coffin of 'Anubis' had a triangular shaped slab in the top center, the very same slab that Téa had seen depicted on the flyer from the night before. In the dead center of the triangular slab was a gold-rimmed eye with a blood red jewel in the center, pulsing as though it were alive…

* * *

"Kaiba, we can't continue this duel!" Yami shouted.

"That's getting a bit old," Kaiba remarked as he rolled his eyes.

"No! That Pyramid of Light has created a deadly game of darkness! I know you sense it— we must stop now!"

Kaiba squelched the part of him that, just for an instant, agreed with Yugi. He did feel _something_, but… "The only thing I sense is your fear! Not that I blame you, but I came here to win, and stopping's not an option!" Kaiba announced. There, he'd said it. Victory was within his grasp, and no amount of weird feelings, holographic power surges, or lectures from Yugi would stop him now! He was so close…

"For all the times you humiliated me in a duel, when I clearly should have been the champion… for all the times I had to listen to you preach about the heart of the cards… you're going down, Yugi! And my Blue-Eyes Ultimate Dragon is going to put you there!"

If anything, Kaiba's words just added fuel to the fire. Whatever weakness Yami Yugi had been feeling dissipated like so many shards of defeated holograms, and Yami took his chance when he saw it.

"Kaiba, once again, your ridiculously over-inflated ego blinds you to the the truth! I am far from beaten!" Yami drew a card from his quickly-thinning deck and smiled. "I play Monster Reborn… to bring back Dark Magician Girl!" The Dark Magician Girl was one of many cards that had gotten forced into Yami's graveyard when Kaiba activated his Deck Destruction Virus trap card. Coupled with one of the magic cards that Yami had already placed on the field, it would allow him to bring out two of his most powerful Spellcasters in his deck… so long as Yami was right in his assumption that the Dark Magician had not yet been sent to the Graveyard.

Now was the time to truly believe in the Heart of the Cards, no matter what Kaiba said, or how bleak the future looked…

"Next, I reveal my face-down card— Sage's Stone! When the Dark Magician Girl is on the field and Sage's Stone is played, it automatically allows me to summon Dark Magician!" Only a few moments after the bouncy blonde spellcaster appeared on the field, her male counterpart, the stoic, violet-haired signature card of Yugi's deck appeared, armored arms crossed over his chest.

"Big deal," Kaiba scoffed. He knew both the Dark Magician and the Dark Magician Girl's stats quite well, and neither of them were any match for his Blue-Eyes Ultimate Dragon's 4500 Attack power.

"Oh, it's a very big deal," Yami smiled, an altogether disconcerting smile. "For now I sacrifice both magicians to summon Sorcerer of Dark Magic!" Since Monster Reborn and Sage's Stone had brought out both the Dark Magician and the Dark Magician Girl as a Special Summon, now Yami could Normal Summon practically any card in his hand— namely, the extremely powerful effect monster Sorcerer of Dark Magic.

"And with his rise to power comes your Blue Eyes' fall from grace, because for every one of my sorcerer's fallen comrades in the Graveyard, your dragon loses 500 attack points!"

500 points for the Magician's Valkyria, Dark Magician, and Dark Magician Girl. A grand total of 1500 points, reducing Kaiba's dragon back to 3000 attack strength, the same value of the Blue-Eyes White Dragon that Kaiba had sacrificed to bring it out onto the field. Now Kaiba's dragon was vulnerable to attack from the Sorcerer, which possessed a mammoth 3200 attack points…

"Sorcerer of Dark Magic, attack the Blue-Eyes Ultimate Dragon with Celestial Blast!" A blazing sphere of golden yellow light hurtled across the field from the dark sorcerer's stave. The Blue-Eyes Ultimate Dragon was immediately swallowed in flames, and disappeared with a massive, blinding explosion.

* * *

As if the pain had been bad before, it seemed to triple in an instant, and the light sheen of sweat that had covered Téa's skin became thicker. She was trembling visibly now, feeling immeasurably hot and cold at the same time.

_'W-What the heck is going on here?'_

She wasn't just getting sick on a whim, here. This **had** to be related to the Pyramid of Light, why Seto had been acting so strange, and the disappearance of the mummy and the artifact from the museum! It **had** to have something to do with the strange feelings Téa had been getting for a while now, especially in the museum during that weird earthquake. But Téa had no mind to wonder just what the connection was; she was focusing all her strength on just standing. It wasn't just a matter of appearing strong now— she truly had to **be** strong if she wanted to find Seto and Yugi and get them out of the Duel Dome alive.

Joey, Duke, and Tristan were nowhere to be found. Maybe they, too, were inside the Pyramid, but… they couldn't count on that fact. Téa was feeling weaker by the second; Serenity was just a whippet of a girl, Mokuba was just a child, and Solomon was nearing his 80th year. Even if they **did** manage to find all the boys, what was the guarantee that they could all get out safely?

_'Seto, please be okay!'_

* * *

"Now will you stop this madness?" Yami demanded.

"After one lucky move? I don't think so!" Kaiba drew a card, but there was nothing that could help him— yet. Unlike Yugi, he still had a nearly-full deck to get through, and that meant practicing a measure of patience. But he'd been on the verge of his perfect victory, and he wasn't about to let Yugi snatch it right out from under him! He gestured for Yugi to make his move.

"Very well, Kaiba. You leave me no choice— I move to attack Peten the Dark Clown!" The third and final of the Dark Clowns that had been specially summoned by the destruction of the other clowns was in defense position— lucky, considering it was the only thing protecting Kaiba's Life Points from total devastation and an immediate loss. But if he didn't find a way to get something powerful enough to defeat the Sorcerer of Dark Magic on the field, then in Yugi's next turn, the game would be over… and everything would be ruined.

Kaiba grit his teeth. He didn't believe in the Heart of the Cards, but at that moment, he was hoping that his next draw would save him from certain defeat. He couldn't stand being humiliated by Yugi, not again!

_'There's more to it than that!' _It wasn't just about being defeated and humiliated, but…

"Sorcerer! Attack with Celestial Blast!" Another sphere of fiery golden light raced across the field, "melting" the Dark Clown in an inferno of flame.

"You may have destroyed my clown, but you forgot about my virus trap card!" Kaiba announced smugly. With less than 10 cards in his deck, that meant that regardless of what Kaiba drew in his next turn, Yugi would be defeated if he couldn't draw a card.

"Your deck's about to be wiped out!"

Right as the tentacle creatures flew toward Yugi's duel deck, a massive hexagram of fire appeared, right where the Sorcerer of Dark Magic was standing.

"WHAT?"

"Sorry Kaiba," Yami apologized sarcastically, "but my Sorcerer of Dark Magic possesses the special ability of negating the activation of trap cards like yours and _destroying_ them! My deck is safe." The Deck Destruction Virus disappeared in an explosion of holographic shards, the physical card shifting from the field to the Graveyard.

"But your Life Points aren't," Kaiba murmured darkly under his breath. He only had to glance at the card he'd just drawn and sneer before he knew… victory was at hand.

_'Sorry, **Pharaoh**, but you won't be walking away from **this** duel!' _

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> WHEW! I realize that the last two chapters of WDKY have essentially been a novelization of the movie (and you wonder why there's no English novelization, only a Japanese one… well it's because it would take FOREVER TO WRITE!), but things are definitely different. This is no re-hashed script. The next chapter is when this arc comes to a close and the next one begins… and BWAHAHA, I will tell you all right now that it is everything I have been waiting for, so hopefully you'll be just as excited as me when it starts to come out!
> 
> Stay tuned for more… 'What Doesn't Kill You!'
> 
> **Azurite**


	25. A Perfect Victory

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Kaiba started acting strangely for no reason, disappearing and keeping secrets from Téa. When she finds out the truth -that he's desperate to have another rematch with Yugi- it threatens to tear their whole relationship apart. Will they last through a duel that means more than just a game to everyone?

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> **What Doesn't Kill You  
> Chapter 24: A Perfect Victory  
> A Yu-Gi-Oh Fanfiction**  
> **By:** Azurite - azurite AT seventh-star DOT net  
> **Site: **seventh-star DOT net  
> **Conceptualized/First Written:** 1/15/06  
> **Completed/Final Edit: **8/24/06  
> **Posted:** 8/25/06
> 
> **Author's Note: **Another enormously long chapter. It took a long time to write because of school, vacation, family, research, lack of inspiration, lack of beta readers, and plenty of other things. I'm just glad to be getting this up... before I go to Japan in September! I don't plan on dropping off the face of the Earth, but I doubt I will be as accessible as I am now. I'll be studying abroad at Tokiwa University until late January, so I apologize if that means WDKY25 (which is already partially written) gets out slower. I DO want to finish this... eventually. ;
> 
> **Disclaimer:** I have a mass disclaimer on my site, but since I don't appear to have done this in a while, I feel the need for it, especially after the recent rehashing of CCwank (if you don't know what I mean, you're better off). With that said, I don't own Yu-Gi-Oh/its characters/references to specific canon plot points, nor do I claim to. I do not make any profit whatsoever from this work; my joy comes from knowing this plot bunny is free at last, and that people are enjoying the fruits of my labor. And yes, my mind labors a lot to get this fic out.
> 
> Kazuki Takahashi is the creator of Yu-Gi-Oh, with the following companies associated or otherwise affiliated with the production, distribution, and/or release of Yu-Gi-Oh! in some form around the world: Viz Media (Shonen Jump), Jump Comics (Weekly Shounen Jump), Toei Animation, NAS, Konami Entertainment, Upperdeck Entertainment, Kids WB, YTV, Funimation, 4Kids.
> 
> If any other works have been used in any way (referenced, mentioned, cited, etc.) then you can find complete information on my source information on the WDKY Research Page, hosted at Darkness Rising. The link is above, and in my profile.
> 
> "What Doesn't Kill You" is the intellectual property of me, Azurite. _**This fanfic MAY NOT be redistributed in its entirety without permission, nor may portions of it be used elsewhere without my explicit permission BEFORE use.**_ However, anyone wishing to link to it at its various homes on the web is welcome to. I would love to know where mention of my fic is being made!
> 
> **Don't Forget!** All Review Replies are now hosted at my LiveJournal. Look for a section in my Memories called 'Review Replies,' and you can choose from the story/chapter of your choice to see what I had to say to your reviews! Thanks for your continued support!
> 
> **And the Award goes to... Winterwing3000** for being this chapter's supportive, creative, and thoroughly helpful beta-reader. Care to help beta-read WDKY? Drop me a line.
> 
> * * *
> 
>   
> **RECAP:** Kaiba started acting strangely for what appeared to be no reason... but when Téa discovered it was because he was simulating a rematch duel with Yugi, she was furious! Kaiba couldn't explain to her why, and Téa didn't want to listen. Kaiba leaves Téa and goes to Duelist Kingdom to see if Pegasus --who is surprisingly _alive_\-- has a way to beat the God Cards. But it seems as though someone other than Pegasus and his lackeys have been skulking around Duelist Kingdom, because Kaiba defeats Pegasus and leaves with not ONE God-smiting card, but TWO! Not even Pegasus knows what the second card is --until too late!
> 
> Meanwhile, Téa and the others check out the Domino Museum of History, where an exhibit of the 'Pyramid of Light' and the mummy of 'Anubis, Lord of the Dead' are on display. Strange visions run rampant, and they get Yugi thinking that Kaiba's in danger-- but he won't tell Téa how or why! Mokuba meets up with him and they go to the Duel Dome, where an exhausted but overconfident Kaiba is assured that he'll beat Yugi once and for all! Little does he know that his powerful trap card, the Pyramid of Light, is really a tool of destruction, and it not only separated Yugi from the spirit of the Pharaoh within the Millennium Puzzle, but it's also destroying the Duel Dome and sucking souls!
> 
> Téa seems to be in excruciating pain, but from who knows what? No one knows where Joey, Duke, and Tristan are, and it seems as though no one can get through to Kaiba and Yami Yugi inside the Pyramid of Light. Malik, Yugi's grandpa, Serenity, Mokuba and Téa are the only ones who can save the other guys now-- but how?

Victory was cold.

Kaiba knew it, he **sensed** it, and unlike all the other times when he’d been so perfectly close to defeating Yugi, this time—**this** time, he knew it as if the knowledge had been in him all along, as if it was as much a part of him as his very soul. But Seto Kaiba didn’t believe in the idea of a “soul;” he believed in what he could see and what he knew, without the slightest doubt in his mind. And at that particular moment, he believed in his victory over Yugi—at last.

Victory was cold because it was refreshing, it was thrilling, and it rippled through Kaiba, slow and small at first, but building at last until his eyes were opened wide, his mouth stretched open and his teeth glinted from behind the curve of a wicked smile.

And if victory was chill and icy, then what had motivated Kaiba ever since his first defeat at Yugi’s hands was burning desire and rage: the desire to see Yugi defeated, crushed, broken, and humiliated, the way that he’d been; the rage fueled him onward, the rage at being so close…and yet so damnably far.

But not this time. This time **he would win**.

He only had to glance at the card he’d just drawn to know it to his very core, to feel that cool rush run through him, telling him that this time, things would be different.

Why then, at the precise moment that he felt so confident, so assured, did he imagine seeing Téa’s face?

Worse, he didn’t just imagine her face as impassive, or even smiling. He saw her crying, but crying angrily: he could see the fire in her eyes, because for her, rage and desire were also burning hot. She yelled at him angrily, blue eyes blazing and hot tears falling, but he couldn’t hear her. He couldn’t reach her, and he couldn’t come up with any words, simply because he knew there weren’t any. Neither of them could justify the things that they’d said and done; when it came to **this** one thing, they stood on opposite sides of the battlefield.

_‘Yugi is my only enemy.’_

That was how it had been ever since that first duel, and how it would continue to be, until Kaiba crushed him, the way he was supposed to have the first time around. And the time for that crushing defeat was now.

Kaiba pushed the idea of Téa’s tear-stained face out of his mind; he pushed aside any thoughts of what she would say or do after this was all over, if she even wanted anything to do with him anymore.

**That** sudden thought was the trigger that melted the icy cold, and brought back the rage and desire that so many had come to associate Seto Kaiba with. His passion wasn’t just in dueling—not anymore. He’d experienced such a range of **burning **emotions, and all because of Téa. Above all else, he desired her, and for a flicker of an instant, he dared to think that he might want her more than he wanted this victory. He might even trade his victory for it, if it meant she’d still look at him with her blue eyes burning, but not with anger, not with rage. With **desire**, the selfsame desire that he knew lived inside him….

There had to be a way to have Téa **and** his victory, even as his mind registered just how selfish he was being. Foolish and selfish. Perhaps the latter was a word that described Seto Kaiba, but never the former. Seto Kaiba was a genius, not a fool. And only a fool would listen to Yugi’s insane babblings and walk away from a victory so close at hand.

"Get ready, Yugi! I activate the magic of Monster Reborn!" Kaiba pressed the emerald green card to his Duel Disk and quickly indicated which creature from his graveyard he wanted resurrected. But in the same instant the form of the Blue-Eyes Ultimate Dragon reappeared on the field, Kaiba immediately sacrificed it as he drew another card from his hand and placed it on the field.

"Then I'll sacrifice my reborn Ultimate Dragon to summon a new monster!"

"What?" Yami reeled, his Life Points already dangerously low.

How many tricks did Kaiba have up his sleeve? It was impossible that he could have had all this power in his deck all along; he must have gotten the Pyramid of Light from someone, somewhere, not knowing the mayhem it would cause. But the question was, **who**?

"That's right…you see, I have an even more powerful monster, compliments of Pegasus: a shiny new dragon! The Blue-Eyes Shining Dragon!" A brilliant blue-white light erupted on the field in the space where Kaiba's reborn Ultimate Dragon had once stood, and in its place hovered a massive dragon with glowing veins and what looked like a large jewel on the crown of its head. It was almost robotic-looking, with sharp lines and angles for wings, and dangerously pointed claws on its feet.

The glowing veins pulsed even brighter, and the awesome dragon flexed its wings once, twice, beating them against the wind.

"Could it be?" Solomon mumbled from his trapped position beside Malik, Serenity, Mokuba, and Téa in the lower-level galleries. The small space, which had once led back outside to the Duel Dome, was mostly protected from the destruction of the rest of the Dome by the overhanging arena platform. From below, the Pyramid of Light was almost translucent, allowing those watching to barely make out the shadowy figures of Yugi, Kaiba, and the creatures they summoned.

"A monster I've never seen before…?" But while Solomon was entranced by the sight of the Blue-Eyes Shining Dragon, Téa was trying to regain her strength. In the past few minutes alone, she'd gone from mind-numbing pain to an almost calm, blissful state. Since they'd gotten to this small space below the dueling arena, Téa realized with a haze-filled mind that each burst of pain coincided with the destruction of a creature on the field, and each calming wave came whenever a new creature was summoned. But beyond that, it didn't make any sense.

_'Why _me_?_ _ Why isn't anyone else sensing anything…?'_

Was Malik really right? Did she have some sort of destiny—a greater role to play in the constant rivalry between Seto and Yugi?

"For every dragon-type monster in my Graveyard, the Blue-Eyes Shining Dragon gains an additional 300 attack points!"

Though Fusion monsters typically were included in a deck of their own, when they were destroyed, they were included in the Graveyard just like any other monster. That meant that aside from the three Blue-Eyes White Dragons that made up the Ultimate Dragon, there was also the Ultimate Dragon itself and the Rare Metal Dragon from the beginning of the duel to add to the Shining Dragon’s attack strength!

"That's an extra 1500 attack points right off the bat…for a punishing grand total of 4500 points!"

"But don't forget, due to my Sorcerer's powers, your new dragon's attack points decrease by 1500!" That would bring the Shining Dragon back down to its original 3000, easily defeatable by the 3200-attack strength Sorcerer of Dark Magic…right?

When Kaiba merely laughed at his pronouncement, Yami swallowed.

"I don't think so—thanks to my dragon's new Shining Diffusion!" Just as the Sorcerer of Dark Magic activated its point-lowering hexagram, the Shining Dragon opened its maw and sent a sphere of blue-violet light hurtling in the Sorcerer's direction.

"What? Your points didn't decrease!" Yami exclaimed as the two masses of light collided and dissipated into nothingness. Both monsters were still intact, and both kept the same attack values that they had before—the Shining Dragon with 4500, and the Sorcerer of Dark Magic with 3200.

"Exactly," Kaiba sneered. "That's because my Blue-Eyes Shining Dragon's effect allows me to negate the effect of any magic, trap, or monster cards that target him." That included the Sorcerer of Dark Magic, because it could only target one of Kaiba's monsters at a time, and the Shining Dragon was the sole monster Kaiba had on the field.

"Just face it Yugi, your days as a champion duelist are over! My Shining Dragon is going to blast you back to the minor leagues where you belong! Now, attack, Blue-Eyes Shining Dragon! Shining Neutron Blast!"

If the power of the Shining Diffusion had been a blinding light, it was nothing more than a spark compared to the burst that blazed through the whole arena when the Shining Dragon attacked for real. The golden-orange light of the Sorcerer of Dark Magic's hexagram was drowned out in a haze of blue and white light, and with it, the monster as well. In seconds, the black-armored mage disappeared in an explosion of holographic shards, while the light continued to hurtle straight toward Yami.

His life point counter dropped to a meager 200 points before Yami trembled once violently and collapsed face-first on the ground.

"How do you like the sting of defeat, Yugi?" Kaiba whispered quietly as he watched his rival collapse. "I've felt it for too long. Now it's **your** turn…"

* * *

"You sure this is the way to that mummy guy?" Duke asked as they ran back down a darkened stone corridor.

"Yeah, every hallway looks the same!" Tristan groused. They thought they had gone back the way they'd come, but at some point, they must have gotten turned around. None of them remembered running from the mummies for **this** long!

When Yugi didn't answer, Joey glanced over his shoulder and skidded to a stop. He noticed his friend had stopped some distance behind them, and was shivering in place, clutching his shoulders as if trying to retain some warmth.

"Hey, what's wrong, Yug'?"

"It's weird…" Yugi started softly, his voice shaking just as much as his body, "Suddenly I feel really weak, guys." Yugi couldn't explain it, but he was afraid of the possibilities that came to mind.

Duke, Tristan, and Joey all fell silent, unable to come up with any reassuring words that would motivate Yugi. They were all feeling pretty hopeless themselves, not understanding where they were, how they'd gotten there, or how they'd get out. Tristan glanced at the floor, and his gaze caught upon what looked like a thin river of blue-white light, moving just like water.

"Hey, check it out! Some kind of energy stream." Tristan pointed out the odd flow of light to the others, and they realized it stretched onward into the darkness.

"Maybe if we follow it, it'll lead us to Anubis," Yugi theorized.

"Sounds like a plan," Duke agreed. "Come on, let's go!"

* * *

As the blue-white light of the Blue-Eyes Shining Dragon's attack died down, Yami still remained lying face-down on the floor, his Duel Disk practically smoking from the overloaded circuitry. But everything was still working, and if the massive Pyramid of Light still surrounding the arena was any indication, the duel was still on.

"Seto!" Téa called out, but the tall, shadowy form in the Pyramid of Light either couldn't hear her or didn't want to register her cries. Was he really so blind to the destruction of the Duel Dome all around him? Was he so desperate to win the duel at any cost?

The Duel Dome continued to quake and rumble, and Serenity screamed again when pieces of the dueling platform began to crumble and crackle, electrical wires sparking and lighting on fire. Nothing seemed to penetrate the massive Pyramid of Light, but the Pyramid didn't protect those **outside** from the destruction it was causing.

"We have to get out of here!" Malik hollered over the destruction. "Does anyone see any way out?"

Everyone looked around, but it wasn't any of their voices that supplied the answer when it came.

"Up here! I'd hurry up!" All of a sudden, a ladder toppled down from the destroyed upper galleries above. Téa squinted through the falling dust and debris, and could just barely make out what appeared to be a bright magenta suit jacket leaning out of a helicopter hovering above.

"Pegasus!?"

Everyone's eyes widened, but they moved toward the ladder, as the Duel Dome continued to crack and crumble, with pieces of falling debris destroying everything in their path.

"Pegasus, what are you doing here?" Mokuba called out as he scuttled up the ladder. Téa had insisted he go first, while she followed, then Serenity, then Solomon, and finally Malik.

"How about we start with a 'thank you,' you little ingrate," Pegasus grumbled, but Mokuba ignored him. His attention, like everyone else's, was on the crumbling Duel Dome below, and the massive Pyramid of Light, still shielding Yugi and Kaiba from the mayhem outside.

"If I hadn't figured out what this whole Pyramid of Light business was about, then you'd all be crushed!" Téa bowed her head silently in thanks. She wasn't even sure if Pegasus saw her, as he just continued speaking, but Pegasus showing up amidst all the craziness that was going on didn't help matters any.

"Just how **did** you find out about the Pyramid of Light, anyway?" Malik asked Pegasus, the suspicion in his voice as clear as day.

When Pegasus answered evasively, Téa wondered if Malik was onto something. "You should know, **Malik Ishtar**," Pegasus responded in that 'I-know-everything' voice of his. "I did quite a bit of Egyptology not all that long ago."

"You weren't involved in the dig for 'Anubis,' I know that much," Malik shot back, nearly shouting over the whir of the helicopter blades. "Your archaeology days ended over seven years ago when you first met Shaadii and got the Millennium Eye. So who's leaking information now?"

Somehow, Téa got the feeling that Malik wasn't asking because he truly wanted to know. Malik probably already knew who Pegasus' source was—and if Téa's gut instinct was right, so did she. But what did Egyptian conspiracies and Pegasus being a know-it-all have anything to do with the safety of Téa's best friend and the man she loved, kilometers below?

_'I just want everyone to be okay!'_

Pegasus never did answer Malik's question; he only turned away with a serious expression on his face. Such an expression on the face of Maximillion Pegasus was unnerving, if only because it seemed more normal—for **him**, anyway—to be smiling in his usual creepy manner. But things had obviously changed since Duelist Kingdom….

"Kaiba thinks he got that Pyramid of Light card from me, when in fact this has all been orchestrated by an evil lord who tried to destroy the world five millennia ago, and now he's back to finish the job," Pegasus finished, a slight smile curving his lips. "I looked it up."

In reality, he hadn't looked a damn thing up. Malik was on the right track—his source had told him everything, and he'd known the precise moment when to show up and 'save the day.' All of this in the name of getting answers…answers that were promised to come his way soon.

"Now this Anubis has created the ultimate game of darkness, and he's getting stronger every moment," Pegasus continued after a moment.

"Then the prophecy is being fulfilled!" Solomon murmured. Malik shot an alarmed look in Solomon's direction, but he didn't say anything. Both Pegasus and Téa noticed the serious and concerned expression on Malik's face, but neither of them felt it was their place to say anything.

"And Yugi and Seto are right in the thick of it," Téa murmured as she glanced back out the open doorway. And Joey, Duke, and Tristan were probably trapped down there too.

"So it **is** true, then," Pegasus said under his breath. He happened to be closest to Téa, with Mokuba on her other side and Malik, Serenity, and Solomon hunched together on the other side of the Industrial Illusions helicopter. Téa glanced up at him, her eyes awash with confusion, when Pegasus nodded his head at her. "Funny, I would have expected someone like you would have influenced him to change for the better."

'Him' being Seto.

_'You and me both, Pegasus,'_ Téa thought. She never thought a day would come when she would agree on anything with Maximillion J. Pegasus, the man she'd previously deemed as the reclusive and insane creator of the wildly popular Duel Monsters game. Ever since he'd lost his duel with Yugi back in Duelist Kingdom **and** the Millennium Eye in one fell swoop, he seemed to have dropped out of the public spotlight. Up until now, Téa had thought he was dead.

_'Obviously not.'_But that didn't mean Téa trusted the man, even if he **had** just saved their lives.

"We've got to find a way to help them!"

Whatever weakness Téa had been feeling earlier was long gone, and now, she was determined to see the end of this duel, and see Seto back home safe once more. Part of Téa was still upset that he'd gone to all this trouble without even making the attempt to explain to her **why** he felt the need to duel again…but if Pegasus was right, then this 'Anubis' character had something to do with it, and perhaps Seto hadn't had any choice in the matter.

_'Maybe I took him for granted. He couldn't explain to me why because _he_ didn't understand…and I just didn't want to listen. I was so selfish!'_ Téa knew that time was precious, and she'd already lost two of the people most dear to her in the world. Seto had been the one to help her the most during that horrible time, and now…

_'I didn't want to choose between them before. I couldn't cheer Yugi _or_ Seto on, because I'd be betraying someone that I cared about. But—!'_

But now, her mind was made up.

* * *

"Looks like this is it," Joey mumbled as he edged around a corner. The blue stream of energy that they'd been following had long since lifted from the gutter running alongside the stone walkways, and now it was floating in the air, right through a disjointed doorway. Yugi remembered that the entrance **he'd** walked through had the door intact, but that had been **before** the psychotic mummies woke up and chased him through the labyrinth.

Besides, they had to take the chance—what other way did they have of getting out of here?

The blue-white light filtered into the room, branching into several different directions. It hovered over the open caskets where the various mummies once lay, and far up to the dais where the sarcophagus of Anubis rested. The light seemed to grow stronger and more intense as they neared the stone slab at the top of the platform.

They paused, barely a meter away from the mix of glowing blue and red light when they all heard it:_ Foolish mortals! There is nothing you can do to stop my rebirth!_

Quite suddenly, the blue light from the energy stream and the red light from the jewel on the stone slab pulsed brightly, twin streams of light slamming into the sarcophagus. Inside, the eyes of Anubis's mummy glowed blood-red deep within its sockets, and the embalmed hands clutching the shining Pyramid of Light twitched and quivered to life.

When the disembodied voice spoke again, it was louder—sounding almost closer._ The realm that was once home to the Pharaoh is now mine, and his life force feeds my rebirth! _

"We won't just stand here while you suck the life force out of others to save yourself!" Tristan shouted angrily.

"Yeah, we're gonna take you down, Anubis!" Joey added fiercely. "I'd stay in that casket if I were you!"

"In case you haven't noticed, oh-wannabe-Lord-of-the-Dead, we've got you outnumbered!"

No sooner than Duke had spoken was there a stirring amongst the open caskets. A low moan sounded, and soon countless mummies revealed themselves.

"This place is crawlin' with stiffs!" Joey swallowed. He, like Yugi, Duke, and Tristan, slowly started to back away from the dais and out the way they came, but the mummies continued to rise and leer at them menacingly.

"Whatta ya want, anyway?" Joey hollered at the laughing, sourceless voice of Anubis.

_Behold the future, pitiful mortals…since you won't live to see it yourself!_

A tendril of lightning snaked down from the jewel set in the slab above the casket of Anubis; under the archway of the dais, a faint skyline could be seen. It didn't take long for the vision to become clearer—it was Domino, and it was on fire. Dragons roared and demons howled as the city fell to ruin.

_Soon my beasts of destruction shall annihilate all traces of life on Earth! And I will finally have my revenge for what happened all those millennia ago! It is by your very hand that this devastation will occur, mortal…_. Anubis chuckled darkly as another bolt of lightning changed the scene under the archway. This time, it was of a familiar room—Yugi's bedroom. Yugi himself sat slumped at his desk, his face covered in purple bruises and violent red scratches.

Yugi's hand visibly trembled—they could all see it, even from their distance—before he attached the final center piece to the Millennium Puzzle. Suddenly, there was a great golden light, and when it died down, so had the scene under the archway.

_When you released the pharaoh, little mortal, you released me as well!_

"Wha—" Joey and Duke gaped, open-mouthed.

"What's he mean?" Tristan wondered aloud, but part of him was afraid of the answer he might get.

Yugi's expression abruptly changed from surprised to determined, and he lowered his head against the blinding light from the jewel on the stone slab above.

"This is between me and him," he said under his breath. _'I was the one who assembled the Millennium Puzzle. That means it's my fault for releasing Anubis!'_ Yugi had always known that the puzzle contained much more than the spirit of the Pharaoh—it contained the secrets to a great and powerful darkness that Yami had traded his memory to seal away.

_'And it's my fault for unlocking it!'_

"What?" Joey asked in astonishment as he turned toward his best friend. Yugi couldn't bring himself to face him, but he spoke all the same.

"Listen, you guys need to find a way out of this place and save yourselves! I'm gonna stay here and figure this out! There was a prophecy in the museum, and I think it may have something to do with this. I just don't know what!"

"Yugi, all you're spoutin' is crazy talk! No matter what, we're not leavin' you! We're a team!"

"Joey's right! There's no chance we're turning our backs on you now!" Tristan added.

"That's right!" Duke added, looking as confident as ever. Like Kaiba, he was quite skilled at masking fear and a lack of confidence, especially now, when he was literally trapped in a world that made no sense.

"But," Yugi hesitated, looking from Joey to Tristan to Duke, "the last thing I want to do is put my best friends in danger…"

* * *

_'Yugi!'_

Téa didn't know how she knew that something was wrong with Yugi, but as of late, she didn't question the strange sixth sense she'd developed. All she knew was that her heart was pounding furiously, and she swore that if she just looked hard enough at the nebula of crimson and azure, she could see Yugi, Joey, Tristan, and Duke within. She knew that it was dangerous, that the Pyramid of Light was a tool of Anubis, and that the massive eye in the center calling to her was probably not the kind of thing you **wanted** to be staring at.

_'But I have to help my friends! I have to save Seto!'_

"TÉA! What are you doing?!"

The voices of Mokuba, Serenity, Solomon, Malik, and even Pegasus went unregistered in Téa's ears as she clambered out of the helicopter and onto one of the runners. Nothing but rapid gusts of wind separated her from a fall to the crumbling Duel Dome and the Pyramid of Light below.

"Téa, please, get down from there!" Serenity cried. The mixture of fierce winds and the fright her best friend was giving her was enough to bring tears to Serenity's eyes, but Téa still didn't seem to hear her.

_'My friends need me…I just know it!'_

"Téa, come back here at once!" Solomon tried ordering the girl, but it was to no avail.

Her normally-brilliant blue eyes went dark as she edged closer and closer to the edge of the runners, to a place almost directly centered above the massive nebula in the eye of the pyramid kilometers below.

_'I've got to help them!'_

Not just Yugi, Joey, Tristan, and Duke, but the Pharaoh and Seto, too. They **needed** her! No one else could do it, no one else would understand…!

"She's falling!" Serenity screamed.

"Grab her!" Pegasus shouted. The helicopter lurched to the side as everyone moved to grab Téa in the nick of time. Her body was safe, but her soul and very spirit was earthbound, flying through the violent winds and the abyss of color toward the dead center of the Pyramid of Light, brilliant blue sparkles trailing behind her.

_'I'm coming, guys!'_

* * *

Bakura saw the light before he could quite make out the figure quite distinctly soaring through the air. Brilliant pieces of blue light trailed after the figure, but somehow they were different from the icy blue of the Pyramid of Light currently wreaking havoc on Kaiba's precious Duel Dome.

Personally, Bakura hoped both the Pharaoh and Kaiba got crushed beneath the Pyramid, but then that would deprive him of the pleasure of crushing them both at his own hands. Whoever this 'Anubis' character was, Bakura never heard of him. That meant he was a nobody, and easily dismissed. As for the form soaring into the light…

_'Téa…'_ He recognized that feeling, that **connection** that had no name. But the figure he spotted amidst the dust clouds and the light of the Duel Dome wasn't anything like Téa, and in the second it took for Bakura to wrack his memory and think of a girl who resembled the one he'd seen, she was already gone.

_'Into the very darkness to save her precious friends._ _ She had better succeed.'_

But not for the sake of her friends, or even herself. No…for Bakura, and Bakura alone.

* * *

"How the mighty have fallen!" Kaiba laughed cruelly, his Blue-Eyes Shining Dragon looming before him. "Lying there on the ground like a dog waiting to be put out of its misery. Get up so I can knock you back down!"

Yami struggled to stand on his unsteady knees, but he managed to speak to Kaiba nonetheless. "Something's not right here Kaiba, and you know it!"

"Spare me the mystic mumbo-jumbo…you just can't stand that your reputation is at stake!"

"**You're** the one with no idea of what's at stake here, Kaiba! But believe me: I will **not **let you win this duel!" Yami rose to his feet, checked his hand to make sure he had a way of defending the last of his Life Points against Kaiba's new creature, and quickly placed a card on the field.

"I summon Big Shield Gardna to the field in defense mode!" The hulking creature with empty eyes and a mass of hair appeared on the field, its enormous violet and gold shield protecting Yami's Life Points from total annihilation.

"Yugi…I think **you're** the one who doesn't really have a clue what this match is about," Kaiba said darkly. "It's about **payback**! And this card will see to that." Kaiba placed one card face-down in the magic and trap card zone of his Duel Disk, waiting for the golden light of the holographic card to appear on the field. Once it did, Kaiba continued his move.

"First, let's deal with your so-called 'Big Shield Gardna.' Do you think it's big enough to block the power of my Blue-Eyes Shining Dragon!? Shining Dragon, attack! Shining Neutron Blast!"

The same brilliant sphere of blue and white light hurtled toward Yami's side of the field, effectively destroying his last defense. Since Gardna had been in defense mode, Yami took no damage—but that wasn't to say he could afford to take any in the first place. He only had 200 points left….

"I told you when we started this duel that this time, things were going to be different, Yugi! You may have beaten me in the past, but now there's nothing you can do to stop me from having my revenge! You're finished!"

_'This isn't the Kaiba I've known in the past few months,'_ Yami realized grimly. Though there hadn't been a need for Yami to make himself known, he was always aware of the goings-on in the real world. There were certain things that Yugi didn't even bother keeping from him, and that included the past several months while Kaiba and Téa forged a relationship with one another. But it made no sense: the man demanding a duel on account of **payback** wasn't the man that had looked so jealous over a simple hug at Téa's birthday party, or who had relentlessly pursued Malik at a dress rehearsal of Domino High's Christmas musical after the Egyptian had terrified Téa into running off stage.

But talking to Kaiba didn't help matters, so what would? He couldn't just give Kaiba what he wanted…Losing this duel was simply **not** an option!

* * *

A brilliant glowing gold light overwhelmed the crimson light from the tablet above Anubis' sarcophagus, until it finally coalesced into the form of a very familiar female figure.

"Téa!"

"Hey! How'd you find us?" Joey asked in surprise—his eyes wide not just because of the light surrounding Téa's undoubtedly translucent form, but also because she remained hovering in the air a good two meters above their heads.

"Are you kidding me guys?" Téa smiled, holding up her hand. Lines glowed brightly on her hand, as if they'd been inscribed with light over her skin. "Remember that friendship symbol we drew?"

Yugi, Duke, Tristan, and Joey looked at their hands simultaneously, somehow unsurprised to see their 'wedge' of the smiley glowing on the face of their own hands as well.

"Of course we do!" Yugi said, though the expression on his face was still grave. "The ink may have faded, but our bond never will!"

"Right!" Joey and Tristan added in unison.

"We're all with you," Téa told Yugi, her voice firm. "We'll **always** be with you, no matter what!"

Yugi's pensive expression faded away once more and he smiled at his friends. "Thanks, guys."

"Friends till the end!" Téa thrust her hand out toward the guys, somehow hovering downward that she was almost level with them. She was still glowing—and the boys could still see right **through** her, for the most part, but she'd never felt more connected to them than she did now. Everything had been so scary and confusing up until now—she was left wondering if her friends hated her for being with Kaiba, for loving him and wanting more. But what it came down to was that they were friends no matter what, until the end of time. Not even a so-called Lord of the Dead could change **that**!

_'Think again, foolish girl! You might have powers outside this realm, but none so long as I'm here!'_

Téa knew she heard the voice: it echoed loudly in her head, like someone speaking with a bullhorn pressed directly against her ear. But no one else seemed to have heard it either; their faces remained still and smiling, almost as if they'd been frozen for an instant in time.

_'Your pathetic little bond is nothing compared to my power!'_ That same voice echoed again, for Téa's ears alone. Her smile transformed into an angry frown, and she willed herself to somehow find the source of the voice. Her astral body hovered higher and higher up in the air, approaching the vast darkness above, but the voice still seemed as loud and as sourceless as ever.

_'Soon my soul will be fully restored and your world shrouded in darkness…yet you fools prattle on about '"togetherness?"'_

The eye in the center of the pyramid on the stone tablet started to glow brightly, its power almost pushing Téa higher up into the darkness. But this time, the boys **did **notice.

"Téa!"

_'Don't even think about losing your soul in this place, Téa.'_

The voice that Téa heard **this** time wasn't the same as the one from before, but it **was** familiar. But she couldn't place it; everything was starting to become jumbled and confusing again, and she was sure her body couldn't take any more of the pressure.

_'Fight them! The power I gave you still resides within!'_

In the instant that Anubis's ugly voice called out "SO BE IT!", Téa's glow turned to a violent shade of red and the power keeping her levitating above the floor disappeared. But a newfound power took over, and just as a hoard of mummies moved to surround Téa right where she would fall, it surged forth. Téa kicked out to the sides, cleanly taking the heads of several mummies as she went. She landed on the balls of her feet and one of her palms, but other than a few scrapes, she was no worse for the wear than she had been when she'd been glowing and golden.

"…What? I could do that," Joey muttered under his breath. The truth was, he was just as astonished as Yugi, Duke, and Tristan—if the looks on their faces were any indication. Since when was Téa a martial artist?

But no, it had to have been just beginner's luck, especially with the way Téa was starting to look confused and lost, her legs shaking and the mummies closing in on her. Whatever strength had allowed her to kick mummy head before had left her.

"Okay then, let's take them apart!" Duke crowed, pressing his hands together and cracking his knuckles loudly.

"Literally!" Tristan echoed, and he, Joey, and Duke all rushed forward to Téa's aid.

"Hey, Johnny Rotten, over here!" Joey called. Though the mummies were literally just strips of flesh and bone, they obviously seemed to register Joey's mocking call, as they started to stumble toward him, seemingly multiplying as they lumbered in their disjointed way.

"Take this!" Joey smirked as some got close enough and he sent three torsos flying with a perfectly executed roundhouse kick to the legs of the approaching mummies. Tristan followed suit and managed to slam his leg through the lower chest area of one mummy, but his leg got caught in some sort of strange decayed substance, preventing him from pulling his leg out right away. Worse, though the mummy was disjointed from its lower body, its upper body still seemed intent on attacking!

"Tristan!" Joey called out nervously. "Kicks to the head don't work!" Whatever Téa had done was a one-shot deal; the mummies she had decimated still lay as still as dust, while all the mummies they tried to pummel just kept coming back in various bits and pieces.

"Neither do kicks to the stomach!" Duke snapped a few moments later, brushing his pant legs free of some yellowing goo.

"Then let's try this!" Tristan attempted a more angular kick, using a nearby coffin to thrust his lower body up into the air. Though he managed to kick his way through a few more mummies, still more kept appearing out of the darkness, as if the room was endless and the supply of dead creepazoids was constant.

"These carcasses won't quit!" Joey swallowed as he backed up against Téa.

"How do you destroy what's already dead?" Duke surmised as he backed up against Tristan and Yugi. "It's no use! They just keep coming!"

Yugi noticed the red light of the Pyramid of Light's eye glowing ever brighter as the mummies closed in one them.

_'It's a longshot, but it might just save us all!'_

* * *

Everything was glowing. It all seemed so wrong, so off. There was the blue of the pyramid, mixed with the faint white coming from its tip. There was a depthless black intermingled with a bloody red.

But there seemed to be bits and pieces of golden light, calling to Bakura, singing to him….

He was spent. He'd spent far too long without letting his host maintain proper control, and as a result, he was severely weakened. Worse, when he'd seen Téa—and he was **sure** it was Téa—go 'spiritually' flying into the Pyramid of Light's nebula, he'd pursued his old link with her, and given **her** the last bit of strength that he could muster.

Now all the lights were fading, dimming…they coalesced into one inky gray color, and then there was darkness.

* * *

"Why won't she wake up?" Serenity cried out, her voice bordering on hysterical. She kept shaking Téa, urging her to wake up, but Téa remained as lifeless as a few minutes ago, when she'd first slumped forward and nearly plunged to her death.

"Something to do with that pyramid," Malik muttered.

"Probably," Solomon agreed, turning to look at Pegasus. "But what I don't get is that if you didn't make that card, why is it even working in Kaiba's Duel Disk?"

Pegasus stared at Solomon, his lips set into a thin line. "Do you want the logical answer, or the answer I actually believe is the truth?"

Solomon's eyes widened slightly, but he didn't say anything. All eyes were on Pegasus in open curiosity, but clearly no one wanted to choose one answer over the other—Pegasus certainly knew much more than he was letting on.

"The logical answer is that there are plenty of counterfeiters out there. Anybody could have made that card and reprogrammed the chip from the inside of another card to get it to work in the Duel Disks. Another less logical, but still plausible possibility is that this Anubis character created the card himself, and it works with magic. But that wouldn't explain why Kaiba was able to use it, or why Anubis seemed to **want** Kaiba to have it."

"You mean all this was planned from the start?" Mokuba asked in astonishment. "Even before my brother went to duel you?"

"It would make sense," Malik stated quietly. "Especially if Pegasus knew Kaiba was coming." Unspoken was Malik's implication that if Pegasus **did** know Kaiba was coming, he would also know that Kaiba would want certain cards to beat Yugi's God Cards with. Pegasus could purposefully challenge Kaiba to a duel that he had no intention of winning, and place the card that would help Kaiba win against Yugi in Seto's deck. But somehow, Anubis had gotten into the picture before Pegasus and his 'source' realized it, and it muddled everything up.

Pegasus didn't say anything in response to Malik, but he did answer Mokuba's question. "Somebody planted that Pyramid of Light card along with the Shining Dragon that **I** created. If Anubis coming to Japan was a fluke, then someone had to have brought him here and told him about everybody—not just Yugi with that Millennium Puzzle of his."

"So you're saying the true enemy isn't Anubis at all, but somebody else?" Solomon asked.

Pegasus nodded grimly. "It looks that way. And whoever it is keeps doing a good job of covering up their tracks and making sure they stay well-hidden in the shadows. I don't think Anubis even knows he's being controlled from behind the scenes."

"And I doubt whoever's doing the controlling cares much about who gets hurt along the way," Mokuba added angrily.

"You still didn't tell us the answer that **you** thought was the truth," Malik said after a moment's pause. "So what is it?"

"You won't like it," Pegasus said firmly. "But if you insist: I think the likeliest scenario is that the card is counterfeit through and through, but whoever made it didn't possess the technology to embed a chip compatible with Kaiba's latest duel technologies inside. So Kaiba did the job himself."

"That's impossible!" Mokuba protested. "My brother would never—"

"But wouldn't he?" Pegasus interrupted the boy smoothly. "Anything to beat Yugi, after all. Your brother is quite capable of deluding himself into believing whatever he wants, even when the truth is right before his eyes. Not even **you** can argue that."

Mokuba's mouth closed and his eyes fell to his knees. Pegasus—**Pegasus**!—was right. Right about his brother. Right about everything.

And that just made the already-bad situation seem ten times worse.

"Joey! Tristan! Duke!" Serenity, who had remained silent during Pegasus' revelations, was staring out the helicopter's door, the wind whipping her fire-red hair violently around her face. She tried to brush it away and still maintain a firm grip on the railing beside the door, but it was getting more difficult by the second.

"We have to get them inside!" Serenity shouted. "That place is still falling apart!"

"They don't look conscious," Solomon observed, peering out the opening himself. "How will you do it?"

"I'll go," Malik spoke up. He nudged Mokuba. "Come on."

Mokuba looked astonished that Malik was not only speaking to him, but encouraging him to help bring boys much bigger than him up an unsteady ladder into a helicopter.

"I can help too!" Serenity cried out, moving to join Malik and Mokuba as they scuttled down the rope ladder.

"No! We need you to be up there to take your brother into the helicopter. Mr. Moto can help. Pegasus has to keep talking to his helicopter pilot so the ladder doesn't get unsteady and we don't fall."

Everyone Malik mentioned nodded in the affirmative, though there was a great deal of hesitance on Serenity's part. She watched with bile churning in her stomach as Malik and Mokuba moved downward toward the uppermost gallery in the crumbling Duel Dome, where the three boys below lay spread-eagled on the ground.

They only had a few minutes time before the whole ceiling collapsed—and not just on top of the boys, but on top of the low-flying helicopter as well!

* * *

"I'm not finished," Yami managed hoarsely, his body still feeling as weak as rice paper. "Not yet." He managed to straighten to his full height, but his legs still felt as though they might give any second now.

"I play Pot of Greed, so I now draw two cards!" One of the two cards Yami drew was Watapon, an otherwise-harmless looking creature that could be Specially Summoned whenever it was drawn outside of the normal Draw Phase. "Now I summon Watapon in defense mode! And since I used Pot of Greed to draw Watapon from my Deck, I can summon another monster to the field—and I choose Obnoxious Celtic Guardian!"

"It's your move!" Having two monsters on his side of the field was a good position for Yami to be in, but it wasn't as if he had anything strong enough to defeat Kaiba's new dragon—not yet, anyway. He had to keep believing…

"So let me see if I've got this right," Kaiba asked sarcastically, "You're playing a creampuff and an elf? Well then," Kaiba returned to the angry, serious duelist he was known for being, "It's **your** funeral! First, the Card of Demise I played before sends this dragon to the graveyard!" A light on the Duel Disk lit up, while a holographic guillotine appeared on the field, slicing a virtual Spear Dragon card in two. Kaiba placed the real Spear Dragon card into his Duel Disk's graveyard, watching with delight as his Shining Dragon's attack increased even more.

"You know what that means," he chuckled darkly to Yami, who continued to be oblivious to his imminent defeat. "Now my Blue-Eyes Shining Dragon has more destructive power than ever before!"

"Kaiba, please listen to me!"

Not exactly the cry Kaiba had been expecting to hear from Yugi. He would have preferred something more along the lines of "I see now, I can't defeat you!" But Kaiba wouldn't have allowed Yugi to just **surrender**. Oh no, this defeat was going to be one he'd relish….

"All I want to hear from you is your anguished cry of defeat!" Kaiba snapped.

"Kaiba, for the last time, I'm **begging **you to stop this!" Yami Yugi didn't beg. Kaiba knew that better than anyone, but nonetheless, he wouldn't be swayed.

"People are getting hurt, and lives are in danger!" Yami gestured up toward the point of the Pyramid. The walls reaching up just near that point seemed more translucent than they did further down; one could just barely make out the crumbling Duel Dome shrouded by a faint blue light. "The Pyramid of Light you've created is in the center of it all!"

For the first time, Kaiba noticed. He noticed the broken rafters and the falling debris…he noticed the control room, hanging lopsided from the beam that supported the movement cable.

_'Mokuba!'_

But the youngest Kaiba was nowhere in sight. It seemed as though the Pyramid blocked out everything that Kaiba so desperately wanted to see in that moment—the Duel Dome, his brother…Téa. It was true that she'd left the Duel Dome when she'd first found what he was up to, but something inside him told him without a doubt that she was here. But where?

"There's a dark power in our midst and you can't deny it!" Yami continued, on a roll now that he'd finally gotten to get a word in edgewise without Kaiba interrupting him. "With every Life Point lost, we both became weaker! I know you can feel it!"

_Ridiculous! Now you can attack Yugi with your Shining Dragon and destroy the rest of his Life Points!_

The voice in Kaiba's head wasn't his own. The thoughts weren't his own—but Kaiba didn't even notice. All he knew was that he **had** to destroy Yugi, once and for all—he had to get revenge! It wasn't about payback for humiliation anymore, it was something greater, something that wounded deeper…

_'It's your fault! I won't lose to you!'_

Everything led back to Yugi. Always him—always his fault for everything going wrong!

_'No! I should stick to my original strategy and defeat Yugi with his very own God Cards!'_ Kaiba thought resolutely, trying to squelch the idea of defeating Yugi with the Shining Dragon. As easy as it would be to do, it wouldn't **mean** anything unless it was a perfect victory.

_'Mean something? Mean what? Defeat is defeat!'_

But it still didn't** feel** right!

"I'm afraid that it's already too late!" Kaiba announced, hoping the sound of his own voice would block out the myriad of thoughts confusing him.

"No Kaiba, please! You mustn't do this! We still have time to stop this madness—all we have to do is end this duel!" Even as Yami spoke, he had the sinking sensation that it wouldn't be so easy. He wasn't sure if it was something about Kaiba, or about this particular duel—but there was definitely something more sinister, more ancient than either of them knew, playing them both for fools.

_That's it…destroy him now! End the cycle of humiliation and pain that he has put you through!_

_'It's not that!'_

But **what** was it, then? Why duel, and why now? Why was he suddenly so desperately craving a victory that had stopped holding much meaning for him? What kept pushing him…?

"You know, Yugi, you're absolutely right! Stopping the duel is exactly what I'm going to do!" If just to shut up the warring voices in his head. Seto Kaiba didn't have a split personality or whatever the hell Yugi had going on for him. All he had was a chance—right at the tip of his fingers—to defeat Yugi once and for all, and to get revenge…!

"Now, Blue-Eyes Shining Dragon, activate your special ability!"

"No! You're playing with forces you can't possibly understand!"

_Finish him! Finish him now!_

Why did this all seem so familiar? Not the voice, but the war in his head. The desperate urge to defeat Yugi when the better part of him knew that it wouldn't mean anything, that it wouldn't **change** anything…

_"I want a real reason, Seto! WHY?"_

What **was **the real reason, anyway? Not even Kaiba could be sure. He just felt like he was losing his grip, and the sooner this ended, the sooner everything would make sense. The sooner he could explain to Téa, and—

_'No! I want a perfect victory, and with this card, I can use Yugi's most powerful monsters against him!'_

Kaiba couldn't finish Yugi with the Shining Dragon's attack. That wasn't the strategy he'd formulated once he'd obtained the two cards from Pegasus, the cards that seemed to be **made** for him. They seemed to **call** for him, telling him what to do, how to build his deck around them—and now it came down to the final attack, and he was wavering? What was wrong with him!?

"I use…Shining Nova! It puts the rage of a thousand Blue-Eyes White Dragons into a blast so powerful, it destroys itself—plus anything that I choose! And the card that shall feel the wrath of my Blue-Eyes Shining Dragon is the Pyramid of Light!"

_No! I need the Pyramid to destroy the Pharaoh!_

Kaiba growled under his breath; Yugi was Yugi—not some reincarnated king from on high. Kaiba would never give Yugi the luxury of referring to him like he deserved a modicum of respect.

_'What am I saying!? I have to destroy it to gain control of Yugi's God Cards!'_

"Yugi! Your reign as the King of Games is over!" Kaiba announced loudly, though his form could barely be seen, what with the simultaneous brightening of both the Shining Dragon and the Pyramid of Light. "That title will be mine…as will all three of your Egyptian God Cards! Blue-Eyes Shining Dragon—sacrifice yourself and destroy…the Pyramid of Light!"

The vein-like lines of light that crisscrossed over ever centimeter of the Shining Dragon suddenly flared to life, glowing a brilliant white. Kaiba refused to let his gaze stray from the sight, even though the light was almost blinding. The virtual Shining Dragon card and the Pyramid of Light card both started to glow, resonating in time with the activation of the dragon's effect…

_This I cannot allow!_

The blue-white light forming at the center of the glowing dragon's chest coalesced into a single burst of lightning, which crackled downward with a deafening rumble. But when the virtual dust and smoke cleared, the Pyramid of Light was still intact—but the Shining Dragon had disappeared.

"What!? The Pyramid of Light wasn't destroyed!?"

_The Pyramid of Light endures because I will it! So great is my power!_

This time, Kaiba couldn't deny that he'd heard the voice—the same one that had been whispering to use the Dragon to destroy Yugi, rather than the Pyramid. But it couldn't be that the voice had been with him all along!

"What is this!? Show yourself, whoever you are!" Kaiba demanded.

_I have been here the whole time, mortal, whispering in your ear…_

"The whole time? No! This is some sort of trick!" But Kaiba's own words sounded fickle in his ears; it was as if a part of him had registered that Yugi had told the truth, all along. Even with the voice speaking aloud, something still seemed wrong: that it wasn't the true source of why Kaiba so desperately wanted this revenge. No, it was something greater, something **older**…

Distracted by his thoughts, Kaiba was unaware of his own shadow stretching further and further, morphing into the silhouette of a jackal-headed man with enormous muscles. The shadow thickened, turning into a tar-like substance that boiled and shifted. All at once, a deeply-tanned figure, not unlike the muscular silhouette that had appeared in Kaiba's shadow only moments before sprung up, naked but for the few traces of black sludge dripping off its limbs.

"Kaiba, look out!"

In the moment it took for Kaiba to turn his head, the figure had fully emerged from the darkness, a brilliant green gem glowing on its brow. The form thrust out an enormous hand at Kaiba's head, very nearly crushing it.

"Kaiba, no!"

Kaiba winced as physical pain unlike anything he'd ever experienced before flooded his skull, sending an array of colored dots dancing across his vision. It was getting darker…

_You have served me well, little worm, but you have outlived your usefulness!_

The massive figure, still clutching Kaiba by the head, swung his arm backward and hefted Kaiba—all 186 centimeters and 65 kilograms of him—up in the air, throwing Kaiba against the far side of the arena, where the Pyramid of Light still gleamed as if it had never been attacked.

Kaiba could barely make out the figure as it suddenly developed clothing and hair, and then the darkness claimed him.

* * *

"No!"

"Téa, what is it?" Everyone turned around abruptly to see Téa staring at the archway above Yugi's head, her face a mask of agony. But she herself didn't look like she was in any sort of pain—but it didn't take long for everyone to figure out why Téa had screamed.

_'See him now, child? With all his power, your foolish lover can't even resist his own fate!'_

Anubis chuckled mirthlessly in Téa's own mind, forcing her to watch his physical self outside in the real world throw Kaiba bodily against the Duel Dome arena wall.

"That had to hurt," Joey muttered under his breath. The glowing red-gold light underneath the archway revealed a scene from what had to be the outside world—complete with Yami's duel against Kaiba. But in the last moment, Kaiba hesitated over something, and a dark shadow emerged—and morphed into what everyone knew **had** to be Anubis, the so-called Lord of the Dead tormenting them.

Now that he was unconscious and halfway across the Duel Dome, Kaiba was no longer part of the duel—and whether or not Anubis took over for him, it meant that Kaiba was in more danger than ever before. The Duel Dome was crumbling—and Kaiba was too far away from anyone to save him.

"His arm looks pretty busted up," Duke added with a wince, noting the wound just barely visible on Kaiba's bicep. He glanced at Téa to see her reaction, and was somewhat startled to see her staring, wide-eyed, with tears streaming down her cheeks. Hadn't she been furious at Kaiba for wanting to restart the duel with Yugi in the first place?

"I didn't even try to understand why he wanted to duel again, so suddenly. I didn't even give him the chance to explain !" Téa whispered brokenly. "I was supposed to learn my lesson after my parents died: I can't take anyone for granted! Every single moment is precious…" Téa sniffled once, and then her expression became harsh and determined. "And like hell will I let some evil idiot like Anubis get his way!"

"Yeah!" Yugi, Joey, and Duke agreed.

"Uh, guys? Not like I wanna be the odd voice out here, but—**remember the mummies**!?" Tristan yelped. Though the attack of the undead had slowed somewhat since Anubis had appeared physically on the Other Side, it hadn't made them any easier to defeat.

Yugi abruptly remembered what he'd been looking for amongst the tattered wrappings and the heavy dust inside the sarcophagus of Anubis, and he quickly resumed his search.

Téa screamed as a pair of mummies attempted to gang up on her; she darted behind Tristan, leaving him to take care of the front one. "He's all yours!"

"I don't want your mummy!" Tristan cried out while punching forward blindly. To his surprise, his punch cleanly took off the head of one of the mummies, while Téa kicked high and upward against the mummy on the other side, still lurching toward her.

"That eye up there seems to be Anubis' power source!" Yugi shouted as he tried to fend off the mummies approaching him up on the dais. "The prophecy said 'The eye that sees what's yet to come…its vision shall be fulfilled unless blinded by events predetermined…lest both light and shadows be killed!' A predetermined event is just another way of saying 'Fate,' right, guys?"

"Right!" Joey and Tristan shouted. Téa swung a stumbling mummy over her head with her arms, causing it to explode in a burst of dust and nauseating smell, but she didn't answer. All she knew was that she was getting just as tired of 'fate' and 'destiny' as Seto was. If all it meant was pain…

"The prophecy means that the eye up there can be blinded by fate…I think I figured it out!"

"Heads up, ya freak!" Joey cried as he high-kicked a mummy that had gotten too close. The head went flying off the rest of the mummy's neck, spinning in the air three times before dropping like a rock. "Way to use your head, Yug'!" Joey crowed appreciatively.

Most of the mummies had been defeated by now, leaving Yugi with the chance to resume his search—but there were still random mummy parts running, hopping, or bouncing around, and other mummies that seemed to be emerging from the depths of the shadows.

_'If I'm right, I've got to find that Dagger of Fate!'_

Yugi glanced into the sarcophagus, but nothing seemed to be hidden amongst the wrappings. Yugi hated the thought of burying his hands in centuries-old cloth, likely littered with decayed organs and rotted flesh, but if it meant saving his friends and regaining the connection with the Pharaoh, then…

"Yes! Here it is!" Yugi hurriedly rubbed his dust-covered hands on his pants, shifting the dirty, curved blade from one hand to the other as he did so. He noticed the mummies advancing from the sides of the dais, quicker than before.

"Let's just hope fate is on our side!" Yugi muttered under his breath before hurling his right arm back and sending the dagger flying toward the crimson 'iris' on the stone tablet above.

"Come on…!" The blade arced through the air and abruptly twisted—its hilt slammed into the curves of stone holding the red jewel in place, and then the dagger clattered uselessly to the floor.

"No!" Yugi thought that his chance had been lost, but all at once, a bright crackle of gold lightning sprung from a tiny crack in the stone tablet. Bit by bit, the crack grew and the light brightened, and the mummies started to stumble back, either unable or unwilling to fight in the face of the new, brighter gold light.

"We just might win this!"

* * *

"Foolish Pharaoh—you have **lost**! Your friends have fallen, and now there is no escape!"

"I will not succumb to your lies, Anubis!" Yami shouted back. "I can still sense my friends within my Millennium Puzzle, and no matter what you and your Pyramid have done to influence this world, you will **not** break our bonds!"

But something still didn't feel right.

Yami **could** vaguely sense Yugi and the others, but he couldn't be sure if it was just residual energy, a trick of the Pyramid of Light, or his own wishful thinking. What if Anubis was right? What if this time, he couldn't win? There was no one to support him, and his own Life Points and strength were running low…

"Your bonds are easier to break than you think, foolish Pharaoh! You made the mistake of sealing me away with the powers of your own Millennium Puzzle, at the end of your time, your seal weakened! Then when the puzzle came together in this day and age, you caused my powers to grow and me to be reborn!"

_'The powers of my own Millennium Puzzle?'_ Yami thought, astonished. There was little that he could recollect about his ancient past, but Anubis was most definitely part of it. He seemed to hold quite a grudge—something about the Pharaoh having thwarted Anubis' plans to destroy the world—but maybe there was a way to coax the truth out of him.

"Tell me why, Anubis! Why have you been reborn in this day and age?"

"Only to destroy **you**, foolish Pharaoh. I will finish what I started all those millennia ago—and this time, no one else will get in my way!"

* * *

** _Thousands of years ago…_ **

"Enkur!"

The bulky blond snapped his head around at the sound of a voice calling his name; he put the boulders he was lifting as weights down on the ground, ignoring the small craters and the cloud of dust they created as they slammed into the earth.

"We're moving out this evening," Enkur's fellow soldier told him. "Aren't you looking forward to it? This is when we finally get our missions, and we're charged with our own contingent!"

Enkur scoffed, brushing an errant hair from his sweat-slicked face. "We've already spent months in this desert hell, and you expect me to be **excited** about finally moving out? This is our life, Hadad. Always at war, always moving."

Hadad gave a barking laugh, a single eyebrow raised in query. "Are you telling me—you, the one who has always wanted to prove himself, always wanted to become a great warrior—that you want to settle down? You've gone soft, Enkur!"

"That's not it!" Enkur snapped. It was true though—he was always seeking to prove himself, to become a great warrior. He hadn't been born into a privileged family like Hadad had—Hadad, who could trace his lineage back to the great Hadads and Adads before him. The fact that Hadad even talked to him was amazing: after all, what did Enkur have to offer Hadad? Still, when it came to brute strength and actual fighting prowess, all the blood running through Hadad's veins couldn't change the fact that Enkur was much stronger than him. Perhaps it was Hadad's respect for Enkur's hard work—or fear of what his 'friend' could do if he turned against Hadad and his family—that kept the two on friendly terms.

"Fine, fine," Hadad dismissed Enkur's protests with a wave of his hand. If it had been anyone but Hadad, Enkur would have slammed them in the ground for being so flippant with him. But Hadad wasn't just his 'friend,' he was his superior in every possible way. To anger Hadad would mean certain death, and exile and poverty for Enkur's already-starving family. This "war to end all wars" was supposed to stop all that. If they won this—if they captured the rich and plentiful land called 'Kemet,' they would never need to go to war again.

At least, Enkur hoped so. He was sick of working so hard and not getting the slightest amount of reward. He was sick of returning home for a scant few weeks in the year, only to see his family still suffering. He was sick of being the lowest in every rank, but the hardest worker, picking up slack for the lazy and the rich. In war, rank wasn't supposed to have any meaning….

"Your troops are waiting for you, Enkur. We move at nightfall." Hadad's parting words shook Enkur out of his brief reverie, and he nodded sharply before trailing after Hadad, hoping that his fellow troops were more than a group of slackers.

Just before nightfall, Enkur resigned himself to his fate and headed out to the part of the camp where leaders met with their troops.

_'Somehow, the word "slackers" doesn't quite do them justice,'_ Enkur thought the moment he took his contingent in.

In fact, Enkur's troops were the scrawniest bunch of so-called soldiers that he'd ever seen. Most of them were only half of Enkur's size, with arms so skinny it was a wonder they could support their supplies on their backs.

At least they weren't a group of spoiled rich boys out to do their civic duty and retire to the lap of luxury. No, they were just like Enkur had been when he was younger—hopelessly idealistic, striving to be more, to get more. They didn't know that the world didn't necessarily reward someone that worked hard, or someone that **deserved** strength and power.

But rather than sympathize with his own troops, Enkur found himself disliking being stuck with them with each passing day.

"Lord Enkur, can't we stop? We've been marching for hours!"

Twitch.

"Sir, I'm **positive** there's an oasis to the north! If we just go back that way…"

Shudder.

"Ugh!"

Enkur stopped the moment he heard another one of his skinny, pathetic 'soldiers' flop to the dirt.

"Keep on marching," Enkur growled into the sweat-covered boy's ear. "Do you want to be considered a pathetic soldier, dishonoring your comrades and leader with your weakness?" These were the words that Enkur had drilled into his own head, throughout all those years when he'd been tempted to give up, to just be content with what he had and what class he was born into.

The boy looked up, his dark eyes swimming with nausea from the blazing heat. But in those same eyes, Enkur saw a fierce determination: his words had gotten through. If only the rest of the nitwits in this foolish band could be so strong-willed!

In a matter of hours, everything changed. Enkur's lofty opinion of himself and the hard work that had gotten him where he was—leading a band of wannabe-soldiers—suddenly dropped like the boulders he lifted for sport.

"I'm blind! I'm blind!" It was one of Enkur's troops that cried out first; a single gust of wind had blown a handful of sand into his face, and with the way the boy was fidgeting and hollering and scrubbing at his face, there would be no way to calm him before his cries filtered throughout the entire army.

"You're not going blind!" Enkur snapped. He was sweating rivulets too, and getting sick of the stench of traveling with the faint-of-heart and frail-of-body—those that kept vomiting every third kilometer, and those that were so used to a constant supply of bread and wine that they fainted if they didn't eat or drink for six hours. What soldiers! But unlike those soldiers, Enkur knew he had an example to set, a mission to fulfill, for his people as much as for his own personal reasons. He wasn't **allowed** to complain. Precedence set those rules, and Enkur had no reason not to follow them.

_'This will be the battle in which my efforts are recognized at last! If the men I'm assigned aren't willing soldiers, I will _make_ them my troops!'_ Such was the strength of Enkur's will, unwilling to return home defeated in any sense of the word.

But that one pathetically 'blind' soldier-boy signaled the beginning of the end. That single gust of stinging, hot wind turned into another, and another—until the gusts didn't pause, and a torrential storm was raging in the desert, right in the land where the Akkadian army dared to walk. Contingents were separated from their supply lines; horses whinnied and were lost to the dunes, and all Enkur could make out were the frantic screams of his own soldiers, terrified out of their wits by some **sand**.

"Follow the sound of my voice!" Enkur shouted as loudly as he could, biting his tongue at the last moment to resist calling the screaming boys 'fools.' He wisely refrained, and within a short period, most of his troops had found Enkur among the rest of the screams and the roar of the wind. Enkur's was the darkest and bulkiest shadow in the sandstorm, and it was that imposing stature that they followed desperately out of the raging red gusts.

Hours later, both desert and army had calmed. But while the desert cooled and faded into the rich violet of the night, the few soldiers left to the Akkadian army were all in Enkur's timid and inexperienced group. If their numbers had been poor before, they were even less now, without a horse or a supply to their name. All they had were the shields and swords on their backs, and even those were being seen as a burden.

The soldiers were only calm because they had expended all their energy, and couldn't muster up nearly enough strength to be anything else. They'd lost track of the last time they'd seen anything, whether it was a horse, another soldier, or a palm tree marking a distant oasis. None of them dared hope to think that a town was anywhere in sight; even if there was, what could they possibly do? With their meager numbers, they could hardly invade a village, let alone the capital of the desert lands!

But they couldn't go back, either.

It wasn't just a matter of defeat and dishonor—there was no way they would make it back to Agade without supplies, anyway. They had to find water and shelter soon, lest the desert claim them the way it had claimed the rest of the Akkadian soldiers.

* * *

The problem with war tactics and strategy, as Enkur learned, was that nothing ever went the way you planned.

For all the experience Enkur had gained in the battlefield, throughout all the years, nothing could have prepared him for the journey through Kemet. Due to the sandstorm sending them so far off-course, they'd stumbled into the first town they saw, parched for water and starving for food. Many of the already-scrawny boys were on the verge of death from the lack of nutrients; they hadn't encountered a single oasis since the sandstorm, and so they'd all gone hungry while tromping through the desert with their gear on their shoulders.

But rather than be treated as victims of the powerful desert, the townspeople immediately took one look at the imposing man leading the pack—a dark-skinned man with bright eyes, massive muscles, and light hair—and they declared the foreigners evil, and unworthy of anyone's good graces.

Enkur hated being looked at that way—it was a feeling you couldn't ignore, even when you just kept staring straight ahead, continually looking toward the horizon. He could always **feel** their stares boring into his back, as if their gazes had the power to press holes into his flesh and drain the lifeblood from his veins. But with every insult hurled their way, Enkur felt a stab inside him, almost as if he'd been physically attacked.

He worked so hard to become a great warrior to **avoid** this kind of chastising, and here people were doing it based on his **looks**? How preposterous!

"Get out of here, spawn of the dark god!"

_'Idiots.'_

"Leave this place, or else the White Dragon will come to punish you!"

_'Brainless villagers!'_ Still, for every insult Enkur didn't murmur aloud, the villagers that gathered in the streets to see the soldiers passing through yelled more and more. Enkur took each and every blasphemous word personally, for there wasn’t any reason for his already thin-skinned soldiers to let the words of a few foolish villagers get to them. The same couldn't be true for Enkur, though. He probably looked the most out of place out of all of them, and it was **his** fault for leading his soldiers here in the first place. He was the one with the grand plan to complete the mission they'd set out to do, rather than make the attempt to return home.

But Enkur didn't **attempt** anything. He either did something or he didn't, and that was what drove him on, step by step, even as the crowds grew thicker and the jeers of the villagers grew more violent….

"Dirty foreigners—we don't need the danger you bring here!"

"Ignore it!" Enkur bit out roughly, barking to his troops in their own tongue. It was only through what they'd learned of previous, smaller-scale invasions and word from travelers that they even understood any of the words the people of Kemet spoke. That didn't mean their words made any more _sense_, but Enkur was more than willing to chalk it up to insanity caused by proximity to the desert. It was true that Enkur had grown up in lands not unlike Kemet—but they weren't nearly this blazing, and there were the twin rivers to always keep the land fertile.

_'They are nothing more than the pathetic people that we will defeat! We will overcome them, and then this land will be ours!'_

But the more Enkur and his men traveled, the more they wondered what was so special about Kemet, anyway. It didn't seem very fertile, no matter what previous contingents of soldiers had said. It all looked so desolate and barren. The few towns and cities were scattered so far apart, it was a wonder that they even knew what direction the palace was in, or that they even had a pharaoh!

_'It won't be possible to kill off these insolent fools in these backwater towns anyway,'_ Enkur thought viciously. He'd been tempted on more than one occasion to strangle the fools that dared to call him a spawn of the dark lord, but he'd wisely resisted. His **troops **were watching. They expected him to set an example. And that meant being patient, and having tact. Even if it **had** been a week since Enkur had last tasted real food, that didn't change the fact that he was strong. Nothing could defeat him—not even their so-called 'white dragon god,' or whatever idiocy they believed in.

_'We'll start higher. Kill the Pharaoh, and the rest of his cities will fall in turn.'_ Such was Enkur's thinking: the thought of a bloody battle, with absolute victory at its end. **His** victory. The victory he'd been waiting for his entire life.

_'At last!'_

But Enkur found that those backwater towns that dared to insult him turned into cities -each of them growing steadily larger. Each place denied Enkur and his troops shelter. They got what water they could steal, and what food they could find. But they didn't make many friends from what they did steal, whether it was by stealth or by sword point.

And when the first of the men died—from starvation or thirst, no one could tell—nothing seemed to matter anymore.

Weeks had passed since the sandstorm. There had been no sign from any of the other soldiers in any of the other contingents. Even Enkur was having a hard time keeping up appearances. He was supposed to be the great leader, the wise tactician—and now he was in charge of a ragtag group of **children** who knew more about growing potted plants than they did about warfare and invading countries. And here they were—in the heart of Kemet—with no food, little war, and no plan.

More of the soldiers were getting sick and dying, and that meant fewer troops to take action—whether that action led them back home in shame-faced defeat, or to the palace with the intent of absolute victory.

* * *

They had been traveling for what must have been over a week; Enkur hadn't had a substantial meal or clean water in so long, the days became blurred together as one endless stream of heat and dust.

On the furthest edges of the poor residential area stood a solitary home, strangely separated from all the others. If it were any further out, it wouldn't even be considered part of the village: just a mysterious building, alone in the desert. But it was to this house that Enkur stumbled, on the verge of giving into his physical body's weakness. But he would not ask for water for himself—no, he would still set the example, and still lead his men.

They **had** to succeed at this mission, and they had to _live_ in order to succeed.

"I will ask for water," Enkur told his men, gesturing for them to stay where they were. They acquiesced to his 'command' with not so much as a mumble; they were all so exhausted and dehydrated at this point that it wouldn't have surprised Enkur if one of them were dead by the time he returned with water. And this time, he **had** to get water…or else he himself couldn't survive the trek to the city, and then who would lead these ragtag boys into victory?

"Water!" Enkur managed upon reaching the small house, his voice surprisingly hoarse. "Please!" Enkur hated having to beg, because it made his class all the more apparent. Begging was for those that were too lazy or pathetic to work for themselves, to reap their own rewards. But he was so weak now, and the red-gold of the desert sands were blending in with the dusky gray of the horizon….

Enkur was about to give up, thinking that the meager shelter on the outskirts of this sad village really was abandoned. But in a moment, a woman emerged from the darkened doorway, her skin wrinkled and hanging, her eyes clouded and dark.

Enkur stood silent for a moment, entirely unsure what to say. Would she be like the rest of the women in the village—looking upon him with disgust, as if he were some sort of vile spawn sprung from the shadows? Or would she be the sole kind person amid a village of cruel, thoughtless, and selfish people?

_'The choice she makes will determine whether she lives when we return to conquer this place,'_ Enkur thought bitterly. Weak as he was, he had to keep confidence in the fact that they were on a mission, and that they would succeed, no matter what the cost.

"Water, please," Enkur managed after a moment. "My men—" But the woman walked back into the darkness before Enkur could even finish his sentence.

_'Is she deaf? The fool, how _dare_ she walk away from me…!'_ Enkur was about to throw away what little of his morals he was trying to cling to in this harsh desert environment, and kill the woman for her insolence, but another moment passed, and the woman appeared in the doorway again, this time gesturing for Enkur to follow.

Enkur glanced back at his men, desperately crammed into what little shade the trees near the outskirts of the village would allow. One soldier looked dazedly in Enkur's direction, but he couldn't be entirely sure whether the man was even aware of where he was looking. It was entirely possible that the heat had truly claimed their minds at last. If Enkur didn't get water soon, they would **all** succumb to the blazing inferno of Kemet's desert lands. That thought firmly in his mind, Enkur turned away from his soldiers and followed the strange woman into her darkened house, ignorant of the villagers on the outskirts, staring at him and the other soldiers with a mix of suspicion and awe on their faces.

The woman silently exited out of the back of her house, where a well sat, surprisingly close by. Enkur briefly wondered if the reason why this woman was alone in her darkened household on the outskirts of the village was because something was wrong with her. And a well all to herself? Something seemed wrong, but before Enkur could ponder the possibilities, the woman spoke.

"This water will not save your life, nor the lives of your men."

"And why is that, old woman?"

"Do I really look so old?" the woman asked in response, her voice abruptly growing soft. Her gaze dropped to the desert floor, and when it rose again, she was staring at some indeterminable point in the distance.

"The gods have granted me with nearly forty summers, but it does feel like so many more…"

Only forty? The woman was younger than Enkur's own mother, but she easily looked much older. Enkur briefly wondered what sort of a life she'd led if the years took so much of a toll on her, and resulted in her being alone and cold in a ramshackle house separate from the rest of the village.

"I repeat my question," Enkur stated, once he'd cleared his head of foolish thoughts of his mother, and of home. "Why won't this water save my men? Is it poisoned by your ilk?"

To his surprise, the woman laughed. "I **have** no ilk, boy. There is no one like me in this village, and that is why I am outcast, doomed to live out the rest of my days alone. I toil for my own bread each day, and no one will ever share it with me."

"And why is that?"

The woman stared straight up at him this time, and Enkur found himself looking into the most startling pair of eyes he had ever seen. One eye was a deep, rich brown, much like the rest of the people of this region. But the other was a brilliant aquamarine color, a forever-changing mix of blue and green, veiled with a thin, white sheen.

"I have seen what you cannot, and shall not, until it is too late for you." She turned away from him then, and picked up the urn she'd filled with water. She swiftly scooped it into her arms, and with one surprising motion, she'd splashed Enkur with every last drop of the contents.

"The water that you do not taste will do you more good than the few drops you seek to keep you alive. Know this—this whole kingdom will fall in a matter of nights, and it is entirely beyond your control. Cool your head and your reckless thoughts, and perhaps you can break free of your fate."

"My **fate**?!" Enkur roared, furious at the woman. "No wonder why you are all alone in this hovel, you wrinkled whore! I don't believe in **fate** in the first place, let alone any sort of power that dictates my life!" The moment he started believing in higher powers with a vested interest in his life, the lazier he would get, thinking that the Powers That Be would recognize him, and reward him for his hard work. But that wasn't how it worked—not where Enkur came from. It never had, for anyone Enkur had ever known, anywhere.

"You will fail whether you believe in the powers or not!" the woman snapped back, a trace of coldness seeping into her voice. "You already know there are things in this world beyond your control, no matter how strong you get! Or else why would you have lost your comrades in the sandstorm?"

Hers was a rhetorical question, obviously, for she continued speaking, even as Enkur fell silent, his jaw hanging slack in surprise. How had this woman known about the sandstorm? It was one thing to know by observation—he was a soldier, seeking to conquer and destroy, like any soldier would. He was the leader of a band of dying troops, all young men who had barely seen enough life to commit themselves to death by dehydration in these forsaken lands. All this was apparent to anyone that saw them, so the old woman's initial words hadn't fazed him. But to know of the sandstorm, which had occurred kilometers away and weeks in the past…

"Greater powers are warring right now, and even if you did make it to the capital with enough strength between you and your men, it wouldn't do a shred of good, child of Anubis—"

"Don't compare me to your gods' spawn! I've had enough of that drivel from the townsfolk you're so exiled from. My name is not Anubis!" And with that, Enkur turned on his heel and left the small house, unaware that the older woman had followed him to the door. She clung onto the doorframe, staring at Enkur's retreating back in dismay.

"Not yet, Enkur. But soon…"

* * *

Surprisingly, the soldiers mustered up enough strength to continue the journey, despite their lack of success at getting water. Enkur had been sorely tempted to spend the night camped over one of the dunes on the outskirts of the last village, and perhaps steal some water from that crazy woman who had splashed him rather than allowed a parched man to quench his thirst. But the night was cool and refreshing to the men, and they gained a newfound strength from the brisk desert breezes, and water from what few cacti they came across. By dawn, they found themselves outside the gates of a mighty city—the capital of the forsaken lands of Kemet.

Even more astonishing was the ease in which they entered the city. What few guards they saw weren't guarding the front gates of the city at all, but the entrance to the palace.

"This will make our lives easier," Enkur whispered to the few soldiers left under his command.

"How so, sir?" one of the men hissed back, his voice hoarse from the dry winds. All of them were cloaked by coarse brown fabric, which made the heat even more unbearable, but they knew that if their plan was to succeed, they couldn't so obviously storm the capital city without some sort of disguise. They'd managed to pick up what other villagers had tossed out as garbage and use that as their cover—they were merchant traders coming from afar to participate in the massive bazaar held in the city's center.

"So long as we keep up this ruse, we can figure out all their weaknesses. We'll know when they have the changing of the guards, and which are the easiest points to exploit," Enkur chuckled darkly.

"And we'll be able to raid the royal kitchens?" one of the scrawnier boys—it was amazing he was still alive!—asked hopefully.

Enkur was tempted to feed the boy a knuckle sandwich, but he knew that it wouldn't do to lower the morale more than it already was. If this mission failed—**and it wouldn't!**_—_then there would be no hope for any of them…anywhere.

"We can't possibly just barge into the palace," another young man whispered. "How are we going to do this, Lord Enkur?"

Enkur had to only look at the massive palace with its high windows, the throngs of guards everywhere, and the general anxiety of the townspeople to know that the time to strike was coming soon. Kemet would be theirs!

* * *

The inside was far grander than the outside, which gave Enkur pause; what kind of a king wanted his palace to be little more than an illusion, making the people of the outside walls think that he wasn't as rich and spoiled as he was?

Yes, **spoiled**. The foolish young Pharaoh whom Enkur had heard so much of since he entered the forsaken lands of Kemet sounded like a wealthy fool—and an absent-minded one, at that. Apparently he didn't think well enough to train his guards to be wary of robed strangers claiming to have been summoned by the Pharaoh from many months ago.

Enkur scoffed as he and the other men made their way down the main passageway. They were only a few meters now from the throne room, where the entrance guards directed them to go—straightaway, without any dilly-dallying. They hadn't thought to dispatch a single guard to accompany the so-called 'summoned ones' to the throne room to present them; the guards were simply spread too thin.

Enkur silently dispatched his few soldiers with quick moves of his hand; they'd been studying the palace for days now, and despite this being their first time **inside** the palace, so far everything was appearing where expected. Of the four other men with him, Enkur sent two to act as scouts, while the other two would accompany him to the throne room. The guards were spread so thin, it would be easy to kill the Pharaoh and his councilmen before anyone could do anything to stop them. And without any organized leadership, Enkur knew all too well how quickly the kingdom of Kemet would fall….

He signaled to the other men with him to pull their cloaks lower to their eyes; if they had to meet the gazes of anyone, the Akkadians didn't want to leave any of their victims with a visual good enough to pass on to anyone else.

Any moment now, they'd be in the throne room…

"What?"

"Lord Enkur, I don't understand…" one of the soldiers accompanying him whispered in a low tone. Enkur raised his head slightly, long enough only for his brown eyes to scan the scene.

_Empty_.

The throne room was abandoned. And they hadn't seen anyone scuttling about the halls on their way to the throne room. The only sign of life anywhere **near** the palace was on the outskirts, where the guards appeared to be fiercely guarding an abandoned palace…from nothing.

_'They couldn't have known we were coming!'_

Beyond that, it wasn't as if their small contingent of five men was enough to warrant the guards being scattered all over the palace, and the Pharaoh and his councilmen abandoning their posts. The people of all the towns and villages they'd passed through—even those in the capital city—didn't seem to have the slightest clue that there was any threat coming their way—so why was the palace empty?

Even if their scouting of the palace had been wrong, they still would have encountered **someone**…

"Ah, visitors? What business have you with the palace?" The voice that spoke reminded Enkur of a vaguely black slime he'd seen dripping down a dank well shaft once; it was liquid and rot all at the same time—and the speaker had a face to match. The short fellow who walked along the dais of the throne was no Pharaoh, that much was for sure. His face was far too old: it looked as if the years had melted his skin away from his skull, and his knobby hands and wrinkled feet were further indication of his age.

_'Stick to the story. The Pharaoh summoned us to…help him.'_ The villagers had been speaking of a coming darkness, and a stranger that brought great power and destruction to the land. It sounded like more of that prophecy hogwash that the old woman in the other village had gone on about—but if there were any truth to it, Enkur realized the so-called prophecy could be applied in his favor.

"The Pharaoh summoned us many moons ago to aid with his…problem."

_'Perfect. Leave it vague. The Pharaoh doesn't tell his lowliest representatives everything. Surely this decrepit old man will assume that the issue is private, and take us directly to see the Pharaoh…'_

The wax-faced man's face shifted in a different direction, but oddly enough, his mouth still formed a distinct crescent, his lips pulled back over tiny teeth like a feral dog.

"Ah, well unfortunately the Pharaoh is indisposed at the moment. Dealing with that very **problem** himself. Chosen one and all that," the man chuckled lowly as if amused by the Pharaoh's absence, and hopped off the dais. "I doubt it will be one of his usual quick battles though; no, I **know** he'll have a much harder time with this one. But, as with always, he'll retreat back to the palace, have a council meeting, and go forth into battle once more. I imagine he'll return here in a few days at the most. In the meantime, would you and your men like to tour the palace?"

Enkur's smile widened; his plan was going better than expected. He nodded briskly, remembering at the last minute to bow to their gracious host—whoever he was—before signaling to his two men to follow the was-faced man into a long side hallway off to the other side of the throne room. After a few minutes, it broke into a smaller, curving hallway that descending downward, the stairs only dimly visible in the torch-light. At the base of the stairs was a narrow hallway, two shadows guarding a massive door.

When Enkur and his men approached, only steps behind their host, they realized they were far deeper within the palace than their scouting could have revealed. If the palace was truly this large underground, it was entirely possible that the Pharaoh and his councilmen could escape deep into chambers such as these…!

_'And two guards!'_ Enkur noted wryly. The only other place in the palace where two men guarded a single door was the main entryway of the palace, and even in that in Enkur's mind was a pathetic number. Considering the Pharaoh was out 'battling' somewhere, it certainly explained why the guards were spread so thin. But why did this one place, deep in the underground, have **two **guards assigned to it? What was concealed within?

"I take great pleasure in showing this place to others…not even the Pharaoh knows of its existence," the man chuckled. "But it certainly has its uses in this war-torn day and age; I'm sure a fine soldier like yourself will agree. By the way, my name is Gebeluk…and **this** is the realm I rule. "

Enkur and his men stepped forward, their eyes adjusting to the torches lining each wall. The chamber was truly massive—and in its center, a pit with a variety of hanging ropes and platforms, many of them lined with dangerously sharp spikes and other deadly protrusions.

_'A torture chamber…'_ Enkur realized. His realization quickly turned to dismay when he heard the distinct cry of a man from **within** that pit. He had only to look down to realize that the voice belonged to a disgraced soldier—an Akkadian, no less.

The dying man glanced up with his single intact eye, blood gushing all over the left side of his face and onto his nearly prostrate form. He yelled something that Enkur recognized as Akkadian…but he pretended he didn't understand. The man down there in the pit, surrounded by death and sure to be touched by it any moment now…Enkur had no ties to him. He was not part of Enkur's contingent, and he was fool enough to get caught by the enemy.

_'Just another pathetic weakling._ _ If he had been more honorable, he would have died in the sandstorm.'_

"Pathetic, isn't it? We captured a small number of foreign soldiers that seemed intent on destroying the kingdom—but, well, we have enough of that to deal with already. Needless to say, their powers are nothing compared to our own criminals. I'm surprised that fool down there lasted so long. His own leader was beheaded many hours ago…by **that**." Gebeluk's knobby finger stretched up, drawing Enkur and his men's gazes skyward.

Amidst the darkness, a decidedly monstrous figure loomed, just barely pulsing with dark energy. It moved lower and into the glow of the torch-light, and Enkur felt his throat constrict.

"A true beast, is he not? And to think, only a few days ago, this criminal's ka was pathetic enough to be captured by only one of our council members! But in a fight to the death, his will to live causes him and his monster to grow strong!"

Enkur swallowed the lump in his throat, signaling silently to his shell-shocked men not to make a sound, lest they give away their identities as more of those "foreign soldiers intent on destroying the kingdom." No, they couldn't have that—not after having the palace practically at their command, with this great discovery at their fingertips…!

_'This is wrong! No man should be forced to fight here! It isn't fair!'_ Enkur knew his own thoughts contradicted themselves; here he was, sneaking into the palace under the pretense of killing the pharaoh, when all his values dictated that fights were to be announced, prepared for, and as fair as possible.

But here, Akkadians just like him were trapped—pitted against enemies far beyond their strength or understanding, and dying without honor.

"What is this 'ka' you speak of? In my realm of expertise, we rely on our own strength, not that of…**beasts**." Enkur's voice dropped lower when he finished speaking; he didn't like the way the massive tri-horned beast with an eye in the center of its brow and blood dripping from its fangs leered at him.

"I'm not surprised you don't know about it—I expected as much, if the Pharaoh were forced to bring outside forces in to help him in. Then again, plenty of the city folk don't know about ka unless they're attacked by a criminal or they see a council member subdue one." Gebeluk clucked his tongue and shook his head. "Though I imagine more of them have an idea, now that they've seen the Gods."

"The Gods?"

"Our very own Egyptian brethren, in what one might call a visible, spiritual form. Ra, God of the Sun which feeds us; Osiris, our Lord and King of this Underworld; and Obelisk, pillar of strength and fortitude against all those that would invade us. I'm probably one of the few that believes creatures **stronger **than the Gods can be created from the soul spirits of those that would otherwise be weak. Perhaps with the power of these black ka, we could even unlock the other great Egyptian Gods, such as the forgotten God Anubis…"

Powerful, massive creatures, possessed not only by the Pharaoh and his council members, but ordinary criminals. Their will to live strengthened these beast-spirits, these monsters borne of darkness, rather than honorable reasons to fight….

Enkur clenched his fist as he watched the tri-horned ka arch out and sweep a bulging arm out at the shadows; a spider-like creature danced between the panes of light and dark, sending thick sprays of white webbing out at the enemy.

"Magnificent! Absolutely magnificent!" Gebeluk laughed, clearly enjoying the show. He clapped animatedly from his position atop the dais, apparently too thrilled to sit down in one of the two high-backed chairs positioned there.

"By your leave," Enkur murmured under his breath, sickened by the display. "My men and I can find out way back to the upper levels. I'm sure someone will escort us to a place where we can stay."

"Indeed, indeed," Gebeluk said, hardly paying attention to the men. His gaze was still riveted toward the two ka monsters slashing at one another, the men controlling them in the pit below dodging physical blows while still trying to maintain enough mental strength to keep their monsters battling.

Enkur had to physically yank his soldiers back up the spiraling stairs with him, distracted as they were by the awesome strength of the spiritual monsters dueling each other in a pit of unfathomable darkness.

* * *

_'The pharaoh gone._ _ A fool in his stead. Battling 'soul spirits.' Gods and monsters…This place truly is a forsaken land!'_

Enkur stared out at the city that disgusted him so. He'd left his four soldiers in the palace; they'd all agreed that the capital city of Kemet was in such disarray that even the four of them could easily handle a barely-guarded palace. The four once-scrawny boys contented themselves by taking up shifts—two scouting the palace for any further chambers or persons of import, and the other two bingeing in the palace kitchens, unstopped by a single soul.

He half wanted to laugh, but this whole affair was far from over. No, it wouldn't be over until this place belonged to the Akkadians, and…

_'And what?_ _ Unseat a whole people from the life they have known? NO! This is to end a war, not to start one! This is the only way…'_

Enkur could hardly believe his thoughts, torturous and contradictory as they were. But further contemplation on his inner arguing was put to a quick and silent death when a massive fireball erupted from what looked like the very center of the city. Enkur quickly started running down the cliff that overlooked the city, an uncommon desperation surging through his veins to get back—and get back **now**.

By the time Enkur made it, there wasn't very much to "get back" to. What Gebeluk had termed "black ka" were running rampant everywhere—grotesque spiders crawling up buildings, devouring townspeople ensnared in their thick webbing; demons that resembled inverted bodies, staring hollowly into the darkness with blood and innards dripping from claws and fangs.

Enkur clung to the shadows that not even the monsters cared to permeate; it seemed an eternity before he finally made it back to the palace…and found not only the bodies of the guards that had once protected the main entrance of the palace, but pieces…of other bodies. Some were undoubtedly men, others had to be women. Shockingly, there were children's body parts strewn throughout the palace as well, but who knew where they'd come from.

The bile building in Enkur's throat rose to a frightening high as soon as he returned to the throne room—Gebeluk lay there—or rather, half of him lay there, half-slumped over the throne that didn't belong to him. His blood stained the gold that decorated the chair's arms and legs, but as for his own legs, they were nowhere in sight. Enkur swallowed the bitter taste in his mouth, and, carefully making his way around the blood and innards of the scum that was formerly Gebeluk, he headed to the underground chamber.

With any luck, his men had found refuge in the place where all this madness had likely begun.

But it appeared Enkur was far from lucky—though his men were much worse off than he. They had survived the sandstorms, the dehydration, the lack of sleep; they’d been stoned and verbally assaulted by every villager they met, and very nearly starved to death…only to die now, dishonorably, slaughtered by pathetic underground **criminals**!

All four of them had apparently fled to this place—or somehow, their bodies had ended up here. Perhaps the criminals with the "black ka" had spotted them all in their earlier visit…perhaps the Akkadian that had died near to Enkur's arrival had told the others about his people, and their attempt to destroy the kingdom. Well, now the criminals had gotten that idea in their head, and they were doing a fine job of it on their own.

Better in fact, than Enkur would have expected out of a bunch of lowly thieves and rapists. It was true that Enkur had no qualms about the torture of such vile men, but when those men were even more powerful than Enkur and his warrior people…

What was there to do?

"This world is ending, young warrior."

Enkur's head snapped up at the sound of the voice—it sounded distorted, as if echoing from far away. When his eyes finally fell upon the shadowy figure near the dais, his eyes widened. A small oil lantern lay toppled over not far from the two chairs on the dais, the light flickering only slightly at first, and then growing steadily as the figure stepped forward. Its feet crunched on a small figure that Gebeluk had apparently kept tucked away in the corner: a shrine idol, perhaps to his supposedly 'forgotten' god, Anubis? Enkur knew little of Egyptian gods or customs, but he knew that he was facing someone—or something—inhuman the moment its face came into view.

The body was unmistakably that of a man, but where the neck extended upward into what should have been the familiar face of a man, a fine line of black fur started up, thickening and curving around the skull of what was unmistakably a jackal. Its whole muzzle was pitch-black, save for what appeared to be naturally gold-colored fur around its eyes, extending upward near its brow.

Enkur, frozen in place, watched as the jackal-headed figure approached him slowly, speaking as if it were like any man—its mouth opening and closing, its lips pulling back over sharply-pointed teeth.

"You will survive beyond this time, with powers beyond imagination."

When Enkur finally found his voice, it was only loud enough to speak one word: "If?"

The jackal seemed to chuckle, its lips pulling back again to reveal shining canines. Enkur never thought that a dog—or any relative thereof, including jackals—could smile, but this one, this half-jackal, half-man, obviously could.

"**If** you take my name, Akkadian. Your people will not survive the coming millennia. If you wish to ever defeat the Pharaoh and secure a victory that is truly your own…you will accept this."

The jackal held out its hand, revealing a small crimson stone, smoothly polished. Enkur hesitated a moment before reaching out for it—in the few seconds that passed before his hand met with the jackal-man's, Enkur swore he saw the stone swirl with a nebulous blue light. The moment passed, and his hand touched the gem—but not the hand that held it. The jackal-man laughed loudly as Enkur's hand came to grip the stone, and their surroundings faded into absolute darkness.

The jackal-man was nowhere in sight, but Enkur could clearly hear his voice: _The gods will awaken again, millennia from now…but I shall be the first, and it is within you that I shall rule the upper realm, no longer trapped in the darkness! Henceforth, you are a servant of the name Anubis!_

The name "Anubis" echoed over and over again, shattering like so much glass. The name 'Enkur' slowly slipped from the Akkadian's mind, fading much like the light was from the world around him.

There seemed to be a melding of many things, all at once—the "black ka" that he had seen in the streets and in the pit; a shining golden puzzle and lifeless forms, finely clothed; and finally, a creature that could hardly be distinguished from the darkness itself. All Enkur could spot was the fading red of its eyes, devoid of life, before he too, succumbed to the darkness.

A woman's voice echoed faintly, as if speaking from very far away.

"The reign of our Pharaoh has come to an end, but not his legacy. Though the Millennium Items are to be sealed away, my Necklace has given me one last warning: the eye that sees what is yet to come, its vision shall be fulfilled unless blinded by events predetermined…thus both light **and** shadows be killed."

As the voice faded away, so too did all other sounds of life. And then…nothingness.

* * *

"You dared to seal me away with your own pathetic demons, and the darkness borne of your own pathetic rule! But…it is also **thanks** to you that I am awakened, for had your memories and the powers of the Millennium Items not been sealed within your Puzzle, you would not have awakened me!"

Yami had no idea that Anubis had already told Yugi this very same thing—-that without him solving the Millennium Puzzle, Anubis could not have been awakened. Yami internally sensed that there was a much greater story behind Anubis and his quest for vengeance, but finding out the truth of such matters was hardly important when Anubis had no mind to tell stories, and instead seemed to be wholly focused on destroying the planet.

"You lie!"

Anubis chuckled darkly under his breath, "Pitiful mortal! If you wish to deny your past, so be it. I will even play your little game…for I, too, have the power of _ka_!"

Yami hadn't the faintest idea what Anubis was talking about, but in the next moment, Anubis thrust his hand out, and two massive figures appeared on the field, emerging from the sludge much as Anubis himself had.

"I summon the great and terrible beasts: Andro Sphinx and Sphinx Teleia! I believe in your 'game,' you wait a turn before destroying your opponent utterly…so I will do you the honor of floundering with what little life you have left!"

Anubis had assumed Kaiba's remaining 2100 Life Points, while Yami continued to duel with a paltry 200. It seemed hopeless, what with two sphinxes on the field, and the power of Anubis continuing to grow with each pulse of the Pyramid of Light—both the card and the life-sized one surrounding the duel arena.

Anubis chuckled as his Life Point meter dropped by 1000. "It is pointless to use a meter as a measure to your destruction, Pharaoh. You are already weak, your body already dead and your spirit will join it soon enough! No amount of 'points' gained or lost will change that! And even if you manage to lower my 'life points,' they mean nothing to me. It is that pathetic mortal there that will die!" Anubis gestured vaguely toward Kaiba, still sprawled out unconscious on the arena floor.

Yami wanted to accuse Anubis of lying once more, but he knew it was a waste of words. He simply couldn't let Anubis intimidate him—even if he **was** telling the truth.

He drew, hesitating before he looked at his card. "Reverse of Reverse," he murmured under his breath. He had no idea if traditional duel monsters, spells, or traps would even have any effect on Anubis or his minions, but he had to try.

Across the field, Andro Sphinx growled menacingly, its hackles raised as it eyed Yami with blood-red eyes. If Anubis could be transformed into a monster, surely the Andro Sphinx was the closest representation of him. But Yami would not be frightened—not by "real monsters" growling at him, or by the absolute loneliness that was threatening to overcome him.

_'For my friends…!'_

Even though Yami had no memory—no idea of his true name—he would still fight for them. He would fight for Yugi, even though the boy had unlocked Anubis along with a plethora of monsters, agonizing battles, and frustrating opponents. He would fight for the fallen Kaiba, though it felt against everything he felt in his heart…it was the **honorable** thing to do. And Yami would allow himself to be devoured by Ammit, guardian of the Underworld, long before Anubis upstaged him when it came to matters of honor.

Yami placed the card face-down in one of his magic and trap card slots, silently wishing that Anubis' powers didn't extend to the destruction of magic and traps in this 'game.' He only had one card in his hand now—Exchange, which was utterly useless considering Anubis didn't **use** cards. There were few cards left in Yami's deck, either…everything was hinging on surviving this next attack, and drawing the right card.

"Search your deck from now until doomsday," Anubis laughed triumphantly. "You still won't find anything to stand against my savage Underworld beasts! My apologies, Pharaoh," Anubis' voice was thick with sarcasm, "but your doomsday is today! Now, watch as your last line of defense is ripped to shreds before your very eyes! Sphinx Teleia…it's feeding time!"

Anubis raised one arm, signaling to the great female sphinx occupying half of one side of his field. The creature with the head of a beautiful woman and the body of a pristine white lion bounded forward, propelled by hind legs so powerful, the movement was almost too quick to see. In an instant, Teleia's once-beautiful face morphed into something akin to rubber, stretching downward as her mouth opened impossibly wide, revealing canines longer than any human's, aimed to sink into the Celtic Guardian….

With a mighty roar, the sphinx took a bite out of the Celtic Guardian, the fierce chomp causing the elfish soldier to burst into a thousand holographic shards.

"My Celtic Guardian, no!" Yami knew that the duel was no longer in his favor, but he **had** to keep on believing. But it seemed incredibly difficult when Anubis' monsters took their time shredding Yami's only defense into pieces.

"And now it is your turn, Andro Sphinx!"

Unlike its female counterpart, who'd gracefully leaped back to Anubis' side of the field and shook the beast-like appearance from her face, Andro Sphinx merely lumbered forward, its crimson eyes gleaming with bloodlust.

With an awesome roar that shook caused tremors throughout the dilapidated structure, Andro Sphinx blew away Yami's Watapon with a single sonic attack. Though the cream puff-creature was in defense mode, Yami could feel the energy leaving him—and if the screens above, miraculously functioning despite all the surrounding destruction—indicated correctly, Yami had but 100 Life Points left. Yami fell to his knees, his breath coming out in short, cold gasps. For a moment, he was sure he could **see** his breath—or maybe it was his soul, assuming he actually had one—emerging in puffs of white vapor, as elusive to the touch as the "magic" that Yami once wholeheartedly believed could fuel him through the worst of situations.

But now, Yugi wasn't with him, and all he felt was desperate and empty….

"As I'm sure you've figured out by now **Pharaoh**," Anubis started disdainfully, "Each time Andro Sphinx destroys a monster, half of that monster's attack points are deducted from**your** Life Points. You should be grateful Teleia does not possess a similar effect, or your death would have come much sooner!"

"Save your speeches, Anubis," Yami ground out. "You may have the upper hand now, but—"

"But **nothing**, foolish Pharaoh! I learned the price of treachery and underhanded battles long ago, and it is not a practice I abide! It is only **my honor** that has saved your life up to this moment. Should you perish from this duel—and I assure you, you **will**—it will be because of your own failure!"

Malik and Mokuba had long since gotten stuck in the galleries from their vain attempt to rescue Joey, Duke, and Tristan. In the process of trying to rescue the rescuers, Solomon, Serenity, Pegasus, and Téa's unconscious form had all toppled out of the helicopter, whose pilot promptly had to swerve and land outside to avoid being blown up by falling debris hitting the engine.

Solomon and Mokuba simultaneously uttered a low "oh no" under their breaths as they listened to Anubis shout at Yami. It wasn't enough that Yami had been somehow 'separated' from Yugi, veritably breaking their bond, but Yami seemed to be teetering on the edge of his own self-destruction. With only 100 Life Points and a single card left in his deck, it seemed like nothing short of a miracle would get him out of **this** situation.

"Your fate is sealed, Pharaoh! Soon **you **will be the relic buried away, and worms will feast on **your** flesh, as they once did on mine!"

Yami swallowed convulsively and prayed—truly prayed, for the first time since his 'existence' in this world began. Whether it was to the Egyptian gods, a singular god, or even the intangible force he called "the heart of the cards," something had to save him here and now, for this was his last turn….

"Your worms will have to wait, Anubis! I trust my fate to the heart of the cards!"

His fingers nearly slipped off the card as he drew it from his Duel Disk. His whole hand trembling, he slid the card into place and finally dared to look at it: Double Spell. With Exchange already in his hand and Reverse of Reverse set on the field, that meant he had no defenses—no monsters to protect his remaining Life Points.

"No monsters, just two magic cards…that's all I have left."

"We just might win this!"

_'Yugi?'_ Yami swore he heard his other half crying out in triumph, but…he couldn't **sense** him. But still, Yugi's voice somehow encouraging Yami was more than enough, and within moments, a strategy—albeit a risky one—fell into place.

In the 'other realm,' mummies stumbled backward, either unwilling or unable to go near the golden light bursting from the crack in the tablet high above the tomb of Anubis. It had been a desperate attempt to save his friends when Yugi threw the so-called 'Dagger of Fate' at the jeweled red eye that stared down at them from the stone Pyramid of Light—but it had worked!

_'I sense a weakness in the Pyramid's power!'_ Yami realized an instant later. He could **see** it too, in the way that the massive pyramid surrounding the duel arena shimmered and flickered, as if its light source was being threatened with extinction.

Yami's sole window of opportunity had arrived, and if he didn't act, then **everyone** would suffer—not just him and his already-wounded ego.

"I activate Double Spell!" Yami thrust his newest card into one of the Magic and Trap card slots on his Duel Disk, and immediately discarded his Exchange card to the Graveyard.

"By discarding one spell card from my hand, I can select and use a new one from my opponent's graveyard, as if it were my own! And I know just the card I want!"

As if responding to Yami's words, the unconscious Kaiba's Duel Disk began to glow, the miniature mechanisms shifting a particular card to the top. Another mechanism forced it back into the body of the main Duel Disk, where it pushed its way out of one of the Magic and Trap card slots, activating instantaneously.

"MONSTER REBORN!" The lights around the card glowed, creating a pool of golden-white light around Kaiba's prone form. "So come forth, mighty Blue-Eyes Shining Dragon!"

The card for the dragon shifted to the top of Kaiba's Duel Disk in much the same way that Monster Reborn had, with Yami controlling it from afar. The massive bejeweled creature rose from the arena floor in an awesome display of blue-white light, its mechanical-like wings thrusting it further up into the air, until it was almost at the peak of the Pyramid of Light.

"I have a hunch that **this** time your pyramid won't be able to stand up to the Blue-Eyes Shining Dragon's Shining Nova! Now go, Blue-Eyes Shining Dragon—use all your power to finish what you started before, and destroy the Pyramid of Light!"

"IMPOSSIBLE!" Or so Anubis cried out, seconds before the brilliance of the Shining Dragon's attack filled the dueling arena, causing the walls of the Pyramid of Light to crumble, and taking the two sphinxes right along with it.

"Magic or no, your sphinxes are connected to the Pyramid of Light. So when the Pyramid is destroyed…so are they!"

The massive eye on the outside of the Pyramid of Light crackled with lightning, the vortex of blood-red abruptly morphing into an abyss of blue. Inside the realm, the mummies holding Téa, Tristan, Duke, and Joey hostage disintegrated like so much dust, and the one that had been leering over Yugi spontaneously combusted. While Mokuba and Solomon stood and watched the duel in awe, Pegasus glanced behind him the moment he heard stirring from the unconscious quartet behind him.

Téa's eyes were the first to flutter open, and it was to her that Pegasus extended his hand. She stared at him blearily for a moment, looking at him as if he might be a dream. She decided that even if it were, she wasn't one to resist help when it was given, so she reached up and found herself hauled to her feet. When she regained her senses a moment later, she nudged Joey, Tristan, and Duke awake, and before long they were all staring out from the galleries, wondering how this duel would end.

"This whole thing…the Pyramid of Light," Duke murmured. "It doesn't sound like any of the Millennium Items we've encountered so far. How is it so powerful if it's a fake?"

"Good question," Malik and Pegasus said simultaneously. The two stared at one another, Malik's eyes narrowed in suspicion, but they both looked away shortly.

_'There's no question about it—the Pyramid of Light's no Millennium Item. And unlike the Millennium Puzzle it's meant to be like, it's not fragmented into pieces. If what Anubis said is true, and he _is_ somehow connected to the puzzle, then that means…'_

"But that's impossible…" Malik murmured under his breath as the realization hit him. It was one thing if Anubis was truly from the past—that was entirely possible. But if his Pyramid of Light was **intentionally** meant to be a copy of the Millennium Puzzle, then there was only one person who could have possibly made it, with only one reason in mind for doing so…but it had all backfired, and now Anubis was before them!

"What's impossible?" Téa asked, her voice quavering ever-so-slightly. "What do you know Malik? Tell me." She said it with such firmness in her voice that even if Malik thought not to tell Téa the secrets that he knew about the MIllennium Items, he doubt he could have found a plausible excuse that would have pacified her.

"The Pyramid of Light is," Malik said at last. "Devlin's right—it's not a Millennium Item. But the Millennium Items aren't exactly wonderful, perfect items, either. You know full well that they are imbued with darkness."

Oh, Téa knew all right. She knew that the 'darkness' in the Millennium Ring caused gentle Ryou to occasionally become vindictive, possessive, and angry. She knew the 'darkness' in the Millennium Eye had only added to what she believed was an existing mental illness in Pegasus, giving him the power to see into others' minds and steal their souls from their bodies. And she knew that the Millennium Rod was somehow responsible for the creation of Malik's former dark half…

"But why? I don't understand how together, they can be a force for good, if they're all tainted with darkness."

"Have you ever heard the phrase 'The road to hell is paved with good intentions'?" Pegasus interrupted. "It's something like that." Malik again favored Pegasus with a critical glare, but he didn't say anything to the older man. Instead, he addressed Téa once more.

"The Items were created to protect Egypt long ago—to seal away the darkness that was threatening the country. But to seal away darkness, one must already…well, **possess** darkness."

"…So you're saying, the people that created the MIllennium Items weren't exactly doing it because they believed what they were doing was right?"

"Not entirely," Malik affirmed. "Each person had their own inner selfish desires. And to make it worse, one of them had particularly selfish desires that outweighed them all, and he's the one who created Anubis' so-called Pyramid of Light. At least, that's what I think happened…"

But there was no way to know for sure, not without returning home to Egypt and heading to the catacombs where the legend was told on the ancient stone tablets. But somehow, Malik felt that what he'd told Téa **was** the truth, without a shadow of a doubt…but how did he know that, if not from the stone tablets?

"And with that, I'll end my turn. The Pyramid of Light is gone!" Yami announced, capturing everyone's attention as the Blue-Eyes Shining Dragon's recent attack shattered the great illusion surrounding the arena.

"But how?" Anubis growled angrily. "Your opponent tried and failed to destroy the Pyramid with that dragon. You alone couldn't make such a difference!"

"You're quite right that I couldn't have done it alone," Yami smirked. He sensed Yugi's presence beside him, and if the look on Anubis' face was any indication, the Egyptian 'lord of the dead' saw him, too.

"The power of unity," Pegasus murmured under his breath. "So that's it…"

Malik glanced sideways at Pegasus, but he wisely kept his thoughts to himself. The true powers of the Millennium Items were known to a select few, and even Pegasus, as a former Millennium Item holder, didn't know them all. At least, that's what Malik had thought. Now he was beginning to wonder just how much Pegasus knew, and **how**…

Anubis merely scowled. "You may have destroyed the card, **Pharaoh**," he said disdainfully, "But not the Pyramid of Light around my neck! Behold its power!"

In response to Anubis' cry, the Pyramid of Light began to glow with that same unearthly blue-white hue that it had before, the halo of light condensed to the space just in front of Anubis. From within that circle of light, the shadowy form of a card began to appear, and before it, the monstrous form of a massive creature, the likes of which no one had ever seen.

"Inspired by your modern sayings—two heads are better than one! Thinien the Great Sphinx!" As the light died down, a massive creature with the head and torso of the Andro Sphinx and the wings and lower body of Sphinx Teleia appeared, snarling madly while it foamed at the mouth. It was easily four times the size of either of the original Sphinxes, and it looked ten times angrier.

"My life energy is and always shall be greater than yours," Anubis laughed. "A mere 500 of these so-called 'Life Points' will increase the strength of my Sphinx by 3000!" Anubis already seemed to have paid a price just to summon Anubis to the field in the first place; following the destruction of the Pyramid of Light and the subsequent Sphinxes, 500 of his Life Points drained away to permit the Summoning of Thinien—now with 6500 attack points.

"And now, Pyramid of Light…feed this perfect beast with dead souls set free!"

It was the Pyramid of Light around Anubis' neck that reacted to his words; it glowed an unearthly red and suddenly seemed to emit a distant roar. Or was the roar coming from Yugi's own Millennium Puzzle…? Much to everyone's astonishment, dark shadows began to pour out of the two pyramid pendants, the slithering dark shapes taking form before vanishing into the great open maw of Anubis.

Mummy after mummy seemed to emerge from Yugi's puzzle, while the once-terrifying faces of both Andro Sphinx and Sphinx Teleia emerged from Anubis' Pyramid of Light. Now, with each subsequent creature feeding into Thinien, Anubis' power grew stronger.

"Whoa—someone tell me that attack meter's broken," Joey stared at the flickering screen hanging at an odd-angle from the remnants of the ceiling; between lines of static, one could barely make out the projected form of Thinien—complete with 35,000 attack points.

"No," Téa murmured, realizing just how Anubis had powered up. "He got five hundred points from the Pyramid of Light trap, Andro Sphinx and Sphinx Teleia…and then he used all the cards in both Seto and Yugi's Graveyards to power up Thinien even further!"

"But that doesn't add up," Duke interjected. "Both Yugi and Kaiba have more monsters—"

"He must have gotten 1500 additional attack points for each monster in the Graveyard," Téa said. "But there'd be no sense in taking the strength of a the same creature twice, so Anubis upped his chances of getting the strength of a powerful monster by only allowing one monster of a given name."

Joey was mumbling to himself and trying to count on both of his hands when Solomon interrupted him. "She's right. If you think back to the beginning of the duel, they would almost have an even number of Monster cards in their Graveyard—Kaiba with eight, Yugi with ten."

"Kaiba's Familiar Knight to Yugi's Queen's Knight," Duke started, raising two fingers in the air.

"Yugi's Jack's Knight to Kaiba's Rare Metal Dragon," Joey added, remembering the powerful dragon with black spikes. "And that annoying-ass Clown, Peten or somethin'. Yug' had his King's Knight, too."

"Then Seto had Des Feral Imp, while Yugi had his Magician's Valkyria."

"His Dark Magician Girl was destroyed by Kaiba's Deck Destruction Virus, and Kaiba destroyed his own Spear Dragon using Card of Demise," Solomon added.

"Then Kaiba used his Paladin of White Dragon combo to bring out the Blue-Eyes White Dragon, and finally the Blue-Eyes Shining Dragon," Malik stated quietly. "To match up with Yugi's Dark Magician, Big Shield Gardna, and Watapon."

"And last but not least," Pegasus interjected dramatically, "Yugi's Sorcerer of Dark Magic and Obnoxious Celtic Guardian."

"So Fusion Monsters aren't counted, but their Material Monsters are," Joey realized. "Man, there's no way that should work!"

"But it has," Mokuba muttered, having remained silent up until now. He couldn't bear to watch the battle knowing that his brother was unconscious and hurt somewhere down below, but he'd ended up watching it anyway—all because everyone's lives hung on the balance of Yugi winning the duel.

To make matters worse, Mokuba had no idea where his brother was down below. The destruction of the Duel Dome was so great that even with the shining Pyramid of Light gone, it was hard to see anything in the mess. And they were trapped where they were on almost all sides—and going down to the arena was only asking for more trouble.

"Guys look!" Mokuba pointed as Yami smirked in that undeniably confident way of his—despite having an empty deck, no hand, and hardly any Life Points—and shifted his hand over the one card remaining in his Duel Disk—a card in his Magic and Trap card zone.

"Say hello, Thinien!" Anubis laughed, to which the massive two-faced sphinx before him roared menacingly, the tremors shaking the Duel Dome even further.

"Thousands of years ago, I never had the chance to summon Thinien to battle," Anubis chuckled darkly. The truth was, he hadn't known the first thing about the "ka" the Egyptians spoke of, or that within him resided the power of one—greater than even that of the gods that had plunged Egypt into darkness. But then he had met he who had bestowed him with the name 'Anubis,' and the dark knowledge that resides in all men awoke within him…while the memories of his life as a normal man were purged from him for eternity.

"I think it would be best if we made up for lost time and finally had a proper introduction…Thinien, meet the Pharaoh. And Pharaoh…meet your doom!"

_'We don't have anything that can beat that sphinx,' _Yugi thought, the concern evident in his "mind-voice" to Yami.

"Yes, we do, Yugi…" Yami murmured, grasping the card in his Magic and Trap card zone and activating it with the push of a button.

_'If I'm correct about what Kaiba was planning…'_ There was a chance that Yami could be wrong—completely wrong about everything, from Kaiba to this duel and everything in between. But Yami was counting on the fact that he'd never been wrong in a time of need yet.

"Now then, Anubis, this is still a duel, and I still have one face-down card to play!" Though it wasn't Yami's turn, he activated a trap he'd set several turns ago…

"Reverse of Reverse! When the timing is right, I can activate one of Kaiba's cards as if it were my own!"

Anubis shot an astonished and angry glare at the offending card that Yami chose to activate—a face-down card that he hadn't even noticed, and had forgotten that his little puppet had set ages ago, when he'd been conscious enough to duel.

"RETURN FROM THE DIFFERENT DIMENSION!" Yami proclaimed successfully, knowing the card's name even before the light shimmering around the holographic card faded away.

"Earlier, when Kaiba fought against your influence, he said something about the perfect victory—of dealing me the perfect defeat—he meant wiping me out with my own Egyptian Gods!"

Testament to Yami's proclamation, three massive and familiar forms began to appear from the dimensional rip on the field—the hulking stone mass of Obelisk, the shining golden plates of Ra, and finally, the crimson slithering scales of Slifer.

"Allow me to introduce…Obelisk the Tormentor, Slifer the Sky Dragon, and the Winged Dragon of Ra!"

Being that the creatures he'd summoned were the God Cards, they possessed powers unlike any other Duel Monster—and that meant their attacks superseded that of any other creature, including Thinien. This meant Yami could attack out of turn—and not lose the duel by not having any cards to draw—and still win this!

"My Egyptian Gods, combine now for infinite power!"

Malik's eyes widened a fraction as he saw Yami command the Gods to perform something that not even he had known about—and Malik thought he had truly known every effect and counter-effect the God Cards possessed, inside and out.

But as Ra released itself into its Phoenix Mode, Slifer coiled around Obelisk like a suit of armor, and Obelisk glowed scarlet with Slifer's power…Malik was sure **no one** alive had ever seen anything quite like this before.

"TITAN FIRESTORM!"

Obelisk's Fist of Fury glowed brilliantly as Ra arched toward Thinien and Anubis, Slifer's double-mouths both open wide with crackling thunder balls barely trapped within. In an instant, the light made contact with Thinien, exploding the once-fearsome creature into millions of pieces that disappeared as mysteriously as they'd come. The blaze continued, its fury growing as Anubis fought against the magic of the Gods.

Anubis' attempts were all in vain as the fire grew white-hot, to the point where few could look through the burning brightness in order to see Anubis, fallen to his knees, his cape burnt and tattered, and the leather cord holding the Pyramid of Light around his neck disintegrating. A moment more, and the Pyramid of Light itself shattered, its pieces melting in the flame before they could even touch the ground. Even the Eye of Horus that had so tantalized Joey, Tristan, Duke, and Téa into its depths shattered—though the crimson jewel that had once found its place there remained, untouched by the fire.

The flames began to die and down and dissipate, revealing an empty space where Anubis once stood.

"Yeah, Yugi!" Tristan cheered.

"Awright!" Joey added.

_'You did it!' _ Yugi said, turning to face Yami. He'd long since gotten used to facing "the Spirit" when he resided in Yugi's body; there was something about Yami's ancient soul that seemed to make Yugi's own body look different to his eyes…different enough, at least.

"**We** did," Yami corrected him. He nodded wordlessly at Yugi, who reached out to touch the Millennium Puzzle—and then he found himself back in his own body…or at least, back in the place he'd come to know as the 'Soul Room,' the place "in between" being in control of his body and seeing Yami control it. Why hadn't Yami relinquished control back to him? Was there still something he wanted to do?

Yugi extended his senses, the feeling refreshing after what had seemed like entirely too long trapped in another realm, or just outside of his own body. From within the Soul Room, Yugi could see Yami walking forward, approaching the fallen-but-awakening Kaiba.

Wordlessly, Yami extended a hand downward to Kaiba, who quickly noticed the gesture—if not the strange expression on Yami's face that Yugi remained entirely unaware of—and swatted the offending hand away.

"I can take care of myself," Kaiba bit out loudly, though his words inadvertently became laced with pain the moment he put pressure on his injured arm. He'd probably sprained it, or possibly dislocated the shoulder, but it would be a cold day in Hell before Kaiba ever admitted weakness before his greatest rival.

Pegasus was chuckling at Kaiba's obstinacy, while Mokuba stared at the older man, wondering what was so funny, when all of a sudden a crimson light flashed from the side of the arena where Anubis had been, minutes before.

"What the!?" Kaiba barely had the chance to stand up before the red light was consumed by darkness—dark shapes and shadows bursting forth from an object far beyond their line of sight and reach.

In an instant, the doorway that gave Yugi the ability to take over his own body if he willed it was effectively slammed shut in his spiritual face. Yami realized there was something very wrong going on, and he didn't want Yugi getting hurt or "disconnected" from him again.

_Shadows take life…creatures be born!_

Téa whipped her head around wildly, seeking the source of the massive echoing voice. It sounded like Anubis, but…but that was impossible! But the more she looked back down toward the arena, the harder it became to see—a living darkness, almost like tar, seemed to be exploding from a small point that was glowing red, far, far away. For a moment, she thought it was glistening green, but then the flicker vanished, and the darkness grew, larger and larger, shaping into something somehow distinct.

_Now let's see how well you play this game when the monsters are real!_

"Monsters…" Serenity whispered quietly, fear leaking into her voice. "For real?" Unlike the others, who'd had varying degrees of experience with bigger threats beyond Duel Monsters tournaments, the scariest thing Serenity had ever encountered in her young years was the chance that she might lose her sight. Back in Battle City, she'd taken that risk and dared to save her brother from certain death, but there hadn't been any "real" monsters—or psychopathic resurrected mummies, for that matter. She was slowly beginning to understand what her brother meant when he said that "craziness" came hand in hand with their lives.

The darkness formed into what was undeniably the most frightening creature Serenity—or any of the others present, for that matter—could ever have imagined. Not quite wolf and not quite-dragon, the creature was easily half the size of the entire Duel Dome, with giant tube-like pustules reaching up from its arched back, purple smoke puffing up from their depths. The creature's massive maw was set with fangs as long as the rails that separated the upper galleries from the arena below, while its eyes were as red as fresh blood.

_Now it is no longer time to duel…it is time to _die_!_

Anubis was clearly behind this creature—at the very least, acting as its voice—as the thing opened its mouth.

"Nothing in your deck of cards can save you now!" Before Anubis' gaping maw, a pair of Magic cards appeared—-Inferno Tempest and Fallout, two of the most destructive spells in all of Duel Monsters. But it was apparent that this was no longer some card game powered with holographic technology. The two spells shone brightly as massive clouds appeared from nowhere, flaming lightning licking the arena floor in random bursts.

And in an instant, everything changed.

The line between reality and imagination was blurred, causing Téa to blink in sudden confusion. Sure, she'd been knocked unconscious and then woken up thanks to Yugi stabbing some sort of an eye with a so-called Jewel of Fate, but that didn't explain what she'd just seen.

A bright, blazing light, impossibly hot, but somehow chilling Téa to the core, and it was racing toward—

"NO!"

Without even considering that the blazing light she'd seen wasn't at all present in the dust-ridden arena, Téa vaulted over the crooked railing separating the gallery from the crumbling arena below, sliding down a fallen rafter in a daring move. She ignored the shredded metal tearing into her exposed skin, and the chunks of concrete falling from above. She ignored the palpitations of her heart, beating so rapidly that she nearly entertained the thought of it bursting from her chest.

She ignored Yugi's terrified, broken call to her as she ran—right past him, without sparing him a glance. His voice had cracked midway through shouting her name over the roar of flames suddenly coming from Anubis' direction—hurtling straight toward both him and Kaiba.

The lightning had suddenly coalesced into a single sphere of fire, and now that sphere was hurtling toward Yami and Kaiba both, the sheer force of it sending debris flying around them, and causing cards to burst from their Duel Disks.

In all the time that the Spirit of the Millennium Puzzle—Yami, Pharaoh, or whatever he was called—inhabited Yugi's body, there had rarely been an issue of who was in control. In the beginning, Yami had only taken control when Yugi lost consciousness, or worse, when he lost his will to fight. Once the two had become mutually aware of one another, neither of them dared to force control over their shared body—even though it was technically Yugi's body to begin with.

But in this particular instance, Yugi took control unexpectedly the moment he saw Téa running toward him. No, not toward **him**—toward Kaiba. For all the fierce spirit and fire in her eyes, she hadn't even looked in his direction. She didn't even **see** him. The look on her face was one of such fear and desperation—desperation to save Kaiba!—that it shouldn't have been such a surprise. But Yugi had never seen that look on her face before—not even at her parents' funeral.

_'It doesn't even matter. She doesn't care that he was the one that asked for all this–this duel. It doesn't even matter that Anubis used him as a pawn, and he didn't even know or care…'_

Nothing mattered.

Still numb with shock, Yugi didn't even attempt to shield himself from the oncoming barrage of flames. At the last possible moment, Yami emerged in his spirit form, doing his best to shield his host from the wrath of Anubis' Inferno Tempest attack. But even he had a difficult time fending the fire, for the image of Téa, frozen only a meter away from him, her tunnel vision only allowing her to see one person, one man…

_'The man she loves. ' _

Yami had known about Téa's feelings for Kaiba for a long while now, but the realization hadn't fully sunk in—not until now. Not until she had clearly chosen **Kaiba** over him.

_'I can't…'_ Yugi's voice came to him as if from a distance, echoing hollowly in that mysterious realm the two of them shared. Yami knew what no one else did—what Yugi hadn't even told him—not directly, at least.

_'You mustn't give up hope, Yugi!'_

Yami's own feelings on the matter went unspoken, but it was clear that neither of them were particularly inclined to take Téa's lack of regard for them as reason enough to stop loving her. For that was the truth of the matter: Yugi still loved Téa, and it hurt more than any attack—physical or magical—to see her risk her life not for him, her friend since childhood, but for Kaiba—his rival.

_'But Kaiba—!'_

There was simply no denying that their shared reaction was borne of selfishness, and no small amount of bitterness, as well. But if Téa **hadn't** run past him to save Kaiba, Kaiba would probably be—

_'I mean him no ill will, but…'_ Yami didn't finish. It wasn't that his thoughts were interrupted; it was merely that there were no more words to say.

Téa remained unaware of the inner turmoil Yugi was going through at the moment she dashed past him; she no longer **thought** about anything, and instead acted purely on instinct. She darted directly in front of Kaiba and thrust her arms outward, as if expecting the roaring ball of flame to land in her arms.

For Kaiba, time seemed to flow in an odd, stop-jerking manner. In one moment, he saw a shadow emerging from the light. The closer that shadow got, the more distinct its frame got—female, definitely—coming toward him. But time sped up before Kaiba could think to move, or think to look closer at the figure. And then the girl shielded him, her eyes staring straight into the oncoming light…the onslaught of flames.

For a just a moment, he saw that figure thrust her arms out, tremble once, and fall to the ground in a shudder. He saw himself—but somehow **not** himself—rush forward to catch the falling person and scream in silent agony.

Kaiba's eyes widened as he realized that he had not dreamed of a figure shielding him from certain death. Several voices cried out in protest as they saw Téa meet what would surely be her death by fire. Yugi tried to call out to her again, but his voice refused to come. It wouldn't have mattered anyway—the only thing Téa could hear was the rushing sound of the flames.

Then fire and Téa met, the flames surrounding her and eating away at her arms. The pain was so immense that Téa squeezed her eyes shut, going against her own will to look Anubis in the eye and show him she was not afraid. But all it took was an instant of her wishing the pain would stop—and it did. The flames dissipated around her, leaving Kaiba untouched.

Téa's jacket sleeves, burnt to a crisp, fell to the ground like so much ash, the blouse beneath spotted with brown and blackened stains. Her arms underneath remained untouched, but the numbness refused to leave her. She collapsed tonelessly to her knees, a mirthless smile and a glazed expression overcoming her face.

"TÉA!"

It was Seto who called her name loudest, Seto who reached her first. **He** had been the one she had shielded, after all…

It was his arms that she fell backward into, the rest of her body going as slack as her legs had moments before.

"What the hell were you thinking!" Kaiba demanded. It wasn't really a question, and both of them knew it. Still, Téa favored him with a weak, but genuine smile.

"That Solid Vision system sure makes those holograms feel real…" Téa managed hoarsely. She coughed, nearly choking on the ash and dust combined in the thick air. All the same, she smiled that same smile, though it was taking all her strength just to keep her eyes open.

But for all Téa's determination and willpower, no hologram could have burned the sleeves right off her jacket. And the realism of the Solid Vision holographic system didn't explain why—if Anubis' powers **were** for real, and this wasn't all some sort of massive illusion—Téa was even alive. For all intents and purposes, that Inferno Tempest should have burnt her to a crisp. At least, that had been Anubis' intention, and explained why his massive, hideous jackal-form seemed angrier than ever before.

"Insolent child! Your powers mean nothing to me! I will destroy you!"

"Yeah?" Téa managed weakly, cringing as she glanced up at the looming figure of Anubis. "I'd like to see you try it." She struggled out of Kaiba's arms, trying to stand on what were undeniably weak legs.

"Téa—" Seto's voice started out as a warning, but his voice died in his throat. She had saved his life. She had nearly died, and yet she was still standing up for him—in a duel that never should have happened in the first place. She was still defending **him** when she had no reason why.

"I love you," Téa whispered softly as she turned to face him, almost as if she'd heard his thoughts. Her steady gaze had briefly met with his wavering one, but a moment later, she faced Anubis once more, as if he'd never attacked with the Inferno Tempest. She didn't seem to care that the Duel Dome was falling apart around her ears now, or that Anubis' new form was easily five times her height and made of a dripping, black ooze. She didn't even register the shocked expressions on both Seto **and** Yugi's faces, though they were both in states of shock for completely different reasons.

"DIE!" Anubis howled, sending another ball of flame toward her. But this one was much smaller, and it didn't even reach Téa—instead, it exploded against a shield of blue-white light. When all the smoke and dust from the falling debris cleared, a massive, growling dragon stood on the field, fiercely guarding Téa and all those that stood behind her. In Téa's trembling fingers was a single card she'd picked up after the first attack hit her, when the sheer forces of the blast sent both Yugi and Kaiba's decks flying right out of their Duel Disks.

That card was a Blue-Eyes White Dragon.

"One pathetic little dragon won't stop me! Be gone!" With one swipe of his sludge-covered 'paw,' the Blue-Eyes White Dragon burst into millions of pieces, the great creature shattering as if it had been made of glass. Téa felt her breath go cold in her chest, and her knees finally gave.

_'He's too powerful…'_ She wanted to collapse into the sweet lull of darkness right then and there, but part of her was still painfully awake, her face pale and her eyes wide with shock: she'd seen the Blue-Eyes destroyed, right before her eyes. It wasn't anything new to Téa, the girl who'd watched countless duels between Kaiba and Yugi, but this time _she'd_ been the one in control. And this was no ordinary holographic duel, she knew that much for damn sure. She could _feel_ it within her…whatever "it" was, crumbling away into nothingness…

"It appears you and your foolish friends are one card short, **Pharaoh**!"

"Yeah, but I'm not!" Joey hollered from the galleries. He quickly drew two cards from his own Duel Disk and held them out, praying to whatever gods out there—Egyptian or otherwise—were listening. Everything going on tied back to Anubis—creepy mummies, mysterious magic, and Téa being able to summon a Blue-Eyes White Dragon out of nowhere. It was all Anubis' fault—there was simply no other explanation.

"Gilford the Lightning and Gearfried the Iron Knight!"

The two warriors appeared and immediately hurtled toward Anubis, hoping to strike him on the skull with their massive swords. Anubis had only to look up and breathe in their general direction, destroying the two soldiers like so much dust.

"You have no concept of my powers," Anubis chuckled darkly. "And now…the end begins!" A series of tubules on the back of Anubis suddenly exploded with a nauseating mixture of black ooze and indigo smoke, further thickening the choking arena air. What little there was left of the Duel Dome started to crumble even faster as the jets of sludge and smoke exploded against it, sending more debris and dust down to the galleries and arena below.

"We're pancakes!" Joey hollered as he not-so-deftly dodged a chunk of falling ceiling.

To his astonishment, Pegasus piped up in what was probably the most confident voice among them: "Not yet!" All Pegasus said were those two simple words, and then he thrust his arm upward and revealed a pair of Duel Monsters cards—signature cards of his deck, in fact: the Toon Dark Magician Girl and the Blue-Eyes Toon Dragon. The two cartoon-like creatures appeared in twin puffs of sparkling smoke, each of them immediately hefting up the largest chunk of debris that threatened to crush the remnants of the galleries.

"These Toon monsters won't last long," Pegasus warned everyone. "We have to get out of here while we still have a chance!" Even as he spoke, the two Duel Monsters struggled with additional debris falling on top of the chunk they were already hoisting up in mid-air; more dust and ash continued to thicken the air and restrict their sight **and** their breathing.

"Yugi, I know you'll take this creep down!" Joey hollered from the galleries. He hated not fighting alongside his friend, but it wasn't as if there was much he could do. Even if he suddenly decided to "pull a Téa," there was no rafter for him to slide down. Besides, Anubis had already proven that Joey's Duel Monsters couldn't put up much of a fight.

_'This is Yug's and Kaiba's fight now,'_ Joey thought, ready to start escaping this hell. No matter how you looked at it, they were running out of time. Worse, there were too many of them up there to begin with: Malik, Mokuba, Tristan, Duke, Mr. Moto, Pegasus, and worse, Serenity!

_'I'll be damned if I let anything happen to my sister!' _Or anyone else, for that matter. Malik and Mokuba—and Pegasus too, Joey grudgingly admitted—had saved him. Mr. Moto had helped, too—and now **all** of them were in danger.

"That's right, Yugi!" Tristan and Duke both chimed in. They all managed to show Yugi the backs of their hands—where their goofy smiley-face would have been, were it still glowing like it had been in that weird 'other realm.' Yugi looked up at them with a grateful smile and nodded, a fresh sense of determination coming to him. He would **not** let Anubis win, no matter what!

But it was easier said than done, especially when Yugi's gaze kept drifting off to the side, to where his only allies stood—Kaiba and Téa, together. But to Yugi's astonishment, the two of them glanced in his direction—only briefly, for they all knew it was unwise to not keep your eyes trained on your enemy—and they each lifted their own hands. Even Kaiba, though the look on his face said he'd rather down a whole bottle of cough syrup before he'd vocally admit to any sort of 'friendship bond' between him and the others.

_"We're all with you. We'll _always_ be with you, no matter what!"_ Téa's own words, from earlier—back when they'd been trapped in the Millennium Puzzle, or something like it.

_'Even if I can't be with her that way…'_ Yugi allowed himself. He'd tried telling himself this same thing hundreds of times before, but it had never really worked. But now, it wasn't as if he had much of a choice. If he was angry at either Téa or Kaiba for being with one another, then that would impair his judgment and ability to defeat Anubis. And they **had** to defeat Anubis, or else!

"Fine, fine, let's go already!" Pegasus snapped in irritation. Everyone dashed for the nearby elevator, praying that it would work and take them to the still-intact lower level, where they could get into Pegasus' waiting helicopter and get out of this place. Just as the elevator doors slammed shut, everyone crammed into the small space caught sight of the two Toon Monsters collapsing underneath the weight of the rubble, exploding into bursts of sparkling smoke, as if they'd never been there at all.

Anubis reared back on his hind legs, sludge still dripping from every orifice and pustule. In an instant, he let out a massive roar that shook the very foundations of the Duel Dome. Even more debris continued to rain down on the three remaining people in the arena, each of them experiencing a fear unlike anything they'd ever felt before. A massive red jewel, set into the center of Anubis' chest much like a similar jewel had been set into the Eye of Horus on the Pyramid of Light and its tablets glowed a brilliant crimson color, crackling as though struck by lightning.

"How can we possibly beat a real monster like that?" Téa asked in a shaking voice.

Kaiba kept an arm tight around her shoulders, even though the two of them were in the fore of the field, right in the line of fire. But ever since Téa's attempt at destroying Anubis with the 'borrowed' Blue-Eyes White Dragon had failed, Kaiba had been at her side—just as cardless as her. But he wouldn't leave her—not for a second.

"How? With a real monster, that's how," Kaiba murmured, just loud enough for Yugi to hear. Kaiba's gaze drifted backward to where a myriad of cards were still splayed out all over the ground—his cards and Yugi's cards alike. If they ever beat this Anubis creep, those cards just might find their way back into their proper decks, and Yugi and Kaiba could duel again.

_'But not anytime soon,'_ Kaiba acknowledged wryly. It was events like these, with insane people trying to take over or destroy the world, that made Duel Monsters less and less worthwhile to play, whether one saw it as a game or not.

When Kaiba and Yugi's gazes locked for just a brief moment, the message was clear: the card nearest them, the card that had the potential to save them all…if this really were happening and it weren't some distorted dream or hallucination.

"What is it?" Téa murmured, on the verge of falling unconscious. The pain coursing through her veins had grown to an almost unbearable level, and now she just wanted to go numb, so all the pain would fade away…but if there was any way that she could help—help to stop Anubis, and to make sense of what was going on here—then she would do whatever it took.

"The one card that could beat him," Kaiba whispered as Yugi bent down to pick the card up. Yugi only had to glance down at the card briefly before the worried expression disappeared from his face.

"It's time to get real with the Blue-Eyes Shining Dragon!" Yugi thrust his arm—card in hand—up into the air. For just a moment, amid the clouds of dust and falling debris, Téa and Kaiba could both make out the hazy form of a figure standing beside—and somewhat **through**—Yugi. It was the first time either of them had ever really seen the mysterious 'Pharaoh' in any sort of visible form; most of the time, the only way you could tell the difference between Yugi and the Spirit of the Millennium Puzzle was the slightly deeper voice and cockier attitude the Pharaoh had when he dueled in Yugi's stead. But this time, it was decidedly clear that they were two different entities—and they were both fighting together, alongside everyone else, to defeat Anubis, once and for all.

Anubis didn't seem too agreeable with the idea of being sent into oblivion, and from his gaping maw, a massive ball of negative energy started to form, steadily growing in size and crackling with destructive power. If it came down on them, there was no way any of them could survive…

The Blue-Eyes Shining Dragon card gleamed with brilliant blue-white light, the sleek form of the creature gliding far up into the air, ignorant of the falling debris and the choking dust.

"If the monsters in this battle are real, then so are all their powers…including this dragon's ability to destroy any monster," Kaiba told Téa, keeping his eyes riveted to the battle field. If either of them moved now, they stood a chance of being crushed by falling debris, or worse, being targeted by Anubis' attack—whether it came in the form of negative energy, sludge, or ooze.

"SHINING NOVA ATTACK! Destroy Anubis!"

The Blue-Eyes Shining Dragon glided toward the ball of negative energy hurtling toward it, easily dissipating it like so much darkness washed away by the light. Soon, the light swallowed the whole of the decaying Duel Dome, blinding those that tried to find its source, and startling those outside, who swore that night had already fallen on Domino.

Anubis let out an awesome roar, tremors wreaking havoc on the skeleton structure of the Duel Dome. He was barely visible between the rays of pure white light, the sludge of his skin melting away like superheated tar. The skull of the massive dragon-like creature began to collapse, his once-massive maw slowly disintegrating into nothing more than a lump. Even as the gigantic shape crumbled further, Téa swore she could hear the deep, chanting voice that had to belong to Anubis:

_The ka that brings perfect defeat is the messenger of destruction…_

What she didn't know was that everyone else had heard that same voice—but to their ears, Anubis had chanted in an unintelligible language, his words trailing off as his decaying mummy finally appeared amid the ooze and debris. In a moment, it collapsed into a mere human skeleton, and then into ashes that disappeared on the cool night breeze. The brilliant red jewel that had once been planted the core of the chest of demon Anubis rolled onto the arena floor, indigo flames licking the interior before the light extinguished them. The gem stopped rolling about, flashed once a startling shade of green, and then shattered into countless pieces.

A few moments later, the dark clouds obscuring the moon drifted away, fading into nothingness like the dust of Anubis' corpse. The rumbling of the Duel Dome ceased, and the awe-inspiring faded away gracefully, as if it had never been there or done anything at all. All that remained were the duelists, their friends, and the nearly-destroyed arena. Silence reigned until the others rejoined them back on the arena, the Duel Dome collapsed to the point where doors and elevators no longer served a purpose.

"He's not coming back, is he?" Téa managed hoarsely, her body feeling weaker by the second. She struggled out of Kaiba's arms, trying her damnedest not to look weak after this whole affair. After all, she wasn't a duelist; she hadn't really helped defeat Anubis at all. It had been Seto and Yugi that had done it all…

Mokuba moved to wrap a temporary bandage around Kaiba's wounded arm, until they could get proper care. He quietly admired his brother for not even wincing as he covered the wound. That was his brother: strong and resilient in any situation. But maybe this time, it was because Seto had more of a reason to be strong. Mokuba noted that Seto's eyes weren't trained on Mokuba and his first aid work, or even Yugi and the others staring at him from across the arena. Instead, he was looking almost mournfully at Téa nearby, his other arm shifting in a way that seemed to indicate he wanted to hold her again.

"We should take a closer look at that prophecy and see what it foretells for the future," Solomon spoke up.

Pegasus scoffed and waved his hand in the air dismissively. "Oh, please, old man. Anubis is gone. No one could return after suffering a defeat as thoroughly devastating as that." He chuckled and continued in a slightly lower voice, "Well, no one but Kaiba, that is…oops, did I say that out loud?"

Téa glared fiercely at Pegasus, but her vision was steadily growing blurrier, and she couldn't be sure that Pegasus even knew she was boring a hole into his head with her eyes.

_'Must be all the dust…'_ Téa thought weakly, but the numbness seeping into her bones told her otherwise.

"Kaiba…" Yugi began, his voice oddly hesitant.

"Oh, please, save me all your bull about friendship, will you?" Kaiba remarked icily, venom creeping into his tone. Without Téa to warm his arms and remind him of the foolishness of giving in to his constant urge to duel, he quickly reverted to the anti-social Kaiba that Yugi and the others knew so well.

"If it wasn't for that freak crashing the party, we both know that the winner of today's duel would have been **me**. So enjoy your last days of being champion—while you still can."

In another time and another place, Téa might have been inclined to disagree with Seto's presumptuousness, regardless of whether she vocalized those thoughts or not. But this time, even with her mind all foggy, she knew Seto spoke the truth. Something still felt **wrong** about it all, though—that perhaps Anubis had interrupted on purpose, at just the right time. Of course Seto would beat Yugi one day, and maybe even reclaim part of his long-lost pride. But that time hadn't come yet. Somehow, Téa knew that the day Yugi lost a duel to Kaiba would be the day that changed everything.

"I gotta say, it's nice to have the old Kaiba back!" Yugi remarked with false cheer. Inside, he felt much like the Duel Dome looked—crumbling, and destroyed almost completely. But if he didn't paste on a smile, everyone—Joey and his other friends, Kaiba, and worst of all, Téa herself—would see, and realize just what was going on in Yugi's mind.

"Yeah, well, this conversation's over. We'll duel again," Kaiba snapped. He reached a hand out to Téa, who grasped it for her own needs as much as Seto's own. This would be the first time she would leave the scene of a major duel without her friends—not by Yugi or Joey's side, but by Kaiba's. But that didn't change the fact that Seto's hand—so large and warm, encompassing her smaller hand completely—felt so right. **All **of him felt right. Leaving with him was the right thing to do.

"I suppose all of us should get going," Malik finally said, speaking up for the first time since the duel ended. "There is nothing left for us here." Everyone nodded and trailed after Kaiba and Téa as they slowly left the Duel Dome premises, trudging carefully through the fallen debris and layers of dust. Yugi brought up the rear, looking pensive despite his victory over Anubis.

Something still wasn't right in his mind, but it didn't have anything to do with Anubis. Just as the moonlight hit his face, he had an epiphany, and he broke through the ranks of his friends, rushing to catch up with Téa and Kaiba at the fore.

"Téa, wait!" His voice cracked again, a result of both Yugi and Yami suddenly both coming into control at the same time. Téa stopped in her tracks, turning at the rather odd voice calling her name. When she found herself face-to-face with Yami and not Yugi, her own voice seemed to stop in her throat.

"May I please…speak to you? Alone?" Téa's eyes widened marginally, but she nodded slowly, trying to reassure a scowling Kaiba even as she loosened her hand from his and stepped away to the side of the arena.

"What is it Yu—" Téa stopped. How stupid was she, to still call **him** 'Yugi' when this day had made it even clearer that they weren't one and the same. She'd been beside the real Yugi, her childhood friend, in that labyrinthine mess that was the realm of the Millennium Puzzle. And she'd watched "the other Yugi" goad Kaiba and duel Anubis…and eventually win.

"I–I need to know why," he blurted at last.

"Why what?" Téa asked in utter confusion. Everything seemed to have taken on a dream-like quality; nothing made sense. In her oldest and wildest fantasies, Téa had dreamed of **him** speaking to her alone, of him confessing deep and profound feelings for her. But those were ancient dreams, and silly thoughts that meant nothing to her in the here and now. So why did it seem like now—when they were most unwanted—her old dreams were coming true? Here she was, alone with **him** after a fierce battle and near death. They'd barely escaped destruction, and yet he stood before her, head bowed and cheeks unusually flushed for such a cold night.

"Why **Kaiba**_,_" Yami finally relented, raising his eyes to meet Téa's. "You know him—he's arrogant, rude, selfish, and proud! He will convince himself of the most ludicrous of lies, and he leaves himself susceptible to the whims of every enemy we have ever encountered! How–how can you love him?"

Téa stared at Yami in mute shock, honestly wishing someone would pinch her so she could wake up from this sudden nightmare. But when Yami continued to stare at her expectantly, obviously waiting for an answer, Téa realized that no amount of pinching would wake her up: this was reality.

"How…dare you? How can you possibly **say** that to me?" Téa whispered angrily. Part of her wanted to cry, but the tears wouldn't come—even though she had a headache, and all the dust hurt her eyes, her eyes remained as dry as bone. She would shed no tears for this person, whoever he was supposed to be. He wasn't Yugi Moto, that was for sure. Her best friend would never say anything like the words that had just come from **his** mouth!

"He doesn't deserve you!" Yami persisted, but his words were futile.

"He means **everything** to me!" Téa snapped, louder than she realized. The others, waiting some distance away, had all heard her, and it didn't take a rocket scientist to figure out the context of her words. Téa stalked back to Kaiba's side, refusing to look back at an extremely-upset looking Yami in her wake. The moment she reached Kaiba's side and latched herself onto his arm, her body protested at all the strain it was under. Her knees wobbled ever-so-slightly, but she refused to show weakness, especially after Yami's hurtful words.

They almost stung like physical wounds, with the way a numb, icy feeling crept up and down her arms and legs.

_'So cold…'_

Téa stared up at the brilliant moon, wondering why it appeared so hazy and far away. A second later, her loose grip on Kaiba's injured arm slacked, and her knees gave out once and for all. She collapsed backward, unconscious, surprisingly falling into Malik's arms. In the instant it took for Seto to turn around, his eyes met with the Egyptian's, and a mute understanding passed between them.

"Neither of you are well. It would do for you to return home and rest," Malik said quietly. Kaiba only nodded and took Téa from Malik's arms into his own. His injured arm protested in surging pain, but in typical Kaiba-fashion, he ignored it. No one would hold Téa but **him**! He and Mokuba slowly made their way down to the base of the curving drive that led up to the Duel Dome, where a chauffeur awaited beside a sleek, black limousine, summoned by Mokuba after the theatrics had ended.

Even after Mokuba helped his injured brother and the unconscious Téa into the car, Seto didn't bother shifting Téa into a seat of her own; he kept her curled up against him, holding her as close as he could with his uninjured arm. The boys watched Kaiba—though Kaiba didn't even bother to look in their direction—just before the chauffeur slammed the limo doors closed, and they sped off into the deepening night moments later.

The shadowy Duel Dome presented quite the grotesque addition to what would have otherwise been a beautiful spring evening skyline, and no one seemed to protest the idea of leaving the place behind.

"I'm sure glad he didn't bring up all the damage you did to the Duel Dome, 'cause I don't think his insurance is going to cover this," Solomon chuckled, but his laugh was thin, and echoed alone in the dark night. Everyone still with them seemed to realize the gravity of the situation extended far beyond the now-usual routine of "Evil psychopath bent on taking over the world." No, this time there had been somebody **behind** Anubis—and Anubis was already plenty strong. Whoever had been pulling the strings in the background—unknown to them all—was probably watching them at that very minute.

"Kaiba has plenty of money, Gramps," Joey said after a minute, glancing back at the Duel Dome only once. "What he ain't got is any friends 'sides Téa. Friendship symbol or whatever aside, he certainly didn't earn any points in **my** book tonight after what he did."

"Joey!" Serenity admonished her brother. "That's not very nice!"

"Sorry, Serenity," Joey said with a shake of his head, "But it's the truth. Kaiba doesn't get that even if he **had** won the duel today, it wouldn't have meant anything to anyone but him. Even Téa would agree with me," Joey gestured with his chin toward Yugi, Tristan, and Duke. "You guys all heard what she said in that weird place we all got sucked into. If it hadn't been for this whole idiotic thing with Anubis, she still woulda been totally steamed at him."

Tristan and Duke exchanged a hesitant glance. Joey was right…sort of.

_"I didn't even try to understand why he wanted to duel again, so suddenly. I didn't even give him the chance to explain…!" _Téa had told them. _"I was supposed to learn my lesson after my parents died—I can't take anyone for granted! Every single moment is precious…"_

But for all Téa's talk, and her apparent forgiveness that Kaiba had restarted his age-old feud with Yugi, she'd nearly died for Kaiba today—when he totally didn't deserve that kind of loyalty. At least, not in Joey's eyes. Recently, Kaiba had almost been tolerable in Joey's mind…but now, he couldn't be so sure.

"Man, this place gives me the creeps. Let's get outta here, hm?" Joey nodded to Duke, Tristan, and Yugi, and with Serenity's hand in his own, they started making their way down the slope that led back into downtown Domino.

"And what will you do, Pegasus?" Malik asked inquisitively before he headed down the hill.

Pegasus sighed melodramatically and flipped some stray hairs over his shoulder. "I suppose I could just take my helicopter and go home, but I have to say, I rather missed all the excitement. Maybe that whole death cover-up thing was a mistake."

Malik raised an eyebrow in query, but he didn't say anything. Pegasus noted Malik's expression, and, pleased that he'd gotten the reaction he wanted out of his sole audience member, continued to speak.

"You knew I wasn't dead, but that was only because Isis told you, hm? Your sister's a very intelligent woman. We have a lot in common," Pegasus added thoughtfully. Malik's eyes narrowed, but he still didn't say anything; he had no idea what Pegasus was trying to imply, and he wasn't sure he could risk **not** hearing it.

"She's not the only one who can still see the future without the influence of a Millennium Item," Pegasus added under his breath.

At that, Malik's eyebrows rose again, but higher than before—this time out of genuine shock and surprise, not curiosity. "What are you saying, Pegasus?"

"Exactly what I said, young Ishtar," Pegasus continued, his perfectly straight, white teeth gleaming in the moonlight. "And also like your sister, I retired into solitude to find peace from the insanity that the outside world brought upon me. Only I did it in a more…shall we say, creative fashion? I don't think your sister would bother with faking her own death; not many people know the Tombkeepers even exist."

That was both true and **not** true at the same time. Isis was the Secretary General of the Supreme Council of Antiquities; she was an important figurehead in the Egyptian government, and it would most certainly be noticed if she happened to disappear one day. Nonetheless, Isis managed to keep her Tombkeeper clan and governmental duties quite separate—though the influences of one certainly impacted her work for the other. And for whatever reason, no one ever questioned why Isis never stayed at hotels while she attended council meetings, or why she didn't bother moving into Cairo when she had work in the government offices there.

If anyone knew she was affiliated with a millennia-old clan that lived out in the depths of the desert, they'd never let it on.

"So now you're coming out of your so-called 'retirement'?" Malik asked sardonically. "What's the point? Do you even have control over Industrial Illusions anymore?" After Yugi had defeated Pegasus back in Duelist Kingdom, Yugi had been rewarded with the majority percentage of stocks of the company—effectively making him a member of the Board, and the presiding stockholder. It was he that had influenced Industrial Illusion's latest releases, up until they'd found out Pegasus had been alive all along, overseeing their every move.

"Oh please," Pegasus said in that same melodramatic tone. "Do you really think I would have kept up that whole 'I'm dead' scheme if I **didn't** have something to keep me amused? I own forty percent of the existing stock. The remaining sixty percent is mostly Yugi-boy's, though I imagine a few of the other board members have a few percent between them all. In any case, all major decisions about the company still have to pass through either me **or** Yugi-boy. Quite the pleasing arrangement, if I do say so myself."

"Only so long as you stay out of the spotlight," Malik said. "Whoever cut the Millennium Eye out of your socket probably could have done worse. You're just lucky you survived and perpetuated the tale."

"Hm, lucky. I wonder. Do you suppose whoever did it really believed they'd succeeded, and I'd died?"

"If no one's made a second attempt, I'd say so. But that's just the problem—if you suddenly reappear alive and well again, who's to say you won't be risking your life?"

"You're not doing a very good job at convincing me to stay retired," Pegasus said. "Besides, we both know that whoever took my Eye wanted that and that alone. My death wouldn't have served any purpose."

"Unless that person could care less about Industrial Illusions and more about shutting you up."

Pegasus fell silent at that. Malik was—unfortunately—right. And Pegasus **did** know a lot: more than he was supposed to, that was for sure. And that had been for years before Duelist Kingdom—as far back as when he first met Shaadii and got the Millennium Eye, actually. **That** was when all of the insanity had begun….

"It's taking a chance either way," Pegasus said at last, his voice sounding oddly hollow in his own ears. "If I do come out of retirement, I might be a target for whoever stole the Millennium Eye from me in the first place. If I don't, they might find out anyway. The sooner I do it, the less likely Yugi-boy or Kaiba-boy will be hit first."

"Since when do their enemies follow such simple stratagems?" Malik inquired. That was the only thing he had Pegasus had in common: they were both united by their former hatred of Yugi—or rather, the Spirit of the Millennium Puzzle that resided **within** Yugi. That selfsame spirit had made an obvious mistake earlier in angering Téa, just before she'd fallen unconscious, and who knew **what** he was thinking?

Pegasus scoffed. "You'd be surprised. Well, I suppose I'll look around here a bit more. Don't worry; I'll inform you if I find anything interesting."

"You do that," Malik said. He didn't walk away immediately; he waited for Pegasus to move toward the rubble of the Duel Dome before he finally turned his back on the man and sprinted toward his motorcycle and the road back to his museum home.

* * *

Black faded into green. The scent of smoke, dust, and pine needles assuaged his senses. And quite suddenly, Ryou Bakura was cold, numb, hungry, and feeling as though he weighed a thousand kilograms. He just lay there in the dirt, under the towering pine trees for a few minutes, still not entirely aware of where he was or what had happened to him. But he heard some voices, and being unable to move, it was quite impossible **not** to listen in on their conversation.

"Quite a show, eh?"

"It wasn't supposed to get that out of control, Valon," a huskier voice commented.

"Oh, don't be such a spoilsport," Valon snapped, though the cheerful tone of his voice betrayed his good-natured attitude. "'Sides, we all knew it would go down that way."

"What, with the spike-haired brat trouncing the boss's trump card?" a third voice queried sarcastically.

Ryou realized—without any particular feeling at all—that the men must be referring to Yugi. Who else would they be calling a "spike-haired brat?" Yugi Moto had picked up quite the arsenal of insulting names from his various enemies over the years, but whoever had chosen this one obviously looked down on Yugi as nothing more than a kid with a bad hairstyle.

"You thought that stupid mummy was the boss's **trump card**?" Valon asked in genuine surprise. "Come on, Alister, you can't be serious."

_'Stupid mummy?'_ What…? Something seemed familiar—like a picture flickering in and out of Bakura's memory—but he couldn't place it.

Alister didn't answer.

"Look, the boss got to see the Pharaoh in action, and now we get our chance to act. If Anubis really **had**managed to defeat that punk kid, none of us would get our chances," the second, husky voice responded instead.

"Yeah, that Anubis was just a test for the Pharaoh, eh, mates? All the better that the ol' 'Lord of the Dead' failed miserably…though he did leave a rather nasty mess behind."

"The boss will clean that up, easy," Alister said calmly. "He'll deal with the museum pestering him about the missing mummy and the pyramid, too. Just be glad we don't have cleanup detail."

"You kiddin' me? I wouldn't touch that mess back there even if the boss **did** tell me to!" Valon chuckled, but it was a mirthless chuckle. He was lying through his teeth, and his companions knew it. Even Ryou knew it, and he could barely muster the strength to open his eyes fully and see the figures of the men in the distance. But their footsteps were getting further away, so if they were dangerous—and if they'd had anything to do with resurrecting a mummy that had put Yugi in a bind and made a mess of wherever he was, then they most certainly **were** trouble.

And if three henchmen were trouble, who was to even imagine the kind of power their **boss**—someone who could cover up the disappearance of a millennia-old mummy and artifact—had? Whoever he was, Ryou knew he didn't want anything to do with him. But such as life was, Ryou had the distinct feeling that he wouldn't be able to help it. Somehow, being 'friends' with Yugi and the others, and willingly carrying the Millennium Ring inevitably got him into binds like this—where he didn't know where he was or when, and he couldn't move, much less think clearly.

For the briefest of moments, Ryou wished he could just bury the Millennium Ring, spend his savings on a one-way ticket back to London, and…

And that was the last thing he thought, for the previously-weakened Spirit of the Millennium Ring did not like the course his host's thoughts were taking, and he quickly took over.

It only took him a few moments longer than it would have taken his host to regain the feeling in his limbs; he slowly rose to his feet and let his senses adjust to the darkness. He knew full well where he was, but he had no idea how much time had passed since he'd arrived at the Duel Dome and now. He remembered seeing the life-size Pyramid of Light encasing the whole of the Duel Dome, but what little of the structure he could make out through the trees had no massive blue-white light surrounding it, nor any sort of golden-framed crimson eye, with a nebula portal into another realm.

All that was left of the Duel Dome was a skeleton structure and rubble.

…And a decidedly familiar figure, wandering through the debris as though he were looking for something.

_'I think I have the strength for one more encounter. This opportunity is just too good to pass up,'_ Bakura thought maliciously as he approached the bent form of Pegasus. Bakura stepped carefully around the rubble, taking great care to disguise the sound of his footfalls, until he was close enough to spot the tiniest ball of lint fixed to Pegasus's maroon jacket.

"Interesting, very interesting!" Pegasus exclaimed aloud, though he didn't turn around. He didn't seem to be aware of Bakura being anywhere in the vicinity—but the moment Pegasus spoke again, Bakura realized he'd somehow been mistaken.

"So much destruction—all of Kaiba-boy's dreams for this place, destroyed in a single night, and all because of a simple emotion." It was at that point that Pegasus turned around and faced Bakura, not looking the surprised at his presence in the least bit. "Revenge is a curious thing, wouldn't you agree?"

Pegasus didn't dare use any endearments with Bakura, though the Spirit was still a bit unnerved that his presence **hadn't** surprised Pegasus, when the man was no longer with a Millennium Item, and therefore unable to sense the presence of other minds nearby. So how was it that Pegasus knew he'd been there?

Bakura eyed Pegasus analytically, sure that somehow he'd discover what was going on here; he, after all, was in no danger from the old fool. Bakura was the one with the Millennium Ring and Eye, not Pegasus. When Pegasus received no answer to his question, he turned back around to inspect the rubble, speaking as he wandered between snapped beams and fallen chunks of concrete.

"Look at all this—steel, concrete—some of the strongest materials on Earth, felled by something invisible and intangible. Or perhaps it's that which we can touch and feel that becomes what we can't see or understand. A bit like alchemy, I'd say."

"And what would **you** know of alchemy?" Bakura bit out finally, the nastiness plain in his voice. Pegasus's words were laced with implication, and Bakura didn't like the possibility of Pegasus knowing more than he should.

_'I should have just killed him when I had the chance!'_ But back in Duelist Kingdom, Bakura had been satisfied enough to leave Pegasus for dead, rather than make sure the job he'd started was actually finished. Now, Pegasus was more than alive and well—he was also well-informed of things he shouldn't have been, not by any stretch of the imagination.

Pegasus turned back toward Bakura, a self-assured and wicked smile curving his lips. It was the sort of expression he hadn't worn since he'd possessed the Millennium Eye, and had a guaranteed route into others' minds, into their hearts and souls…and to victory in each and every duel he fought.

"Well, suppose you put it this way," Pegasus began, gesturing widely, "You first need two or more people to instigate the desire for revenge—someone has to wrong someone else, and that someone else would want revenge. But the fusion of emotion and action in that person are things that can't be seen or touched—and they last thousands of years longer than anything on this Earth. Well…other than the Millennium Items, I suppose."

Bakura narrowed his dark eyes in resentment, but there was little he could say without giving his greatest secret away. Part of him was sure Pegasus was just making guesses, throwing things to the wind—but then, how else could he possibly know…!?

Pegasus smiled wider, drinking in Bakura's unnerved expression. The poor boy was desperately trying to hide his reaction, but he was failing miserably, telling Pegasus all that he needed to know. His source had informed him of this—of this event, of the right words to say to escape with his life and his sanity. But Pegasus had known things that his source hadn't told him, that she hadn't **needed** to tell him. Pegasus might have lost the Millennium Eye long ago, but not his interest in them, or the Dark Magic that surrounded them. And with plenty of time and seclusion on his hands, Pegasus had found some very interesting information that not even the oldest Tombkeepers were likely privy to….

"An interesting concept—perhaps the reason why the Items have lasted as long as they have is because they, like Anubis' and his artificial Pyramid of Light were constructed for revenge. Against who though, I wonder?" Pegasus tapped his forefinger to his chin, posing in an exaggeratedly dramatic fashion.

"Oh please, drop the act, Pegasus," Bakura snarled. "You know who, so what's the point of getting me to agree with you?"

"Who says I know who?" Pegasus stared at him innocently. "Pharaohs back then had plenty of enemies, I'm sure…" he trailed off purposefully, picking up a tiny shard of something not concrete or steel from the rubble. "But then, it would have had to be an especially powerful enemy, to prompt the Pharaoh to tamper with Dark Magic."

"Or perhaps the Pharaoh was just feeling especially selfish, and he decided to kill hundreds of innocent people without reason, all for the sake of looking powerful," Bakura spat, the words slipping from his lips before he could think twice about them.

"Do you really think so?" Pegasus stared at him and blinked owlishly. "Much as I know, I'm hardly an **expert**," Pegasus said with careful enunciation. "Most of what I've heard is mere legend—things that couldn't possibly be true; they're just too fantastic."

"Oh really?" Bakura crossed his arms over his chest, fighting the weakness that was building within him. If his fool host was trying to regain control at this crucial time, it wouldn't happen! But he'd expended so much of his energy earlier, he could hardly stand….

"Yes, really!" Pegasus nodded, bobbing his head excessively in a nod. "Truly, the idea of killing hundreds of innocent people and melting their flesh and blood to create the gold for the Millennium Items—it's something out of a fairy tale!"

Pegasus noted Bakura's abrupt change in expression—from annoyed and angry to shocked. The look on his already-pale face was not easily mistaken for anything else, especially given the way Bakura's mouth hung open in the tiniest 'o' shape. Relentlessly, Pegasus continued, intending to find out once and for all just **who** the Spirit of the Millennium Ring was, and how much he knew.

_'Whatever my precious source won't tell me, I'll find out on my own!'_

"I'd have to admit, if it were **my** parents and siblings melted down, I'd want revenge too. A much better reason than Anubis' quest for power, wouldn't you say?"

Bakura said nothing, but he managed to close his lips and purse them together in a tight, thin line.

Pegasus knew entirely too much.

He would have to die, no questions asked.

"Ah well, but like I said, that is simply too fantastic to be true. Impossible, I'd say! Why, there'd have to be some sort of proof of it, and no one's found anything, so…"

Pegasus pocketed the tiny shard he'd found and began heading away from the Duel Dome, toward where his helicopter was perched on some cleared ground further away.

"Good seeing you again, old man," Pegasus laughed, raising a hand in a farewell as he turned away and disappeared into the darkness.

Bakura could only clench his fists in anger.

* * *

Téa only stirred from her soundless sleep when Seto set her down on their bed as gently as he could manage, given the pain shooting up his arm. After a few moments of moaning unintelligibly (at least to Seto's ear), her eyes fluttered open, and her vision slowly returned. No longer were her surroundings hazy and cold, but warm and familiar—her room with Seto in the Kaiba mansion.

"Seto…? What happened?"

Seto turned around at the sound of Téa calling his name; he had intentionally kept the room dark so that if she were to remain unconscious, at least she could sleep fitfully. Something told Seto that no matter how dark his room was, or how warm the bed became with Téa beside him, he wasn't going to sleep much tonight, if at all.

"You fainted just before we left the Duel Dome," he remarked quietly, changing into his pajamas with some difficulty. For some strange reason, it had been much easier to take off Téa's clothes and put **her** into her nightclothes than it was to change himself. Seto allowed himself a half-smirk, knowing Téa couldn't see the flush of his cheeks with his back turned to her and the room so dark.

_'Better to think about her without clothes than why she kept fainting tonight,'_ Seto thought absently as he struggled to put his nightshirt on. His arm throbbed with every move he made, and he was growing increasingly irritated with the whole thing. It was unfortunate that his personal physician hadn't been in his office to give him a quick shot of Vicodin for the pain. But even if his physician had offered, Seto knew he probably wouldn't have accepted—wouldn't have made the call in the first place unless he knew the man wouldn't be there. Admitting he was in enough pain to warrant a narcotic was the same as admitting that a psychopathic so-called sorcerer had very nearly destroyed the world **again**, and used him as a pawn.

And there was no way in **hell** Seto Kaiba would ever admit to that.

But it wasn't so easy to ignore the bout of fainting spells Téa'd had that night. Mokuba had told him about the first—and deadliest—when Téa had nearly plunged to her death from Pegasus' helicopter. It didn't make sense why no one had been able to wake Téa after that stunt—but according to Mokuba, she had woken up at the same time Joey and the others did, right when Anubis started losing control of the duel.

The second had been right after Anubis was defeated—though Téa had looked as though she would have fainted much sooner, back when she'd first taken the brunt of Anubis' blast against Kaiba.

The memory caused his fingers to still on his nightshirt as he single-handedly tried to button it closed.

_'What happened then?'_

He'd **seen **Téa, but he'd seen her before she'd even thrust herself in front of him. He wasn't sure how he knew that, but he did—without a single doubt in his mind. Normally, Seto Kaiba scoffed at anything and everything that he couldn't see with his own two eyes—but he **had** seen this with his own two eyes. That didn't mean he understood it, though. Far from it, in fact. But still, the only option was simply ridiculous.

_'A premonition?'_

He remembered seeing a figure dart in front of an awesome display of light, arms splayed out to either side, as if to hug the force hurtling toward them both. And then the figure crumpled to the ground, knees first. Seto remembered feeling his insides go ice cold—a cold very different from that "cold of victory" he thought he had within his grasp—though Anubis' flame attack had made the arena unbearably hot. He'd pushed forward, as if something or someone otherworldly urged him to move, and then…

Téa fell into his arms, her jacket practically burnt off her body, and her blouse charred.

_'She should have died!'_ and every fiber in Seto Kaiba's being knew it, but it wasn't as if he wanted it to be true. He wasn't sure which was more frightening: the prospect of Téa dying for him, in his arms…or trying to figure out **how** she'd survived such a brutal attack in the first place.

Or was none of that important at all, and what really mattered was **why** she'd done it? No, he already knew why: _"I love you."_

Seto swallowed convulsively and finished buttoning his nightshirt, leaving the top two buttons undone, because he no longer wanted to bother with unbuttoning and re-buttoning them just because they were crooked.

When Seto turned around, Téa's name was already on his lips; when he turned to face her, they both ended up saying each other's names simultaneously. Téa blushed from where she half-sat, half-lay on the bed and looked down at herself—clothed in a set of her own nightclothes that she didn't remember putting on. Besides, the pants were on backward.

"You go first," she said quietly, suddenly realizing how loud her voice had seemed in the still, dark room. She could just barely make out Seto's form a meter or so away from her, apparently done fumbling with his own clothes. That was when Téa remembered what she had seen when she was trapped in that weird 'other realm'—Anubis throwing Kaiba against the wall, nearly breaking his arm, though the move had come close to killing him outright. Téa swallowed a painful lump that had formed in her throat, silently thanking whatever powers that be out there for keeping them both alive long enough to see another moonrise.

"No, you," Seto mumbled under his breath, still unsure whether to approach Téa or not. She had every reason to be mad at him—more than that, to **hate** him. This wasn't at all like the time when she'd thought he'd played a hand in the death of her parents—no, this was something he'd done directly and intentionally. He'd **lied** to her, and worse, he'd nearly gotten her killed because of it. That and he'd undressed her, and even if he **had** seen her naked before, he probably wasn't going to get a voluntary repeat performance anytime soon after de-clothing her unwillingly.

_'She was unconscious wearing burnt clothing that was practically falling off of her! I'm not the guilty party here!'_ Seto frowned at the sudden 'normal teenager' side of his mentality that had abruptly asserted itself. That annoying part of him that was slowly but steadily making itself known was also causing him to blush much more frequently and in decidedly deeper shades of crimson, as well.

"I…just wanted to say thank you."

"You—what?" Seto Kaiba didn't normally display emotions other than confidence (which, to some was the same as arrogance). But in this particular instance, he couldn't disguise his surprise, not even with a snappy comeback or an irritated glare. "What are you thanking me for? I didn't—I mean, you—" Seto trailed off, trying to make sense of the situation and failing hopelessly.

Téa laughed softly under her breath and rose from the bed, closing the distance between her and Seto. Her knees still shook, as if she wasn't fully recovered from all the insanity earlier, but she refused to fall again. "Thank you…just…for being you, I guess."

Seto raised an eyebrow. Even Téa had come up with more creative reasons than **that**, in the past. He briefly remembered Téa's "confrontation" with Yugi earlier—and that she'd unabashedly yelled at him, _"He means everything to me!"_ Somehow, Seto knew she'd been talking about **him**—not Yugi, not Joey, not Mokuba, not anyone else. It made him smile, just a little.

"The same 'me' that lied to you and nearly got you killed several times tonight?" Seto finally said with a sigh. He couldn't look in her eyes. He couldn't possibly stare into her face and **say that**, knowing that she still loved him so wholeheartedly after everything he'd said and done—**again**_._

Téa pursed her lips before nodding resolutely. "The same you. I meant what I said earlier: I do love you, and that means **all of you**, even the parts that I don't always like or agree with. I'd hope the same is true for you."

Seto suddenly found himself hard-pressed to come up with some particularly irritating traits of Téa's, but despite all the fights they'd been in—since day one, before they'd even looked at one another romantically—he couldn't think of any that bothered him still. She wasn't so much of a gung-ho cheerleader and staunch supporter of friendship anymore—at least not to the point where she sounded like a grade school teacher encouraging everyone to be nice and get along. She didn't delve into his past recklessly—in fact, she probably knew most everything that Seto had kept hidden in the darkest parts of his heart for so long. All his guarded secrets were **hers** now. Almost all of them, anyway.

And–and what else? That was just the problem, wasn't it? Seto–Seto who had never thought himself wrong or imperfect at any time—suddenly found it much easier to find faults in himself than he did in Téa—Téa who had nearly died for him tonight; Téa who was mere centimeters from him, radiating warmth; Téa, whose skin was so soft—he remembered running his hands up her legs (he couldn't help it, or so he mentally excused himself) when he'd taken her charred and dusty skirt off and replaced it with—he now noticed—a pair of backward pajama bottoms.

"Seto?"

Oh. He'd neglected to answer her, hadn't he? What had she asked again?

"You were staring at my legs, weren't you?" Téa grinned, intentionally swaying her hips until she was pressed right against Seto. She watched his face—much clearer now that she was closer up—burn a dark hue, though his eyes still were locked on her legs rather than on her face. After a minute or so of bemusement at Seto's expense, Téa pressed two fingers under his chin and forced his gaze upward.

When she spoke again, her voice was strangely lower, almost hoarse. "If I weren't feeling like I was going to faint again and you didn't have your busted arm, I'd say tonight definitely qualified as traumatizing enough for us to go all the way."

Seto's eyes widened nearly two centimeters before he completely comprehended her words. "Wait…'traumatizing'?"

Téa chuckled under her breath. "That's always how it goes, isn't it? Something horrible always happens; someone nearly dies. It takes something scary like that for you to realize how much the people in your life mean to you, and how precious life really is. That's what I meant when I said 'thank you.' If you'd suddenly wised up to why I was so mad at you in the first place, then neither of us would be here right now. Neither of us would have had the strength to do what we did tonight."

"You especially," Seto finally said. He'd been nothing more than a pawn in someone else's twisted game. For the first time, Seto realized that Téa wasn't just someone who stood on the sidelines and **watched** things happen, all helpless and weak. Even if it was just through her words, Téa **did** make things happen. And when words weren't enough, her actions spoke plenty loud.

The memory of her darting in front of him, her arms spread wide to catch a massive ball of flame kept replaying in his mind, over and over.

_'She could have died. She could have died. She could have died.'_

"Seto? I'm right here." She didn't say it in an irritated tone of voice that implied she was upset by his wandering thoughts. Instead, her voice was soft and gentle—just like her lips, when they met his a moment later. What began as a simple, almost chaste kiss quickly turned into something altogether different as Seto realized that something beyond his realm of understanding had **saved** Téa from death tonight, and she was right: every single moment was precious, and it was only after surviving things like Anubis that one realized how precious the lives of others were.

_'If I let her go…'_ He never finished his thought. Damn the shooting pain in his arm, or the headache throbbing dully behind his eyes. Damn his crooked nightshirt, and her backward pajama bottoms. He kept kissing her, fiercer than he ever had before, but singularly aware of how she was responding to him—to his every touch—so she would know that he really **did** love her, and that something good had to come out of the recent battle with Anubis.

He'd somehow gotten her back onto the bed and lying on top of the comforters before she pulled away from him, gasping for air. It wasn't that his kisses had taken her breath away, but that she was feeling faint again, and Seto causing such a reaction out of her certainly wasn't helping matters. Seto caught his own breath after a moment, silently realizing that nothing could happen between them tonight—not with his injured arm or Téa in need of a real rest.

"This is what always happens, isn't it? We get so close, and—"

"Don't blame yourself, Seto," Téa interrupted him, her voice a mere mumble. Téa's cheeks flushed a pretty shade of pink. How many times was it now that they'd gotten so far and then just stopped? She'd lost track completely, and she also didn't remember **who** had been responsible for stopping things the last time, only that she felt horrible about stopping things **again** this time.

"Besides, do you really want to risk hurting yourself more, or me passing out during…?" Téa trailed off this time, her cheeks burning an even brighter shade of red. She shook her head vehemently, wishing she hadn't even said anything in the first place, because now she couldn't get the thoughts out of her head.

"No, I guess not," Seto chuckled at last. He sighed deeply before crawling under the covers, nudging Téa to join him.

After a few minutes of silence in which both of them knew full-well the other was pretending to be asleep, Téa whispered something, her voice quiet but still loud enough for Seto to hear over the mound of comforters.

"I'd do it again, you know."

Seto knew that she wasn't talking about making out with him, or mentioning the fact that they had yet to be "intimate" with one another. Oh no, he knew **exactly** what she was talking about…but he wished he didn't.

"Don't say that."

"It's the truth," Téa said, her voice clearer and firmer than before. She turned to face him, her gaze surprisingly liquid. "Both of us learned something after tonight, right? I learned that being mad about stupid things isn't worth it, when a single minute could change everything, and you—"

"I learned that it's pointless to lie to you, and it hurts the both of us. I'd rather you understand why I do stupid things, instead of being mad at me for them. Maybe next time when I do something stupid, you'll just let me make my own mistakes and learn from them that way."

Téa chuckled softly, as her fingers traced the side of Seto's face. "Don't say that," Téa echoed Seto's words from earlier. "You're anything **but** stupid. But we all make mistakes…"

"It's the truth."

Téa chuckled again and shifted forward to press herself closer against Seto. "You're the best mistake I've ever made, Seto Kaiba. My friends can hate me for this, but I do love you."

Seto's lip quirked upward in the slightest of smiles; he didn't say anything, he only pulled Téa closer, tucking her head under his chin and twining his legs with hers. The shooting pain in his arm was replaced with a warm feeling, and within a few minutes, both Seto and Téa were sound asleep.

* * *

"Please tell me I've died and gone to hell," Joey said the moment he walked out of his classroom on Monday at lunchtime—and came face to face with Maximillion J. Pegasus. If the former CEO had been worried about causing a scene by appearing **alive** again, he'd obviously gotten over his concerns quickly.

"Oh, please, Wheeler," Pegasus sniffed, pushing himself away from the wall he'd been leaning against. "Even **I'm** not that much of a drama queen."

Tristan, emerging from the classroom behind Joey, stifled a brief laugh, earning him a death-glare from his blond friend.

"What brings you here, Pegasus?" Yugi asked curiously, wedging his way out another nearby classroom door. Duke, though he'd emerged from a different classroom altogether, casually shoved both Joey and Tristan aside, offering Pegasus a smiling handshake. If anyone had known the truth about Pegasus being alive after Battle City, Duke was the most likely candidate—after all, he'd managed to partner with Industrial Illusions for the mass production of his Duel Monsters spin-off game, Dungeon Dice Monsters. Since Yugi hadn't known anything about the game when Duke had originally challenged him—despite being the primary shareholder of Industrial Illusions stock—it stood to reason that Pegasus had still played a strong hand in the company then, and no doubt would be again.

No one really knew what had gotten Pegasus thinking he needed to fake his own death in order to have a peaceful retirement, but one thing was for sure: that retirement was over now.

"I've decided to come out of retirement," Pegasus stated firmly. "Since I was still in town as of this morning, I thought it prudent to tell you in-person."

"How nice of you," an icy voice remarked. Everyone turned, unsurprised to see Kaiba there. If anything caused raised eyebrows, it was the fact that Kaiba could still sound as venomous as ever while holding Téa's hand. The aforementioned girl was staring at her feet, either embarrassed because of Kaiba's actions or feeling awkward in Pegasus' sudden and unexpected presence.

Pegasus ignored Kaiba completely and stared unabashedly at Téa. "Couldn't you use your womanly charms on him to get him to act a little bit nicer around the rest of humankind?"

Téa's face only turned red and her chin dropped closer to her chest.

"In any case, I wish **you** luck, Téa-darling," Pegasus said with a chuckle. "You'll need it." He started to walk back down the hallway, obviously intent on leaving Domino High now that he'd delivered his news. He waved stiffly at the rest of the boys, but to everyone's surprise, Téa spoke before Pegasus was even a meter away.

"I think I've got my love life down pat, thanks. I'd rather have good luck for the upcoming Duel Monsters tournament I'm going to be in."

Pegasus turned around slowly, an eyebrow raised in mute amusement. Everyone else was equally surprised—though Kaiba had been present when Mai announced she and Téa were going on the Duelist's Cruise, Joey had completely forgotten about it, and thus hadn't passed the message onto the other guys.

"**That** I didn't know about," Pegasus said with an odd smile, his gaze briefly meeting with Malik's. The Egyptian had just emerged from his classroom, and he looked just as surprised as the other boys had been when they spotted Pegasus out in the hallway. Pegasus' stare flickered back to Téa, whom he walked toward with a quick stride. He reached into his breast pocket and withdrew a sealed packet of cards.

"These should bring you some luck, then," he said mysteriously. "I always carry them around…in case of emergency. I can guarantee you they're not mummy-summoning counterfeits, though."

Kaiba glared at Pegasus as the former head of Industrial Illusions chuckled the whole way out of Domino High.

Téa was just about to open the pack of cards she'd received when Malik stepped forward through the throng of boys, holding out a cell phone.

"My sister. She'd like to speak to you."

Téa stared at the cell phone in surprise before dropping Seto's hand and reaching out for the phone. She walked away from the boys, waving them on to go get lunch without her, but Seto lingered back, casting a curious gaze in her direction.

"Isis?" Téa said in a low voice, despite the crowds in the hallway. "This is unexpected."

Isis merely laughed, her voice sounding surprisingly clear over the line even with thousands of kilometers between Japan and Egypt .

"Malik told me about what happened with Anubis. I thought it only right to call you and congratulate you."

"Me?" Téa blinked in surprise, shifting the cell phone from one ear to the other. "I didn't do anything. As usual, it was Yugi who defeated the bad guy."

This time, Isis didn't laugh, which made Téa's mirthless chuckle sound all the hollower.

"You did more than you think, Téa," Isis said after a moment—and Téa thought that if she could see Isis, she was sure the older woman would have one of her usual mysterious smiles on, curving her lips up in a not-quite-smile, not-quite-smirk.

"The time is also coming for everyone to begin to recognize their roles in the ancient past. Darkness approaches, and all that surround the Pharaoh must be ready for it. I am still looking into who was responsible for bringing Anubis to Japan over my authority. Whoever that person is, be aware that he must be very powerful, and will pose quite the threat."

Téa swallowed a lump that had abruptly formed in her throat; she remembered the odd prophecy from the museum—the one that both Malik and Solomon seemed to take a great deal of stock in, even after Yugi defeated Anubis. They'd all been so sure that Anubis couldn't possibly return from "a defeat so humiliating," as Pegasus had dubbed it, but experience had proven them wrong before.

Isis abruptly changed topics. "If, between the Pharaoh and Seto…" she trailed off, but Téa didn't even stop to consider why. Instead, a frenzied, cold feeling rushed through her veins, and she started to babble without the slightest of prompts from Isis.

"Please don't ask me to make that decision, Isis. Things are already so confusing between all of us, and I'm not even sure how I'm supposed to fit into this. I just wanted to live a normal life. That's not to say I'd trade my friends or Seto for anything, but…"

"Téa, it is all right. Besides," Isis' voice was almost a light chuckle of amusement, "…you have already decided."

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> **Another long chapter, I know. And this might not even be considered a cliffhanger ending, but it most certainly is a precursor to a steamier chapter (25), and the next dramatic, action-packed, angsteriffic arc (26-28).**
> 
> **Why Osiris in the part where Enkur (Anubis) met Gebeluk? Easy-- even if the Duel Monsters retain their English dub names, the actual Egyptian gods' names have not and would not have changed. Perhaps Pegasus changed the name for Duel Monsters because of how many people died when trying to analyze the tablets with the gods on them...**
> 
> **Note that I am SPESHUL for not bringing in that Shadow Realm crap... :P Yes, "DEATH HAPPENS" in WDKY. Just letting you know. This is an M rating, not some lame Y7. (And hell, if I had kids, I'd want my 7 year old to know that her bunny is not just sleeping, glowing, and or comatose.)**
> 
> **And before you start hollering about "everyone likes Téa!"** **I suggest you check out the Review Replies; I'll explain some things there. Honest.**
> 
> **Until next time... **


	26. Summer Heat

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> It's summer at last, but there's no such thing as "peaceful" in Domino, least of all where Seto Kaiba, Téa Gardner, and Yugi Moto are concerned...

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> **What Doesn't Kill You**  
> **Chapter 25: Summer Heat  
> A Yu-Gi-Oh Fanfiction**  
> **By:** Azurite  
> **Site: **seventh-star DOT net
> 
> **Conceptualized/First Written:** 6/28/05  
> **Completed/Final Edit: **11/3/07  
> **Posted: **11/3/07
> 
> **Don't Forget!** All Review Replies are now hosted at my LiveJournal. Look for a section in my Memories called 'Review Replies,' and you can choose from the story/chapter of your choice to see what I had to say to your reviews! Thanks for your continued support!
> 
> I've said it before, and I'll say it again— this fanfic as a whole is rated M for mature, MOST ESPECIALLY THIS CHAPTER! This chapter contains **semi-graphic situations of a sexual nature**. You have been forewarned!
> 
> Happy Belated Birthday, Seto Kaiba…
> 
> Happy Three-Bordering-on-Four-Year Anniversary WDKY! I apologize for the year-long delay between updates, but updating while I was in Japan was difficult, and afterward, I had quite possibly the most stressful semester of my life at school. Since then, a lot's changed, but not my love for this pairing, this fic, or fandom in general! I'm also finally a senior at my university, and a busy one, but I am honestly dedicated to finishing this (sometime before I die…) I really, really, really appreciate anyone and everyone who has stuck with me this far and will continue to keep reading. Thank you so much!
> 
> Thanks to **WinterWing3000** and **Stubborn-Aesthetics** for beta'ing for this for me, especially after I was going berserk about a hacker scare. Thankfully, that's all over with and I can stress on the more important things in life: school and fics! Haha!
> 
> And to **praiseofshadows**, who, in retrospect, deserves a hell of a lot more than a single chapter's dedication. If I ever finish this monster (and its babies), this fic will go to you and **Mamono**, for sure. But for now, **praiseofshadows**, this is for you: thanks for making me unafraid.
> 
> **To everyone else:** Another agonizingly long chapter. Love me or hate me, it's been a year in coming. If you're reading this, thank you. Thank you.

She sucked in a sharp breath, and then another, feeling decidedly warm for reasons other than the mid-afternoon spring sun streaming down on her through the windows of Domino High School. Her gaze was pinned up to the ceiling of the empty hallway, her thoughts all a jumble, even when she heard his voice calling to her —calling out her name. It took a moment for the haze in her mind to clear and she found herself able to crane her neck to look at the source of the voice.

"Téa? Are you all right? You were staring off into space."

She stared at him now, rather than the ceiling; was it really _him_ and not his other half that seemed to love to torment her with his presence? Was it really Ryou Bakura, and not **Bakura**, the self-proclaimed thief king who "coincidentally" shared the name of his host?

_'No…it can't be just a coincidence. But if it was "destiny" or "fate," then….'_

And now just because Ryou had appeared, Bakura was preoccupying her thoughts once again! It wasn't fair to Ryou, and it wasn't fair to her— she had her own life to live, and her own troubles to contend with, but all because of a single incident, she was indebted to Bakura —Bakura the Thief King, Bakura the Spirit of the Millennium Ring— and that was never a favorable position for one to be in. Now, whenever her own friend approached her, Téa felt an odd wariness, as if she could never be quite sure who she was dealing with.

But after a moment, she didn't hear any sort of change in the way he said her name —over and over, looking more concerned by the moment.

_'I don't think Bakura has it in him to be concerned for anyone but himself,'_ Téa realized, feeling relieved. This was Ryou —her friend. This man she could trust. This man she could speak to without worrying about it getting her into trouble later on, right?

"Sorry, Ryou, I was just…."

"In shock?" Ryou interrupted, his expression the most serious Téa ever remembered seeing on his face.

Téa let out a short laugh and nodded slowly. "Something like that. You won't believe what I just heard…."

* * *

"They're going to WHAT?!" Miho cried out. She shook her head so vehemently that her normally-neat hair slid out of its yellow ribbon and fell in streams beside her face.

"Cut our funding. I know, it shocked me too. But I don't know just what we can do about it. It's the government's decision, based on the school's attendance. And **we** can't force people to come to school," Téa explained. It had taken a good fifteen minutes before Téa herself had recovered from the shock of hearing the teachers' discussion.

She'd been walking toward the dance studio on her way to practice when she'd heard the teachers discussing —in some cases, shouting quite loudly— the supposed budget cuts. The moment they'd mentioned clubs and possibly sports teams being cut unless attendance went up before summer, Téa realized just how much this would affect her and the rest of the Dance Club members. They were a brand new club, with fewer members than some of the more popular ones— and that meant they were more likely to be on the chopping block. Regardless of that, Téa didn't want to see _any_ school clubs cut on account of a few no-shows who decided to skip school for more than 30 days out of the year— and thus make the rest of Domino High suffer in their place, as they dealt with government-enforced budget cuts on "non-essential activities."

"I wish we could," Chieko said, frowning deeply. "Doesn't the school care that our club brought in more revenue than ever from the Autumn Festival?"

"Almost all of that money went toward renovating the room we're using as a dance studio," Téa sighed. "I don't think much more than 10,000 yen went to the school, if that."

"In addition to that, being a registered club gives us privileges that other groups that meet up don't have," Miho added. "We get free use of the classrooms and any supplies that we need. Being Dance Club, we don't really need much —just a room to practice in and electricity to power our stereo. But practicing for all the hours we do must add up after a while."

Téa nodded and exhaled a deep sigh. "Just remember, I just overheard this; no one told me formally. If they do make an official announcement about cutting clubs or our budgets, it'll probably already be too late. That's the only reason why I called this emergency meeting. You can't tell anyone else —not even your friends in other clubs— about this. It'll get around too fast, and then we might be in even more trouble."

All the members of the Dance Club fell silent. They were in quite the predicament— the school was threatening to cut clubs from the official school register, or at least cut their budgets. Either way, it would severely damage all of Domino High's clubs, the Dance Club included— and all because some **other** students didn't bother to showing up at school.

"Uh…." one of the first-year girls sitting in the back of the classroom raised her hand timidly. Téa smiled kindly at the girl, hoping for some words of encouragement, or perhaps a good suggestion that would help them out. For the first time, she didn't have a single idea **what** to do, and it was making her more worried by the second. The last thing she needed to do was bring back old habits— like chewing her nails to the bit in times of stress. But stress was practically inevitable in a situation like this— especially when she had no idea what would happen to the club she'd worked so hard to found!

"Couldn't you just ask Kaiba to make a donation to the school? I mean… well, he has the money, and you're his girlfriend and all, right?"

Téa's kind smile vanished from her lips, and her normally bright blue eyes turned icy cold. She didn't say anything in response to the first-year's suggestion, but her stiff posture and pursed lips sent a message all the same. Chieko sensed that Téa hadn't appreciated the other girl's suggestion in the slightest, and immediately made to intervene.

"Ah, it would be great if someone would just donate money to the school, but there's no reason why it should have to be Kaiba. After all, it would look like Téa is abusing their relationship if she were to ask him to do that…." Chieko glanced hesitantly back at her friend, who had closed her eyes and was sitting on her hands in an effort not to chew on her nails— this time, more out of frustration than stress.

"There are plenty of students who could help out the school more if they wanted —students that have rich parents, or who are well off on their own. But that seems to go against the spirit of the school, don't you think? We might not be an elite private school, but we're still one of the best, even if we don't have as many students as those other schools. We have to work harder and earn any money we make."

"That's right!" Miho said. "If anything, the clubs should all get together behind a single project and try to earn money in the name of the school. That way it doesn't look like we're abusing our privileges, and no one person or family feels obligated to help the school just because they attend. Don't we already pay enough for tuition and other expenses?"

Many of the older Dance Club members —who'd been paying fees for years— nodded resolutely. At last, Téa opened her eyes and brought her hands out from under her thighs. She'd resisted her nail-biting urges thus far, but now that Miho had pointed out something they could possibly do, it was a matter of figuring out just what that something was. Téa brought her thumb to her lips and absently nibbled on the nail.

"What kind of project could **every** club possibly take place in? It would have to be something that could earn a lot of money quickly, but not at a great expense— otherwise we'd end up just needing to cover costs, let alone make a profit enough to give to the school."

"Well… what does Domino High have that no other high school in the area has?" Chieko asked. She glanced around at the other club members, but none of them were particularly forthcoming with an answer.

Suddenly Miho slammed her hands onto her desk and stood up, nearly knocking her chair backward. "DUELISTS!" she exclaimed. "We have the King of Games! We have Yugi, Kaiba, Joey, Duke…."

"And you, Bakura!" Chieko added, turning her gaze to the white-haired boy who had been lounging in the corner of the classroom. No one had really paid much attention to him when he'd walked into the classroom with Téa, but since the announcement of club budgets being cut hadn't surprised him, they all assumed he knew somehow. She may have told him first, since he was a friend of hers, and seemingly prone to staying as late after school as she did. No one quite knew why, since Bakura wasn't in any clubs as far as they knew, but if he could somehow help the school out anyway, it hardly mattered.

"That's right, he was in Battle City! And Malik Ishtar in 3-C was the Battle City runner-up, wasn't he?"

Bakura's eyes narrowed at the mention of both Malik and Battle City, but no one really noticed; the girls were far too excited over this idea that the resident duelists at Domino High could somehow help their cause.

"You've got a point," Téa said, having chewed off a good two millimeters of her thumbnail. "But how do you think having the duelists here at school will help us?"

"Since the duelists aren't affiliated with any particular club, I'm sure all the clubs would back them if they did some sort of a 'Domino High' project involving dueling, right?"

"A Domino High sponsored tournament?" a girl suggested.

"No way, too expensive," Téa said knowledgeably. She remembered Mokuba absently telling her about how much money it had cost Kaiba Corporation to stage Battle City —at the last minute, too!— and Téa's jaw had nearly dropped to the floor. But that was long before she'd come into her own small fortune, and before she understood just how much money Kaiba Corp. earned. Still… there was no way she was going to ask Seto to just give money to Domino High. It wasn't just beneath him, it was beneath her! Chieko was right— why did she have to abuse her relationship with Seto? That's precisely what it would be, Téa knew, not a "favor" between lovers or anything like that. It was perfectly possible for the clubs to earn money on their own… wasn't it?

"But it's got to have something to do with Duel Monsters, or else it won't make any sense. And whatever we do has to have 'Domino High' on it somewhere, or else it'll just look like the duelists are doing it for themselves."

"I have an idea," another girl piped up quietly. "It may sound a little silly, though."

"My ears are open," Téa said. "Any idea is a good idea, silly or not."

This response seemed favorable to the girl, so she rose from her seat and looked around at the other Dance Club members. "Well, what about a calendar?"

"A calendar?" Miho echoed. "I don't understand."

"We could design a calendar," the girl explained. "The duelists could appear on each month's page. We could print the Domino High symbol in the corner of each page, and mark special dates that have to do with particular club performances or events on the calendar."

"And of course we'd have all the usual calendar events on there— national holidays, moon phases— it'll be the calendar that everybody in the know will want!" Chieko added, her voice growing more excited by the moment.

"We'd probably get more clubs to back the project if we had more pages— say, a 12 or 13-page calendar, with one month on each page, instead of the usual two-month-per-page ones we usually see."

"Right," Téa added, liking this idea. "Matter of fact, we could probably theme each page depending on the time of year. It could have a duelist theme— maybe by season, or birthdays, or holidays or something!"

"And maybe the duelists could add a special touch to it by giving advice on the pages?" Miho suggested, thrilled that everyone seemed to like her idea.

"Advice?" Téa scratched her head. Somehow, she couldn't picture Kaiba giving advice of any sort, let alone the kind Miho was probably thinking of. Miho's latest interest was advice magazines, where so-called professionals helped people with their everyday problems from relationship difficulties to problems with one's friends.

"I don't mean dating advice or anything!" Miho said huffily, seeing everyone staring at her strangely. "I mean Duel Monsters advice! Advice about how to use certain cards, or how to take care of your deck, or… you know, things like that!"

Faces began to light up as they saw the possibilities. "Oh, I get it now," one girl said, nodding in approval. "That could work. It'll appeal to both pro-duelists and wannabe-duelists, so it should sell well."

"Plus if it includes information about school or club events, people who live in the community might want it."

"I know I'd want it," one girl said excitedly. "Those duelist boys are hot! Who wouldn't want a pin-up calendar of them?"

Téa's face turned a faint shade of pink, but she laughed along with all the other girls. Somehow the idea of countless junior high and high school girls ogling **her** boyfriend —and her best friends, too!— seemed a bit strange, but if it saved Domino High's clubs from being disbanded, then she wasn't in any position to complain. But there was still one problem….

"Well, it sounds like a good idea. Ryou, do you think you would do something like that? Would you help us out?" If she at least got Ryou's help, then maybe she could convince the other guys —and other clubs— to sign on. Plus, the sooner they got the project started, the sooner they could sell the calendar and prove to the school that they were serious about saving their clubs.

It was only after a moment passed without Ryou saying anything that Téa's wary feeling from much earlier returned. Ryou happened to be standing in the part of the classroom darkened by the afternoon shade, so she couldn't quite make his face out —but the way he stepped forward from the shadows somehow sent a chill racing down her spine. Was it even Ryou looking at her anymore?

"I'd be happy to help you, of course," Bakura said, his face slashed by equal parts shadow and light. Téa swallowed convulsively, still unsure. Bakura was awfully talented when it came to tricking people, even people like her, whom he supposedly "needed." Well, he "needed" her to the extent of _using_ her, Téa knew, and if it really was the Spirit of the Millennium Ring talking, this time was no different. But what could she possibly do about it, surrounded by friends and classmates of hers that didn't even have any clue what the Millennium Items _were_?

"But what's in it for me?"

It was those words and that tone of voice that sealed it for Téa— it was no longer Ryou talking to her, but the Spirit. But she couldn't acknowledge the difference without endangering all of her friends and Dance Club partners… and likewise, what could she possibly agree to that would satisfy Bakura so that he would help them?

Before Téa could even come up with something to say —even if it were just to stall— the other club members spoke up, completely unaware of the shift in Ryou's demeanor.

"Fame?" one girl put in. "We couldn't agree to give you a portion of the profits, since it is for school, but you'd certainly be better known outside of the usual dueling circles, and the Domino community."

"Yeah, if the calendar sells well, then people all over Japan will know about you and your deck style. You can make your Occult deck famous, but because it's yours, no one will be able to copy it perfectly!"

Bakura nodded slowly, though Téa doubted that the Spirit found the concept of fame the least bit alluring. His gaze was still pinned on her, which meant only one thing: he was waiting for Téa to chime in with **her** contribution, which would probably have to be something much more tangible than the possibility of being famous.

"Fame and…." Bakura drawled, intentionally pressing his tongue against his teeth as he enunciated the word 'and.' It was clear what he expected Téa to add— what **everyone** expected her to add.

"Fortune, right?" But of course, what Bakura expected people to say to him wasn't at all what he wanted from them. Even Téa knew that much.

He walked forward, a clear swagger in his step, stopping only a few centimeters away from Téa's desk before casually pressing one hand against its surface and leaning dangerously close to her. "We'll have plenty of time to discuss my terms later."

There was a moment of silence as the other club members stared, wide-eyed, at Bakura's sudden attitude change— the way he was leaning toward Téa, and the way he was smiling— if one could call that twisting of his lips an actual "smile."

Then one of the girls spoke up. "So does that mean you'll help us out?"

Bakura's all-too-malicious grin widened a fraction before he pushed off Téa's desk and turned to face everyone else. Perhaps in the light, the way his lips curved somehow looked friendlier, because the girls all seemed to visibly relax before he even said a thing. "But of course. What kind of a gentleman would I be if I left you ladies hanging in the balance? Besides, Téa and I are such **dear** friends… I'm sure she'll think of someway to adequately reward my time. After all, the time I spend posing as your pin-up boy could be better spent telling your fortunes for a few hundred yen now, couldn't it?"

The girls all giggled, but Téa only rolled her eyes. She watched Bakura warily as he —and not Ryou, whom the Spirit had claimed needed more time in his own body, owing to a lack of rest and proper nutrition— moved through the ranks of the Dance Club, practically charming the skirts off every girl in the room. If any of them had the slightest inkling that the boy before them wasn't the timid and shy Brit who had arrived in Domino just last year, they didn't show it. But Téa couldn't afford not to be aware of Bakura's shifts— not when she was indebted to him, and would be twice over if she couldn't think of something… and fast.

* * *

"And just where do you think **you're** going?"

"Home," Téa responded, without looking back at Bakura. She knew he would walk along with her in stride, or else he would find some way of detaining her— so she sped up her pace. Quite predictably, Bakura simply sped up his own walking, until Téa tried to round a corner and Bakura walked her right into it, effectively blocking her path.

"Don't forget you **owe** me, girl. That's twice, now."

"I already cleared my first debt with you," Téa hissed at him. "You asked me to watch over Ryou, and I have been. And you know full well it was **him** we were asking to be in the calendar, not **you**."

"Oh please, you know full well my host didn't duel once during Battle City. Though I must give him credit for assembling the deck I used."

Téa's lips twitched slightly, but she didn't say anything. There was no way she was going to give into Bakura a second time and agree to be in his debt once more— no matter what was at stake.

"And for the record, your watching over Ryou is something you would do out of the generosity of your heart, is it not?" Bakura smiled wickedly. "And even if it's not, I believe we made that deal on the basis of a fair trade— keep my host happy and healthy, and you don't have to deal with me as frequently."

"If only you kept to your word," Téa shot back acidly.

Bakura pulled his face back from her but kept his arms on either side of Téa, effectively pinning her into a corner of the hallway. "I'm offended," Bakura said, and even Téa wasn't sure if he was being serious or not. "It's not often I make deals with others. Normally I just **take** what I need. But in some particular instances where that's not possible, I'm perfectly willing to make a fair trade, or perhaps an exchange of services…."

"There's nothing 'fair' about you, Bakura." Téa narrowed her eyes at him. "Besides, even if I did owe you one more for this silly calendar thing, what would you have me do for you this time? It's not like I can steal any Millennium Items for you," she said, crossing her arms over her chest. Before Bakura could respond, she fixed him with her most no-nonsense stare. "And even if I could, I wouldn't. I'd rather put Bonz and his cronies on the calendar than be in debt to you for something so trivial."

"If it's so trivial, then why did you ask my help at all?" Bakura chuckled. "Come come now, Téa, you're only digging yourself deeper! Why not just accept the fact that I can help you?"

"But for a price," Téa added darkly. "Always for a price."

"It's only **fair**," Bakura grinned again, echoing Téa's words from just moments before. "But before you throw a temper tantrum, let me allay your fears. I don't even have anything particular in mind yet, and though it would certainly be in my power to ask for whatever I pleased, it would make no sense to ask for what a mere girl such as yourself could not obtain. Instead we'll both bide our time, and I will collect from you when the time is right." And with that, Bakura removed his arms from either side of Téa's body and jammed his hands in his pockets. He walked away from her in a few long strides, and moments later, the shadows of the hallway leading to the school's exit swallowed him, and Téa saw no more of him.

She only stood right where he'd left her, fuming.

_'Mere girl? That bastard!'_

It probably hadn't helped that Téa was still rather upset by what one of her own Dance Club Members had said earlier— about her using (more like abusing, Téa thought) her relationship with Kaiba in order to get him to donate money to the school and thereby save their club, and every other club at Domino High in the process.

Sure, Chieko had been right in saying that other students —Chieko herself and Téa as well— could easily afford to make a donation to the school, but it simply wouldn't look right. Domino High was a public school with government funding; the moment they received private donations from students or their families, there was a chance the government would cut their funding even more. No, the school had to prove that they deserved the funding they needed from the government, and that the students that **did** attend all year round were dedicated enough to earn enough money to make up for those students who chose to be no-shows.

There was the slightest chance that it wouldn't work, and that she would be put in the awkward position of asking Seto for help. After all, the money that her own parents had left her was meant for her to chase her dream of dancing with. Téa had no idea just how much money Domino High received from the government, but she was sure that her fortune probably wasn't enough to help the entire school, from classes down to clubs.

_'No way! There's just no way that it'll come down to that. We'll make it work— even if I do have to be in debt to Bakura. We don't even have to work on the calendar until summer, after finals and the next festival are over. I'm sure in that time, I'll think of something to get Bakura off my back… once and for all.'_

* * *

Malik Ishtar had made it a routine to go walking through the ancient exhibit at least once every few hours; this was not only to protect his family's legacy (and investment), but also to see if anyone was taking an unusual interest in the tablets, or any other pieces of Egyptian history specific to what the Tombkeeper Clan often referred to as the "Lost Dynasty." That was the era of the Nameless Pharaoh, of the Millennium Items, and of the darkest hour mankind had ever known.

When the exhibit had first premiered, Malik knew Isis had debated with how to present it: as something of a dynasty heretofore unknown, or simply one of the many mysteries of the supposedly established and well-known dynasties. With the urgent need to find the Pharaoh, Isis had opted for the latter, marketing the exhibit as part of the 18th Dynasty, one already well-known for the rule of Tutkanhamun and his heretic father, Akhenaten. The truth was, what little the Tombkeepers could say definitively about the Nameless Pharaoh's time was that it came long after the 18th Dynasty, some time around 1004 B.C.E., during the Third Intermediate period.

It wasn't as if any of them could prove exactly **how** they knew that though. As Seto Kaiba had so vehemently insisted when he'd first seen the mortuary palettes, even carbon dating wasn't exact. Besides, the details wouldn't matter to anyone except those deeply intertwined in the Lost Dynasty in the first place. Thus, when someone **did** take an unusual interest in the exhibit, Malik took that as his cue to observe said individual. Such a person could only be friend or foe to the Pharaoh and his ultimate destiny. However, even those whom Malik undoubtedly knew were deeply involved in the Lost Dynasty, not all could be classified as 'friend' or 'enemy.' Kaiba, for one. Téa, in an ironic twist of fate, was another.

But the individual currently staring raptly at the second of the three tablets on display in the museum was none other than a foe in the most absolute sense of the word. This Malik knew without hesitation, and without even seeing the person's face.

The person looked ordinary enough, to be sure; he was dressed in a simple pair of dark blue jeans, and a plain gray hooded sweater. The hood covered the person's hair, but a small amount of white hair stabbed out from underneath the fabric: a sharp contrast to the brown-stone color of the tablets before him, or the deep fog-gray of his sweater.

_'Bakura.'_

Somehow, Malik didn't have it in him to be shocked; in fact, he realized he'd actually been **expecting** this, sooner or later. What he hadn't done was made up his mind about what to do about Bakura. What little experience the Egyptian had with the enigmatic holder of the Millennium Ring didn't reveal much; all Malik knew was that Bakura was not one to be taken lightly. Nonetheless, the first words out of his mouth were as dry as the sands of the Sahara Desert.

"Do you always stare at things, expecting the answers to simply jump out and into your brain?" Malik asked blandly. Bakura didn't turn around fully, but he acknowledged the Egyptian's presence with a slight cocking of his head.

"Do you always assume that what one appears to be is what they truly are?" Bakura asked in response.

Malik only rolled his eyes and stood beside Bakura, wondering which tablet and which segment had captured Bakura's attention so. "Do you mean to tell me that the great and legendary Thief King is actually a homely little student with a passionate interest in Egyptology?"

The question was laced with sarcasm, and was entirely rhetorical, but apparently Bakura enjoyed the banter Malik started with him, and so he responded in kind once more. "Why is it that you Tombkeepers believe there is only one truth to everything, when your very reality dictates that there is much more to this world than a pitiful human mind can envision?"

Malik pursed his lips in frustration; Bakura was right—to a degree—but Malik wasn't about to give Bakura the upper hand in this duel of words. "You seem to wish to live up to your legendary name, yet you insist there is more to you than just legend. Just what is it you are doing here staring at the tablets of old, when **you** of all people must know precisely what happened in the Lost Dynasty, and what must happen in the future?"

Bakura turned around fully and narrowed his eyes at Malik. "Legendary, am I? I would have thought your clan would have wiped my very existence from the walls of your precious 'Lost Dynasty,' assuming I was ever on them in the first place."

Malik swallowed; he was trapped. It was true that there was nothing that mentioned the name 'Bakura' or even a self-titled 'Thief King.' Everything he knew, he knew because….

"Just who are you, anyway?" Bakura asked in a low voice, leaning in a bit closer to watch the expressions flicker across Malik's face. Spotting a bead of sweat trickle down the side of the Egyptian's face, Bakura's mouth broke out into a wide grin. "Certainly not who you've been pretending you are."

"I could say the same for you," Malik snapped back. "You must not as remember as much as you claim, or else you wouldn't have any need to come here at all."

Bakura's smile slipped from his face and he leaned backward again. "As you said, things must happen in the future. I am simply ensuring that the end result is favorable— to **me**." With those words, Bakura considered his 'conversation' with Malik finished, and he began to walk away, unaware of the panic rising in the Egyptian's throat.

_'Think fast or he will walk away with the upper hand!'_

"What is your interest in her, anyway?" Malik suddenly asked. He was taking a wild guess here, a complete chance… but part of him **knew** it somehow, part of him felt it. And when Bakura froze mid-step, Malik knew he had hit the mark. Empowered by the discovery that Bakura truly didn't know everything he claimed to, and that he wasn't entirely sure about everyone or everything, Malik barreled onward.

"She's beyond you. And any obsession with her will only result in your demise. History is—"

Bakura wheeled around and cut Malik off, his face bearing the most vicious expression Malik had ever seen on him. "History is doomed to repeat itself, perhaps?" Bakura's angry frown suddenly curved up into a wicked smile. "Somehow I doubt that. The Tombkeepers exist not to ensure the past repeating itself, but the exact opposite, am I correct?" He didn't wait for an answer before he walked forward again, this time coming within a hair's breadth of Malik's own face.

"For someone that doesn't want to live a life of servitude to the Nameless Pharaoh, you seem to be quite skilled at convincing yourself that his side is the best to take. I will inform you here and now —out of the generosity of my own heart, no less— that history will most assuredly **not** repeat itself, and that your empty threats will not stop me from pursuing my connection with her."

Bakura pivoted on the ball of his foot again and turned to leave, but right in the doorway of the exhibit, he paused. "Oh, and though I'm sure you're already aware -what with your legends and your historical predictions and the like- there is a presence here in Domino. It's a force quite older and perhaps even stronger than the Millennium Items— and you of all people should know what that means. When the person behind that power arrives… I do hope you will have made up your mind."

Without a word further, he left the museum once and for all, a stunned Malik in his wake. For all the knowledge Malik managed to keep from everyone even the least bit involved in the ancient past, Bakura still managed to astound him with what he knew . There was certainly more to the 'Thief King' than anyone had ever known— and that made him especially dangerous. But fortunately or unfortunately, Bakura had been right about a great many things— including the force moving toward Domino. Malik wasn't sure how Bakura had sensed it first, or where— but he had a pretty good idea, especially considering how adamant Bakura was to not give up on his obsession with **her**.

_'But was he really speaking of "her"? Why would Bakura have any interest in the "engine of destruction" when he supposedly has his own strength that rivals that of the Gods?'_

Malik didn't understand it fully at all, but Bakura had given him one vital clue— that he was "connected" to her. This was something Malik had not anticipated, and it could either be a benefit or a hindrance to all involved. It was up to Malik how to figure out how to get the situation to best suit him and his cause— before Bakura did the same for himself.

* * *

"Yugi, are you coming downstairs? Your friends are all here," Solomon said, leaning close to the upstairs bathroom door. "Matter of fact, I think Joey brought his portable grill for making cheeseburgers." Solomon expected Yugi to make some sort of noise after that -even if it was just a flat-toned "yay." But there was nothing but silence from the other side of the bathroom door.

"Your favorite…?" Solomon added after a moment. Still nothing.

"Yugi, are you—"

"I'm fine," Yugi mumbled at last, startling Solomon, who'd half-expected to discover Yugi wasn't still in the bathroom like he thought. Inside, he stood hunched over the sink, pinching the bridge of his nose with one hand and leaning heavily on the porcelain with his other arm. He'd had a pounding headache thrumming in the back of his brain since earlier this morning. He'd already taken as many painkillers as he thought medically safe, but they didn't seem to help in the slightest. In fact, if anything, his vision seemed to be getting progressively worse, with a mirage appearing not one meter away, somewhere in the vicinity of the bathroom door.

_'Sand…? But nobody's been to the beach recently…'_ Yugi thought absently, trying to keep his focus in the hopes that it would make his headache go away. He focused through the mirage, trying to see the outline of the bathroom door and not the miniscule grains of sand that appeared to be piling up in front of it.

_'This isn't your battle, Yugi_….' Yami seemed to be in pain as his words filtered across Yugi's mind, but whatever the former Pharaoh was doing, it was taking the pain away from Yugi— the mirage and sand particles along with it.

'_Yami!'_

But the Pharaoh didn't respond. The Millennium Puzzle hung from Yugi's neck, a seemingly empty pendant, no trace of the Pharaoh emerging from it. This sort of thing happened occasionally, and each time, the Pharaoh stubbornly refused to allow Yugi to share in the visions and the subsequent pain that came with them. It frustrated Yugi to no end, but….

Perhaps for today, it was better to just let it be.

After all, today was his 18th birthday at last, and Yugi was more than sure his excitement had filtered through to Yami, letting him know that he wanted nothing to interfere with this fun day spent with his friends. Yugi hadn't intended that to mean the Pharaoh was excluded in any way, but it seemed there was no way.

At least… Yugi had seen it. It had only been a slip of something, but as the pain receded, just what Yugi had seen came into a focused clarity.

He was standing on a barren cliff top, staring out at the desert. In the distance to the East, where a sliver of sunlight was just breaching the winter horizon, a collection of stars —a constellation Yugi somehow recognized as Gemini— twinkled faintly. What little light there was revealed a gruesome battlefield— bodies everywhere, the stench of blood repugnant to his senses. Some bodies seemed to have bits of gold twinkling from under them, the blood adopting a strange luminescence to it.

BUt then the horizon suddenly blinked out, as if he were watching sunset, and not sunrise. Then the battlefield, and then the space directly above him… all became darkness and shadow. It seemed to be moving: throbbing and pulsating as a particular long extension of it seemed to reach directly for him….

Then there was nothing.

But that "nothing" was something, because it meant Yugi could prod the Pharaoh into talking about what he'd seen, and what it might mean. All the other times they'd shared visions, Yami had blocked out Yugi completely, refusing to let him see or feel a single thing. Today, the vision had come on suddenly and unexpectedly, leaving no time for Yami to block the sensation from Yugi's mind. Today, Yami couldn't claim that he, too, had seen nothing— nothing that made sense, anyway.

There** had** been something, and it was connected to the ancient past— Yugi knew that much. Though he'd been hesitant to bring up the ancient past —in the form of the mortuary palettes at the Domino Museum— he knew they were important to Yami, and they couldn't keep avoiding the tablets forever. The more he did, the more reclusive Yami became, and above all else, Yugi didn't want that.

Even if someday….

"Yugi, are you coming?" Téa's voice filtered from downstairs. "Joey said he's going to eat your cheeseburger if you don't come down, and knowing him, he will; he's a human trash compactor!"

There was some sort of muffled shout and laughter —Yugi presumed Joey took offense to being called a 'human trash compactor,' something Duke, Tristan, and Kaiba had found amusing. Yugi stared at himself in the mirror, unable to decipher anything from the reflection that stared back at him. It was just him -not Yami, not a Pharaoh. Today, he was just Yugi Moto.

Today, that would be good enough for him.

But just for today.

* * *

Her nails were a good three millimeters shorter than they had been before summer break began only four days ago. Back in April, when she'd realized that she'd fallen back on an old childhood habit— a habit borne of nervousness and fear, Téa had done her best to start taking care of her nails again, but for all of her efforts at keeping her appearance neat and clean, her nails were still jagged and thin enough to cut through every tissue or paper towel she laid her hands on. It certainly made otherwise-distracting tasks such as cleaning the house frustratingly hard.

Whenever Téa cursed herself for chewing her nails again, she remembered just why she'd started up that bad habit again— the more she thought about Bakura, the more nervous she became. It wasn't as if she wanted to think about Bakura, but she knew she had to come up with some way of erasing her debt to him. Surprisingly enough, after his brusque encounter with her after the emergency Dance Club meeting, they'd had absolutely no interaction whatsoever.

Téa found herself wary even around Ryou, who apparently had no idea that the Spirit of the Millennium Ring that lived within him was a ghostly loan shark. Her nervousness had led her to do a few rather foolish things— first, in order to both keep her promise to Bakura and to "keep an eye on him," she talked Ryou into joining the Dance Club. In the four months or so since he'd been a member, Bakura had not once made an appearance from within the Ring— not even during the last Dance Club performance at the pre-summer school festival.

_'And all the better. The less I have to deal with him, the better.'_

But the problem was that she knew all too well that Bakura was an expert at pretending to be Ryou —when _he_ most definitely wasn't like his vessel at all. His host was a great deal less vicious and conniving, but that didn't mean that Bakura couldn't play the part of a supposedly-innocent schoolboy when it suited him (which was whenever it had some benefit to him). It was entirely possible that it wasn't Ryou she had been dealing with the past several months at all— and now she was getting herself into even deeper trouble, having invited him over for the calendar photo shoot the following day.

That was the second rather foolish thing she'd done— the whole arrangement of helping out with the calendar was a deal she'd made with Bakura, and **not** Ryou, and that meant Bakura would most definitely be making an appearance, assuming he hadn't been watching her from the guise of Ryou's gentle face all this time. To make matters worse, the shoot was to take place at the mansion, which meant Bakura would have ample time and place to get her alone and "discuss" her debt with him.

Téa could only pray that for the duration of the summer break, Bakura wouldn't be a bother to her at all. If she could spend enough time away from him, maybe she could find out what he wanted that she could actually get— and clear her debt with him at last.

Téa sighed deeply and started chewing on one of her nails again. Four months of working with Ryou in the Dance Club hadn't produced any new ideas, and neither did four languid summer days away from him.

_'I can't exactly ask anybody for their suggestions,'_ Téa thought. For one, it wasn't as if she wanted to tell anyone just how she'd gotten into debt with Bakura in the first place. Second, of all the people she **could** tell, she doubted any one of them would take too kindly to her desire to actually help Bakura out, rather than go back on her promised debt to him.

First there was Yugi—kind, understanding Yugi. He would do anything for a friend, and while his grades seemed to reflect a less-than-stellar student, Téa knew that Yugi was beyond clever; he was strategic. The only problem was that he was the host of the Pharaoh, and unlike Bakura who simply smothered Ryou into non-existence when he felt like taking over, Yugi and the Pharaoh seemed to share everything. Téa had no idea if they ever kept secrets from one another, but she highly doubted it. Unfortunately, that meant she couldn't even tell her best friend about her predicament, because she knew the Pharaoh —who had a deep grudge against Bakura spanning thousands of years— wouldn't help her at all.

Joey and Tristan were out too. Whenever it came to anything Egyptian, mysterious, or complicated, Yugi and the Pharaoh were their guides— no exceptions. They also didn't seem to have any particular fondness toward Bakura, and for good reason too— he'd gotten them into more messes than he'd gotten them out of. They were also fully aware that Bakura used Ryou as nothing more than a puppet, and while their friendship with Ryou was tentative at best, they had no mind to encourage the Thief King to abuse his vessel's body further.

And then there was Seto. More often than not, he seemed ambivalent about anything in regards to Bakura, but lately she wasn't so sure. He hadn't been very pleased when she'd told him that she'd asked Ryou to join the Dance Club, and he hadn't exactly looked happy when she mentioned that Bakura was among the duelists she'd invited to their mansion during the summer for the calendar photo shoot.

But wasn't it entirely possible she was just transmitting her own paranoia onto Seto? Wasn't he supposed to be the one she could trust the most, with all her heart and soul? Wasn't that what being in love with someone meant?

The fact that Téa couldn't even be sure about **that** scared her— more than just a little.

But the more she tried to think about what to **do** about Bakura, the more she realized that she really couldn't tell anyone about her situation with him. Doing so would mean admitting that she'd made a deal with him when she knew full well that she shouldn't have, especially with the amount of experience she had in dealing with the Spirit of the Millennium Ring before. She certainly had no mind to be chastised about something she'd done —and she wasn't even particularly sure that what she had done was a mistake. She had rarely been this uncertain about anyone or anything before. But time was clearly not on her side, as summer kept slipping through her fingers. She was sure she wouldn't be so lucky to evade or placate Bakura the next time they met up— so she wanted to be prepared.

_'It looks like I'm on my own for this one,'_ Téa realized. _'But I can handle it. Bakura's nothing if not predictable, right? If I can figure out what he wants before he even knows he wants it, he'll never bother me again.'_

At least, Téa hoped so.

* * *

"Tell me just how you can have an Olympic-sized pool and not know where your swimsuit is?" Téa asked laughingly as she went into the bathroom to change for the upcoming pool party.

"I work," Seto said in a low growl, too low to be heard by Téa. The truth was, Téa was just pushing home a point Mokuba had been making for ages— that he worked so much he didn't even relax, or take care of himself properly— not that Seto Kaiba's idea of a relaxing summer afternoon was to invite his rival, the mutt, and all their mutual friends to his house for a "party." But it was what Téa wanted, and that was reason enough. Had Téa not fixed him with the wateriest-looking pout he'd ever seen on her face when she'd asked him about hosting the event, he would have flatly said 'no.' And even if she'd just asked him quite plainly to join in, he still would have said 'no' —except Téa had been so delighted when he'd grudgingly agreed to host the party, she'd kissed him rather emphatically. Thus, when she asked if he'd participate in it a minute later, he ended up saying 'yes' to that as well.

It was only now, when it came to actually finding a swimsuit—and he knew he had one somewhere in his wardrobe!—that Seto wondered if agreeing to this had been such a good idea after all.

"What the hell—" After a few minutes of searching, he'd finally found something made of that stretchy material that all swimsuits seemed to be made from— but there was no way Seto Kaiba would be caught dead wearing what he'd just found: a pair of high-cut swimming briefs with the Blue-Eyes White Dragon emblazoned on them. It wasn't anything he'd bought, and anyone that dared buy him such a thing would have faced his wrath. Rather, it was an idiotic "gift" he'd gotten from Pegasus not that long ago. Once Pegasus came out of hiding, he went back into marketing all kinds of Duel Monsters products, from new cards to skimpy swimsuits based off the designs of various popular cards. Seto remembered—with no small amount of annoyance—that Pegasus had included a little note telling Kaiba that he would have the only pair of Blue-Eyes White Dragon swim trunks—just as he possessed the only three Blue-Eyes White Dragon Duel Monsters cards in existence.

Imagining Pegasus' high-pitched voice laughing in his head only annoyed Seto more; he crumpled the shorts into the tiniest ball he could manage and hurled them back into his wardrobe, hoping they'd fall through some miniscule singularity and disappear forever.

But the law of the conservation of energy decided not to bend to Seto Kaiba's will that afternoon, so when he reached into the wardrobe a moment later, his hand came back with those selfsame briefs balled up in his palm. He stared at them a minute before angrily deciding he had to throw them out, even if they did have the Blue-Eyes on them, and even if Pegasus wasn't lying, saying he had the only pair in existence. Who the hell cared about a skimpy pair of swimming shorts, anyway? Seto tossed them over his shoulder, intent on finding something much more suitable to wear when he heard a voice from behind him.

"Wow, what are these?" Téa grinned, holding out the tiny briefs that had flown through the air just as she'd re-entered the room.

At the moment Téa spoke, Seto wished **he** could drop into a randomly-formed black hole. He turned around with all the enthusiasm of a sloth, wishing he didn't possess the ability to feel so mortified. But for some annoyingly inexplicable reason, he was embarrassed— more so than he had been in a long while.

"Just an idiotic 'present' from Pegasus." He paused, contemplating whether there was anything further that was necessary to say. When his eyes met Téa's, he found hers filled with mirth, her lips barely holding back a laugh. "I have absolutely **no** intention of wearing them."

Téa fixed him with an impish smile. Though the innocent look in her eyes was entirely fake, and Seto could more than tell, it gave him an uneasy feeling.

"Just how did Pegasus know your size, anyway?" Téa asked with a raised eyebrow.

Seto's only response was to turn red, though not of his own volition. Seeing Seto blush only seemed to please Téa more, and she leaned forward, hands on her hips. Though Seto's eyes were inexorably drawn to Téa's chest, she was wearing an oversized white shirt —probably stolen from his office closet downstairs— and a pair of denim cut-offs, concealing anything that might have otherwise gotten his blood rushing.

"He didn't happen to send you an Obelisk pair, did he?" Her words, her posture, and the very expression on her face all dripped with innuendo, but before Seto could even come up with anything to say, Téa skipped out of the room, wearing that same smirk on her lips.

* * *

"Téa—! The photographer says he's ready!" Yugi called from outside on the pool deck.

"Yeah, he's ready, but are we?" Serenity asked, incredibly hesitant about her two-piece swimsuit. She'd never worn a two-piece before— but then again, it wasn't as if she'd been able to see very well, either. Now that she'd gotten accustomed to having good vision once more, she also became more self-conscious about anything she wore, and how it looked on her.

"We are, honey, but are you?" Mai asked, adjusting her strapless bikini top with a nudge. "I don't get why you're so knock-kneed. Is it because of a certain someone out there on the pool deck?"

Serenity flushed pink and shook her head vehemently, her red hair flying every which way and getting stuck to her face. "N-No, it's nothing like that… I've just never worn anything like this before."

"You look fine," Téa reassured her. "But if you're really so nervous, I guess Mai and I can try and distract the guys or something…." Téa had suggested a distraction only in jest, but when Serenity's eyes widened and she clasped her hands together in pleading, Téa felt there was no way she could back out now— not when her friend was so terrified. It seemed silly for Serenity to be so scared of what the guys thought, but maybe, Téa realized, she herself had been hanging around them so long, she'd become immune to the reaction more 'normal' girls might have around guys their age.

And Mai? _'Well, Mai doesn't exactly care what any of them think, right?'_ Téa mused. Mai was always so confident and self-assured; even when Joey succeeded in putting his foot in his mouth and insulting her, Mai always seemed to take it in stride. Things seemed to be better between them lately. Téa hoped it would stay that way.

"Just what do you have in mind?" Mai asked with a raised eyebrow as she put on a white beach robes, made of thin, lightweight material that still managed to conceal her swimsuits underneath. Téa replaced the oversized white dress shirt she'd lifted from Seto's office earlier, and re-buttoned her denim cutoffs that she'd intended to take off up— until Serenity had gotten so scared of the boys seeing her in a two-piece.

"Whatever we do, it's got to be distracting enough for Serenity to get into the pool without the guys noticing. I think one to two minutes should be enough."

"The good thing about boys is that they're easily distracted, and provided said distraction is tantalizing enough, we could easily keep their attention for five minutes, at least."

"Tantalizing?" Téa repeated, cringing slightly.

Mai gestured with her chin toward a stereo system set into the wall just before the door to the pool deck. "That thing plugged in?"

"Knowing Seto…." Téa trailed off and then stared at the devilish grin curving Mai's lips. "Are you thinking what I think you're thinking?"

"I think so Téa, but we aren't wearing nearly enough clothes to pull it off."

Téa groaned and smacked a palm to her forehead. "Oh boy."

Mai started glancing around the small room just before the pool deck— there was an assortment of pool toys, some leftover party favors from Mokuba's 13th birthday party, including some oversized straw hats and huge sunglasses.

"They're a bit over the top, but we can work with these." Mai plucked a hat from the pile, one each for herself and Téa, along with two pairs of matching white-rimmed sunglasses that were easily half the size of their faces.

"Okay, let me get this straight— you're thinking we distract the boys with a strip tease?" Téa asked incredulously. "Please tell me I was jumping the gun!"

"No, you're right on the money, Téa— unless you have a better idea?"

Red-faced, Téa shook her head in the negative.

But one thing was for sure— it'd definitely distract all the boys and give Serenity enough time to get into the pool without anyone noticing her swimsuit.

_'I guess it can't be helped,'_ Téa thought with the slightest of wry smiles. Besides, this was the big summer pool party meant to kick off their calendar fundraiser— it was **meant** to be fun! And if she could distract herself from her more pressing thoughts —things like Bakura and her debt to him— then so much the better!

"All right. Let's do this."

* * *

  
_"I'm too sexy for my love, too sexy for my love, love's going to leave me…."_

"You rigged this," Téa gritted to Mai as the two of them strutted out to the poolside, wearing as many layers as possible and carrying a variety of pool toys to supposedly aid in their 'distraction.' Mai only grinned back as she started shaking her hips in an exaggerated fashion, strutting like the song dictated.

At first, their dancing didn't seem to catch much attention, mainly because everyone was so scattered about the pool deck. That presented a problem, so Téa and Mai immediately split up and fanned out, each covering one half of the deck. On Téa's side, Seto, Mokuba, Yugi, Bakura, and Duke were all lounging, Seto and Duke on lawn chairs, Yugi with his feet dangling in the water, Mokuba halfway submerged in the shallow end, and Bakura leaning on a tabletop. Mai had to cover Joey, Tristan, Malik, and Mako Tsunami— a smaller, but potentially more "dangerous" crowd of boys when it came to strip teases.

After the two girls dropped their top layers, it seemed they had everyone's attention. Out of the corner of Téa's eye, she saw Serenity lingering hesitantly near the entrance of the small room they'd just been in. Mai saw Serenity hesitate too, so the two girls made sure to block the view of the doorway as they urged everyone's gaze to follow them to the other side of the pool— where they posed and removed more their silly hats and oversized sunglasses. Mai had grabbed a plastic grass skirt from Mokuba's party favors and shook it off while Téa wiggled her hips out of her cutoffs. Once finished, the two preened and posed on the diving board— Mai facing those in the pool, Téa facing those on the deck. As the song came to a finishing crescendo and Téa saw Serenity successfully dash into the far shallow end of the pool, unseen by everyone else, the two girls squirted the boys with their fully-loaded squirt guns, another leftover favor from Mokuba's 13th birthday celebration.

"Nice! But unfair!" Joey hollered as he tried to yank Mai by the ankle into the pool. Instead, she deftly avoided his grasp and dived into the pool like a mermaid, leaving Téa to turn back around and face a now-dripping wet Seto. To her surprise, he wasn't there, but a leering Bakura was. Decidedly shaken by his unexpected appearance, Téa dropped her plastic squirt gun and dived into the pool after Mai, trying to distract the memory of Bakura's toothy smile by engaging her best friends in an all-out water war.

Not much later, some of the boys got the grill set up and were busy preparing as much meat as they could haul from the kitchen fridge. Téa stood on the sidelines, having been firmly told by the boys that they were going to do the cooking for once, so she could just sit and relax after having done all her crazy planning. For once, Téa truly appreciated the gesture. Besides, the boys were right; she'd nearly gone crazy planning all of this, asking all the duelists to agree to a calendar, and trying to find times when they would all be available for the photo shoots throughout the summer. In addition to that, she had to plan for content, get submissions from the other school clubs and organizations, and above all else, keep Seto in an agreeable mood.

That last bit had been the hardest thing to pull off as of late, but she'd hoped that with the calendar photo shoot taking up only a small portion of a beautiful, fun-and-food-filled summer's day, Seto would gradually relax.

But 'relaxation' didn't seem to be in Seto Kaiba's vocabulary, especially judging by the tense expression he wore on his face— what little of it Téa could make out from behind his Aviator sunglasses. Every time she came within a meter of him, he seemed to find something to distract him. Téa got the message loud and clear. Frustrated, she simply decided to ignore him. If he wanted to be that way, then fine— it wasn't as if Téa had any shortage of other people to talk to or spend her time with.

"Hey, T, we're about outta soda. Unless you want to break out the liquor, know where we can get some more?" Joey gestured to the array of now-empty bottles of soda littering the two-meter long table on the far end of the patio near the grill.

"I'll go get it," Téa said absently. "Be right back."

As she headed back toward the house, she shimmied into her cutoffs and Seto's shirt once more, her mind a confusing blur of unspoken words and imagined consequences.

* * *

"Geez Seto, is this your idea of keeping soda out of Mokuba's reach?" Téa groused to herself, her fingertips just barely skimming the cap of a two liter bottle of soda. It was teetering on the topmost shelf toward the back of the wine cellar beverage stash, a darkened area that Téa had never bothered to explore before. Without any shoes on, it was awfully difficult to balance and reach the soda, but there was nothing besides alcohol on any of the lower shelves. So far, the photography shoot and pool party had been a great success, and she didn't want to chance it getting ruined by anyone getting drunk. So she was in this dark, somewhat frightening place for the sole purpose of acquiring more soda for the party.

"I wish I'd turned on the light in here…." Téa grumbled yet again. She'd groped around near the doorway at the top of the stairs in the hope that the light switch would be there, but she hadn't found anything. The ceiling was far too high for there to be an overhead light at the base of the stairs, and there weren't any apparent light switches in the basement itself either. So Téa settled for using what little light filtered down from the doorway at the very top of the stairs. Just as Téa's fingers closed firmly around the bottle cap, the light spilling from the entryway above abruptly vanished; the basement door had closed, leaving Téa in pitch darkness.

"What the—" She grunted as she tugged the soda off the shelf, but the noise she heard was decidedly **not** from when the bottom of the bottle hit one of the middle shelves on its way into Téa's waiting arms.

She turned around and glanced about suspiciously, but it wasn't as if she was a cat— she didn't have any night vision, and was practically blind in this kind of dark.

There was another sound —she swore she could make out some sort of a shape moving toward her— so Téa instinctively froze in place. Still, her shaking hands betrayed her fear of being "alone" in the dark of the basement, unsure of which way was which— or if she was even alone at all. Téa hefted the soda bottle as if it could be used as some sort of weapon, should she find herself facing someone dangerous in Seto Kaiba's wine cellar.

Quite abruptly, the darkness shifted, and Téa suddenly found herself wrapped in a very strong pair of arms. A husky voice that she wasn't quite sure she recognized whispered right into her ear: "Finally, we're alone." Before Téa could even respond with the smallest noise, warm lips covered hers, and the soda bottle she'd been hefting dropped to the floor with a clunk, missing her bare foot by only a few centimeters. Téa's lips didn't move under her captor's, but a few moments after the soda bottle rolled away from her, she hesitantly lifted her free hand in the hopes that she might identify whose lips were raking across hers with such burning intensity.

For a moment, she was terrified. She had no idea who this was —and if it was who she'd imagined just a moment before, then she was in much more trouble than she'd planned for. Téa's hand stilled midway up to her captor's face. She was afraid that her intuitions might be right, and… and whatever it meant for her, it certainly wouldn't be good. Better to just get out of this situation as soon as possible. But with only one free hand and the rest of her body practically immobilized, how—?

_'Stop being stupid and scared! You're not just some "mere girl!"'_

Téa's hand finished its journey upward, and she found herself silently astonished by the fact that she **didn't** grab a handful of long hair, gelled hair, or anything even remotely close. Rather, it was fine, smooth, and short hair— familiar, in a word.

"Seto—?" Téa moaned out as the lips left hers at last and began a dangerous trek down her neck while his hands coursed down her body, urging her against a wall.

"I've been waiting too long for this," Seto ground out, his voice much more recognizable than it had been before, but still gruff and harsh. Relief flooded through Téa's veins that it was Seto after all, and not Bakura— and Hell would swallow her whole before she told Seto that she'd thought of Bakura for even an instant while he kissed her. How stupid had she been— Bakura wasn't like this at all. But then again, neither was Seto, so why…?

Téa knew —judging by Seto's earlier reaction regarding Bakura even being invited into their home a second time— that he wasn't very fond of the British boy— or rather, the Spirit of the Millennium Ring that resided within him.

"'This'?" Téa breathed, desperately trying to maintain her composure even as Seto's tongue traced hot wet patterns down her neck. Her own arms wrapped around his larger form as she tried to balance herself against his weight. Seto took her movement as a cue to press their bodies even closer together. Téa realized with mute surprise just how **hot** his body was against hers. Somehow, Seto managed to defy the very temperatures of his own basement. He was quite like a dying sun in his own right —blazing hot, but bringing no light to this deep, dark place.

"Ever since you did that ridiculous little strip tease earlier," Seto ground out, urging Téa's hands to wander down his bare back and up again. His own hands roamed shamelessly over Téa's body, the dark obviously affording him protection from seeing the hesitant expression on Téa's face. "Ever since… before," he grunted as he fumbled with two of the buttons on the oversized white dress shirt that Téa wore over her bikini. The moment he freed them from their holes, he roughly shoved the whole shirt off Téa's body, pulling her even closer to him and pushing them both harder against the wall.

"Ah!" Téa squeaked in surprise and no small amount of pain as one of her shoulder blades made contact with the cold concrete wall behind her— but if Seto had heard her cry, he didn't give any indication. Rather, he kept kissing her, one hand fumbling with the plastic clasp of her swimsuit top while the other easily palmed one of her breasts, indicating just how shy Seto **wasn't** in the dark. Téa was halfway between giving into the sensation and trying to keep her wits about her, but forming a coherent thought was becoming increasingly difficult, especially when Seto's tongue made contact with hers, and she felt like she really **was** being consumed by a dying sun.

"W-What's gotten into you?" she breathed the moment his lips strayed from hers, moving down, down, down, until he was kissing the valley between her breasts, kneeling ever-so-slightly before her so he could kiss them fully. His agile fingers at last unclasped the plastic hook of her swimsuit from its fabric loop, but the top remained suspended from the additional strap tied around her neck —and knotted quite expertly. But knots and other straps hardly seemed of any consequence to Seto, as he pushed the polyester and spandex top, up, up, and up— as far up as it would go, exposing Téa's chest entirely to the cool of the basement air.

"Seto, wh—" Téa's voice broke into a cry when Seto's lips closed over one of her nipples, the sensation so incredible and so unlike anything she had ever experienced before that it was no wonder she couldn't think straight, let alone finish her sentences. The hand that had undone her swimsuit clasp came forward to warm her other breast, while his first hand wound its way up to Téa's neck, stroking the dampness left by his earlier kisses. Even when they'd come close like this before —back on St. Valentine's Day— they'd never gone quite this far, and Seto had never seemed this… amorous.

_'If you can even call it that,'_ Téa thought absently, desperately trying to keep her eyes open and focused. How was it that Seto could somehow see her in the pitch black, and now exactly where to kiss her and where to touch her to get her senses dancing? And how could he possibly be like this when only minutes before, he'd seemed so **angry** at her?

When his lips left her breast a few moments later, his hands finding their place on her hips where her bikini bottom straps rested comfortably, Téa finally found her voice.

"What's gotten into you?" she repeated, still breathless; with the way Seto was making her feel, it was no surprise that she was practically gulping in what little air she could savor. It was as if she were on fire —but oddly submerged in coolness at the same time. Goosebumps abruptly crawled over her skin, eliciting a shudder from her head to her toes. The movement sent her arching just a few centimeters closer to Seto, her breasts just barely coming into contact with his bare chest. He made a sound not unlike that of a feral animal and began to ease the straps of her bikini bottom lower and lower.

With the abruptness of one getting pushed into an icy swimming pool, Téa realized just where Seto expected this little tryst of theirs to go— and it scared her. The warmth left her skin immediately, and even though Seto's touch on her skin was electrifying, Téa knew it wasn't what she wanted— not here, not now. In a basement, of all places, while her friends were right upstairs? What in his right mind was Seto thinking? But that question, of course, depended on whether Seto was even _in_ his right mind or not. Judging by the fact that he had yet to answer Téa in any coherent way, she was leaning more toward "not."

"Seto, Seto, please—" At first, Seto seemed to take Téa's soft words as provocation, urging him to do more, to touch her everywhere, to bring her closer and closer until…

"Seto, stop." But his hands kept roaming, sliding all over her skin while his lips sought purchase on Téa's other breast. It felt good —it wasn't as if Téa were going to deny that basic fact— but that didn't change the fact that she didn't want their first time to be in a cold basement while his younger brother and all their friends were right upstairs. The thought of everything they'd been through up to this point, whether it was romantic close calls on a couch, in a shower, in a bed, or anything and everything else in between coming crashing down because of a bad case of hormones was enough to cause Téa to lose any romantic inclinations she might have been having up until that point.

"What happened to 'I want it to be perfect'?" Téa asked, her voice cracking as she realized Seto wasn't stopping— even though she had, and she'd asked him to as well.

Her words apparently got through to Seto, as he pulled away from her. Her eyes having adjusted at last, Téa could barely make out his face —but he looked almost expressionless, save for the sharpness in his eyes.

"I told you, I've been waiting too long," Seto began. "Every time we get close, something happens. It's always one thing or another. I'm sick of it."

Téa's eyebrows creased in the center of her forehead, but she remained where she was standing, completely motionless, her body only a hair's breadth from Seto's half-nude one. "So you'd like to throw all that away for a quickie in the basement, is that it? Well, what about our friends? They're upstairs waiting—"

"**Your** friends," Seto corrected, to which Téa glared at him unabashedly. "And they don't matter." He seemed to think that was explanation enough, and he suddenly pushed his hips against Téa's —and she felt his arousal pressing between her thighs— the first time she'd felt it so clearly since that rainy day back in February, when not even a bathing suit separated them. But that was when Seto had seemed to **care** about what she felt and what she wanted— and now he seemed like an entirely different person.

"'They don't matter'?" Téa repeated hollowly, concurrently astonished and disgusted. Rather than be turned on by Seto's own arousal, Téa felt her little flickering desire to continue their 'rendezvous' burn out and die altogether. The moment Seto made to lean in and kiss her —any part of her— again, she raised her hands and bodily shoved him back. She hadn't realized how hard she pushed, but the expression of absolute shock on Seto's face as he stumbled backward no less than three steps was indication enough— she'd pushed _hard_.

"They matter to me!" Téa said, her voice surprisingly loud —though quavering— in the dark cellar.

"But not to me. They're not the one I want." With those words spoken, Seto closed the space between them again and immediately pressed his mouth to Téa's exposed neck again, teeth and tongue alternately scraping against her skin. Téa stood there, frozen, back pressed up against the cool concrete beam of the basement, too stunned for words or action. But when Seto's hands started to roam again, Téa awakened from her reverie and pushed Seto away from her a second time.

"But what about **me**? What about what I feel, and what I want?"

"How the hell am I supposed to know what you want?" Seto said in a low, bitter voice. This time he didn't try and kiss her again; his arms hung rigid at his sides, fists clenched. He almost looked defeated, more than he ever had in all the time Téa had known him. But he wasn't shaking with anger or even raising his voice at her —something which Téa had halfway-expected, though she didn't know why. The other half of her, she realized, was trapped in a numb state of shock. After everything that had happened and everything they'd been through together, Seto's admission carried a great deal of weight. It didn't just speak of that moment, with Seto exuding frustration over not knowing what Téa wanted and didn't want, but it also said that perhaps for all his intelligence and worldly experience, there were simply things that Seto Kaiba had yet to understand at all.

"I thought—" Téa began, but her voice cracked and the salty taste of tears began to form in her mouth, "I thought we understood each other, somehow. I thought we both knew each other better than this." Téa waved a hand about at nothing, her own frustration beginning to show.

"So did I," Seto bit out. "All that flirting earlier, that little— that little **strip tease** of yours! Did you really think I wouldn't react to all that?" Once started, Seto couldn't bring himself to stop. "And just now, you didn't exactly say 'no' from the beginning—"

"I had no idea what you were thinking! I didn't even know it was you at first—"

"Who **did** you think it was, then?" Seto snapped, staring at Téa.

A cold feeling swelled in Téa's chest, preventing any words she might have said from escaping her lips. In this situation, silence and spoken word were equally dangerous, especially considering she would have to lie if she said anything at all.

_'There's no way I can tell him that I thought —even for just a second— that he was Bakura!'_ Reminding herself of that earlier thought brought a sour taste to her mouth, and a guilty feeling to her chest. She hated that she couldn't trust Seto, but his reaction now just affirmed it— he understood her even less than Téa thought, and he could never sympathize with her plight or what she'd done to get herself into it in the first place.

The silence felt as if it had the weight of the world sewn into it, pressuring Téa to the point where she didn't want to be there —anywhere near Seto— anymore. She scrambled to pick up her discarded shirt and fumbled with her bikini top as best she could in the dark. She was about to run out of the basement as fast as her knock-kneed legs could managed when Seto abruptly spoke again.

"Didn't you want this?" he asked, though he didn't specify what 'this' was. Téa didn't need to ask.

"I **do** want it, Seto. But not like **this**," Téa glanced back at him for just a moment, waving a hand around in the cold, dank air of the basement.

This time, it was Seto's turn to stay silent. To answer would mean admitting he'd let his lust get the better of him, when all along, his sensible self knew that he could never get anywhere with Téa using harsh words or forced actions. He knew that 'love' was supposed to be the result of two people's combined efforts— not one person's alone. But that meant giving up the control he'd spent years making his and his alone —the life that no one else had the power to destroy, as so many others had before. These were things he knew, and yet couldn't admit to— admit that he could be wrong, or at fault. He hated even thinking that he might be questioning his actions when it would be so much easier to just have facts laid out: who was right, who was wrong, what she wanted, and what she didn't. Things like "maybe" and "later" were too liquid and volatile; Seto needed solid, unchanging facts before he acted.

And he thought he'd **had** the facts right— thought that Téa wanted him just as much as he wanted her, and that they were both ready, regardless of the minor details like "when" or "where."

Téa bit her lip, somehow knowing that Seto wouldn't respond no matter how long she stood there. Finally, she spun on the ball of her heel and headed upstairs, not once looking back.

The bottle of soda she'd come to fetch lay forgotten, up until it rolled just centimeters away from Seto's foot. He stared at it, not bending to pick it up. Moments later, Seto's left foot struck out, sending the bottle skittering across the concrete floor.

"Damn it!" Seto cursed under his breath— both from the sudden pain that had swelled up in his foot and from the irrationality of everything that had just transpired. Seto let out a soft growl as he leaned heavily against the concrete beam and hobbled his way toward the stairs, leaving the bottle forgotten in the darkness.

* * *

The moment Téa walked into the kitchen, Mai's perfectly-plucked eyebrows arched upward.

"If you get any redder, you'll have tan lines," she said dryly. Téa turned around, her expression only halfway surprised; it was obvious she hadn't really been paying attention to her surroundings, judging by the glassy look in her eyes and the stiff gait with which she walked.

Mai sauntered up to her friend, but she didn't need to be up-close and personal with her to see the almost-bruise forming on Téa's neck. Mai let out a sigh, guessing immediately just what Téa had been up to in the time since she'd disappeared from her own party.

"We'll need to put some ice on that unless you want it to get worse," Mai remarked, heading toward the refrigerator. When Téa didn't respond with even a sigh, Mai turned back around and stared.

"What's wrong with you?"

Téa's eyes shifted downward, as if the pattern of the kitchen tile were all-engrossing. But she wasn't really focusing on the floor— or anything else in particular, for that matter. When she finally found her voice, it sounded distant and foreign to her own ears, coming out as quiet and dry.

"I feel stupid for thinking it, but I really didn't think he had it in him to be such a jerk. Not anymore."

Mai let out a sharp but brief laugh. "You know, you've yet to mention just who 'he' is, but I'd be glad to tell you, it applies to all men."

"Mai…." Téa's voice came out weak and broken, but in her head, it had been laced with a hint of surprise. It seemed that it didn't matter how good things were between Joey and Mai; she would never stop mistrusting men, no matter how close she was with them.

Perhaps she wasn't the best person to vent about her almost-experience to. Perhaps it was better not to tell anyone at all.

_'I've got to be able to handle this on my own. Otherwise, what else am I good for?'_

"Hun?" Mai asked, perturbed by Téa's vacant gaze. "You wanna talk?"

"I'm fine," Téa managed, though her gaze was still unfocused. "I'll **be** fine." She would have to be if she was to survive. Not just the rest of the party, but everything. High school, her friends and their adventures… **LIFE**. Mai shook her head, trying to dismiss the odd feeling she got looking at Téa, but if the girl said she was fine, Mai wasn't going to press the matter. Besides, Téa needed to learn to stand on her own two feet, anyway. Sure, it was great and all having her friends to lean on and a boyfriend who could probably give her whatever she wanted, but… Mai was sure Téa knew she couldn't **rely** on it. Not forever.

"Hey, Téa? Just remember— you can always do what you want. Whatever you feel, whatever you're thinking… never let **anyone** stop you from saying those things out loud. Ever."

Though Mai didn't turn around to catch Téa's reaction, the words seemed to awaken the brunette from her stupor.

_'Whatever I want…?'_

* * *

Feeling a bit better, Téa headed outside, intent on forgetting what had almost just happened in the basement. At least, forgetting about it for the time being. Besides, she didn't want her friends getting upset, thinking **she'd** abandoned **them**, or that she wasn't as serious about the true nature of this party.

She smiled as widely as she could manage and headed back out into the sun, entirely unaware of the array of gazes that fell upon her until her eyes adjusted to the bright daylight.

"Feeling all right?" Bakura's smooth voice asked, emerging from what had looked like to Téa as a mass of blue and green spots. She shook her head a moment, ridding herself of the floaters dancing in her eyes, and then glared at Bakura as best as she could.

"Why do you care? Only because of the debt, I'm sure!" she snapped, having had more than enough of playing games with the supposed Thief King. She was tired of being his puppet. Not knowing when or where he'd call in her debt to him meant she was under his control, and Téa hated that feeling now more than ever before. Now, at long last, she was going to do what she wanted, and say what she thought.

Instead, Bakura looked surprised, and for a brief, terrifying moment, Téa thought she'd just revealed her secret —in quite a vicious tone of voice!— to Ryou. Worse, what if the others heard? It was one thing to finally react to Bakura however she wanted, and not worry about the consequences to herself, but if her friends found out… that was something entirely different.

"Haven't you ever heard the phrase 'Honor among thieves?'" Bakura finally said, giving Téa the confirmation she craved so desperately in that brief gap of time between her response and his. No doubt about it: this was Bakura the "Thief King," and no one else.

"I'm not a thief," Téa said slowly, "And—"

"And I **do** have a sense of honor," Bakura said with a wide, toothy smile, interrupting Téa before she could say otherwise. "Quite unlike that lecherous **boyfriend** of yours," Bakura muttered under his breath, just loud enough for Téa to hear. He said the words as if they left a foul taste in his mouth, though his gaze was directed just over Téa's shoulder— back at the entrance to the house where Kaiba was just now emerging. There was that recognizable lusty look on his face, and when that gaze finally fell upon Téa, it became even more determined.

_'Does Bakura know what… _almost_ happened? How could he? But why else would he call Seto "lecherous?"'_

Téa's thoughts were swirling rapidly and it was only when she realized Bakura was no longer looking at her that she dared to turn around slightly, only to see Seto marching toward her.

Subconsciously, she clutched at her injured shoulder, as if being in Seto's vicinity might make it hurt more intensely. She took the tiniest of steps away from him as he neared her, inadvertently stepping into Bakura's arms. But she didn't move away from him, even when his hand moved right to her injured shoulder— not pressing against it, but gently cupping it and her hand with it, as if to shield her from further injury. Téa barely had a moment to think about it before Seto was in front of her, practically exuding irritation like it were a visible plasma seeping from his pores.

"I need to talk to Téa, Bakura," Seto said, his tone of voice a surprising contrast to the look on his face. "**Alone**."

Téa felt slightly irritated that Seto didn't even bother to address her— as if she couldn't hear his words on his own. Why couldn't he just tell **her** he needed to speak to her, and not make it look like he was asking for Bakura's permission? It wasn't as if Bakura was her keeper!

Téa's simple irritation strengthened as she realized Seto didn't seem to have any qualms addressing Bakura, either. Obviously it didn't matter whether he was talking to a mild-mannered British boy or the reincarnated spirit of a vengeful ancient egyptian thief king.

_'Why should he care? It's not as if _he_ has a debt to Bakura. Seto's never bothered to understand before, why would he start now? And if it weren't for him, I wouldn't be in this mess in the first place!'_ Her own thoughts surprised her. She thought she'd forgiven and forgotten about the time with the ghosts, when Seto had failed to believe her, when he'd failed to save her, and if she hadn't opened herself to Bakura…

Who knew where she would be now if it wasn't for Bakura?

Bakura cast a questioning gaze at Téa, who, lost in a web of mixed emotions, merely nodded her head once. He slowly —and quite pointedly— withdrew his hand from Téa's shoulder, leaving her own hand still clutching her bruised shoulder blade.

"We're connected, you and I. Don't forget that," Bakura whispered, his voice low enough for only Téa to hear. Seto glared at Bakura as he leaned back, his hair still brushing against Téa's shoulders. But Téa didn't look his way again, so Bakura pivoted on his heel and left the area, leaving Seto and Téa quite alone.

Though he'd gotten what he wanted, Seto's gaze wasn't on Téa at all, but on the retreating back of Bakura.

"Why the hell is he here, anyway?"

Téa took a deep breath and stared right up at Seto. "Because I **invited** him, Seto."

Seto's irritated expression deepened. "And **why** is that?" he said, practically gritting his teeth. "Half the time you don't seem to trust him, and the other half you're—" he paused, a disgusted look crossing his face, "**hanging** off him like some sort of fan girl. And it's not as if he's a competent duelist. I don't know why the hell you think he deserves to be in this calendar project of yours—"

"And why **shouldn't** he be?" Téa demanded, her voice louder than she intended. She knew she was drawing the stares of her friends now, but after everything that had happened —not **almost** happened; something **had** happened, and it was changing everything, right here and right now— she didn't have the mind to care anymore.

"He's my friend, and just as much of a duelist as you!"

Suddenly, the whole pool deck seemed to be encapsulated in a soundless bubble. All eyes were on Seto and Téa, and no one was saying a word— until the spell was broken by Mokuba emerging from the water with a loud plunk! Mokuba looked confused at everyone —and where they were staring— but he couldn't figure out what was going on. He was about to open his mouth and ask, but the photographer broke the silence first.

"Okay everyone, let's start this photo shoot!"

Everyone milled about for a few moments before finding suitable positions— half of them were in the pool, clustered along the wide stairs in the shallow end, while another half stood above them. Téa was smack in the middle of things, doing her best to smile as brightly as Mai and Serenity at her sides. Somehow Bakura had ended up in the girls' cluster, and only moments before the flash bulb went off, his hand cupped Téa's shoulder blade once more, inciting a strange tingle that went all the way to her toes.

_"We're connected, you and I."_

_'What does _that_ mean?'_

Téa was still sitting in the shallow water, befuddled, even after the crowds separated to look at the digital copies the photographer had uploaded onto his laptop. She could barely make out Joey cracking some joke about Kaiba looking awful, while the photographer insisted he looked intimidating, which was perfect for a Duelist Calendar.

While only a short while ago, the calendar and her desire to save the Dance Club had been the only things on her mind, now they seemed to be the furthest things from it. Téa's gaze lifted to the sky, where a mass of clouds —strangely dark and heavy-looking for the season— were rolling in, their edges strangely tinged with a shade of green…

* * *

Hours later, Téa hesitated yet again. Somehow she'd managed to avoid Seto up until now, helping clean up after the party and photo shoot. The calendar was on its way to completion, though they had to take photos for a few more months before they could send the finalized designs off to a printer. The remainder of the photos would have to be done at school or at a studio, since there was no way Seto would stand for a repeat of today's events.

Whether that was due to her actions or someone else's, Téa couldn't say for sure. Neither possibility was all that appetizing.

Now she was sitting in the master bathroom, fidgeting with her sleeveless pajama top. She'd heard shuffling in the bedroom, so she knew Seto was there— but she wasn't sure if she was ready to come out and face him, let alone talk. But exhaustion lay heavily in her bones, with only her fear and nervousness causing her to be so jittery. If she didn't leave the bathroom and face the inevitable, she'd fall asleep in there.

Téa took one look at the spa bathtub and its circular shape and decided her spine had been through enough injury for the night.

Taking a deep breath, Téa opened the door separating the bathroom from the bedroom.

She kept her eyes closed as she marched the slight distance to the corner of the room where she kept her clothes hamper, where she started placing the day's clothes in, along with the towels she'd used at the poolside. Her back was to Seto, but she could feel his eyes on her, even though he had yet to say anything to her.

There was a deep sigh, and a rustling of the comforter, and for a moment, Téa stiffened, thinking Seto was going to approach her. That thought **shouldn't** have scared her, she realized, but today had changed everything. She wasn't really focusing on what she was doing, still hunched over her laundry basket, haphazardly shoving more things into it, trying to sort things without really paying attention to what she was grabbing at.

Seto cleared his throat, and Téa realized he was still in bed, a good two meters away from her.

"I'm sorry."

Téa's posture stiffened suddenly, and the last item she'd been shoving into her hamper slipped between her fingers. She hadn't been expecting that.

She didn't turn around either, but the fact that she was standing straight up was indicative enough to Seto; she'd heard what he'd said, even though he'd spoken just below normal volume. He swallowed a lump in his throat —one that felt as if it had been there for acid, churning up acid and making this all the more difficult to say.

"I've been… frustrated, lately," he continued, gritting his teeth. It would be so easy to just come out and explain everything —the erotic dreams, the nightmares of Téa disappearing— but dealing with the consequences wouldn't be so easy. He had no idea how Téa would take his admissions, so he stuck with just the basics, hoping that it would be enough for now.

Téa still didn't turn around, so when she spoke at last, Seto wasn't entirely sure he'd imagined it or not.

"I meant what I said earlier; regardless of our… relationship, or how much you've done for me… I'm not going to do anything I'm not ready for." She tried to keep her voice steady, but she kept remembering what had transpired earlier. As if on cue, Téa's shoulder blade ached, and she subconsciously lifted her hand to rub it gently.

"I respect that," Seto said at last, realizing there were no better words to say. At least he was being honest— he did respect Téa, more than he'd respected most people he'd ever dealt with.

Téa's mind churned over his words. If he really respected her, why would he have been so rough with her in the basement in the first place? Why follow her down there and try and seduce her in the cover of darkness? She knew Seto had it in him to be romantic —he'd staged that beautiful, private recreation of the Kaiba Corporation 50th Anniversary Ball on White Day, to make up for the near-disaster that had been Valentine's Day.

But if she had to pick, she would rather have gone all the way on Valentine's Day —cold or not— than be thinking she could never be intimate with Seto again, all because of today. Because of today, she wasn't entirely sure she could believe his words: his apology, or his supposed statement that he respected her, respected her decisions.

_'Am I just being a prude? We were so close just a few months ago, and now…'_

But Seto's attitude had been different back then. It seemed like it had almost been a lifetime ago. After Anubis, Seto had been nothing but respectful, even though she'd nearly died and they'd nearly taken that step. And she'd been willing back then, too.

_'It was always go-stop, go-stop. Maybe I got used to that… I never even considered that he was getting frustrated with it. I never did, only because I kept thinking about myself —_my_ debt with Bakura.'_

Whether it was a matter of hours or mere seconds, Téa realized that the course of her life had changed yet again today. It had only been a few minutes in a dark, dank basement, but it was enough. Téa squeezed her eyes shut, willing her brain to stop swirling with so many thoughts, so many possibilities, few of them positive.

Téa turned around slowly, her chin nearly to her chest. She had to face Seto. She had to look him in the eye and tell him what she really felt.

Her life wasn't the only one that was changed after today.

"I… I was scared," Téa finally said, her voice a mere whisper. The eyes she'd been keeping squeezed shut opened.

"I was scared!" she repeated, louder this time, as if to ensure Seto truly heard her, to make certain he understood. Téa clenched her fists at her sides, her fingers just barely grasping at the sides of her pajama shirt. When her tears finally dried and her muscles finally relaxed, a cold feeling replaced the strain in her chest, and the words she'd really been struggling to say came out at last.

"I **am** scared."

Whether it was out of shock or something else, Seto said nothing in response, though when Téa raised her eyes, she found him staring at her, unblinkingly. Her vision swam, half of her certain she was seeing a particular expression on his face, while the other half thought she couldn't see anything there at all. Not worry, not love, not guilt or remorse. Simply nothing.

"Téa—" Seto began, having already taken several long strides out of bed to stand before her. He didn't expect her to quiver the moment he came within range, or for her shoulders to start shaking so violently.

"D-Don't." It was a mere whisper, a single word, but it was enough. Seto froze like the veritable block of ice most accused him of being, his feet and voice locked in place. Téa clapped her hands to her face in a desperate attempt to stop the new flow of tears from overwhelming her, but her efforts seemed to be of little consequence. A moment later, when she tried to apologize, her voice came out cracked and broken.

"I'm sorry!" were the last words Seto heard her say before Téa wheeled around on unsteady feet and left that room which was once 'theirs,' slamming the door shut behind her. The banging of the door across the hall -that of the Violet Room- was indication of just where Téa had gone, and while Seto was silently grateful she hadn't gone any farther than that, it still felt like an insurmountable distance compared to how close they'd been just yesterday.

But for the first time in so many years, Seto Kaiba knew not what to do, what to say, or where to go. When one of his feet started to fall asleep and he stumbled slightly forward, he could only lean against his own door, his chest tightening with each muffled gasp that echoed from the Violet Room to his own.

* * *

Téa lay in bed, curved into a mess of angles and sheets, but she still couldn't sleep. For all the comfort the Violet Room offered, and for all the pain lurking in the corners of her reddened eyes, she still couldn't bring herself to rest. Her mind was simply too busy, whirring with questions she didn't have the answers to.

_'I really didn't think he had it in him to be such a jerk. Not anymore.'_

That was what she'd told Mai hours earlier, just after… 'it.' Téa didn't even want to give the incident a name, but referring to the event with some generic pronoun didn't help much, either.

"I thought he could change," Téa whispered to herself. "But he hasn't— or he can't. Maybe I'm just fooling myself with false hope."

Or maybe it was expecting something impossible. Hoping that Seto could just give up on his rivalry with Yugi and never speak of a rematch duel ever again was foolish. Téa knew that now, after being heartbroken after discovering Seto had lied to her, back when he'd staged yet another rematch at the Duel Dome, just before Anubis appeared.

_'Did we even learn anything from that? Did either of us change? Or has all this time really just been more of the same?'_

It hurt to think that she couldn't trust him. It hurt remembering that he'd so readily lied to her rather than admit that he **needed** to duel Yugi again, for whatever reason he thought Téa couldn't understand. And it hurt to realize that the rematch hadn't been the only time.

_"STAY THE HELL OUT OF MY PAST!"_

He hadn't believed in her when both her life and Mokuba's had been in danger. He hadn't trusted in her enough to think that something might be wrong in the Kaiba mansion, that her delving into his private past might have had some justification to it.

_'I thought we'd moved past all that. I thought… things between us had changed. Can't I forgive and forget about those times?'_ It was easier said than done. Just remembering those times brought an acidic taste to Téa's mouth. She desperately wanted to leave the past where it was, but… there was so much more to it. That was why she'd told herself it was okay to persist sorting through all the files she'd found about Noah, Gozaburo, Seto, and Mokuba. That was why she'd continued to work in the face of Liechtenstein danger, and why she'd broken a promise to Mokuba.

Unlike when she'd lied to her friends to protect her own heart, she'd done all that to protect Seto and Mokuba. Because they were her family now.

_'And even in the toughest times, families stick together. Family members _trust_ each other.' _

Right now, she couldn't trust Seto. In her heart of hearts, she couldn't believe he was completely sorry for what he'd done, or that he really respected her decision to stop, or even her reasons for stopping.

_'Was I the one taking advantage of him?'_ Téa wondered, sitting up in the bed. Had she grown so accustomed to Seto caring for her that she'd ignored all the growing tension between them? All the recurring problems of trust?

_'I… took the comfort he offered for granted. And I started to push my boundaries, too much, too fast. When he pushed back, it was unexpected. I… I got scared.'_

Again. Today was just a repeat of what had happened before. It had happened many times by now, actually, but the circumstances had been different each time, and Téa had been unwilling to see them for what they truly were —until now.

Téa stared at the Violet Room's closed bedroom door, imagining for a moment that she was back in the master bedroom, seeing shadows of herself standing near the bathroom door and Seto approaching her after he'd made his apology —his admission.

There was an expression of genuine hurt on his face that she hadn't bothered to pay attention to.

Realizing it now, hours after the fact, didn't help any.

_'He's human too,'_ Téa remembered, smiling wanly. She'd known that all along, but the predisposition to believe Seto Kaiba was an animated ice block was too difficult to let go of, for some ridiculous reason. It was just easier to believe that she was the one giving all the emotion, and Seto was merely taking.

But maybe he wasn't. Maybe it wasn't just his fault.

Maybe things were backwards. Perhaps it wasn't that Seto had stubbornly refused to change since she first met him —maybe it was more like once he'd begun to change, he couldn't stop. He was a liquid, ethereal being now, and she couldn't handle him now any more than she could when she first met him.

_'It's me, then, isn't it? I have to be willing to change for myself _and_ him… and he has to want to do the same.'_

No one could change just for someone else; what kind of relationship would it be if either of them changed simply for the whims of the other? But something —or someone— had prompted Seto to change from the man she'd grown to love just a few months ago. Téa was sure it hadn't been her, but then… who? Or what?

She'd felt something **odd** lately, but she didn't know what the cause of it was. Up until now, Téa had just dismissed it as her imagination, desperately trying to supply explanations when nothing else could.

But the one thing Téa had deduced in the past few hours of crying was that it was no use torturing herself the way she was, bottling everything she was feeling inside and expecting Seto to just **know**, to just understand. She was the one who avoided telling him about her debt with Bakura, even though she knew that doing so was indicative of a lack of trust in him. She hadn't bothered to consider just why she didn't trust Seto until now.

_'I'm a coward.'_ Téa chuckled wryly to herself at that. She heaved a great sigh and hauled herself off the bed. It was still late, but… Seto would probably still be awake. The least she could do was attempt to patch things up before summer break was completely over and they had to restart school.

She rose from the tangled mess of sheets in the Violet Room, quietly closing the door behind her. She gently pushed against the door of the master bedroom while turning the handle, careful to keep the noise down— if not for Seto, who never seemed to sleep, then for Mokuba, who thankfully hadn't awoken after Téa had gone storming out of the bedroom earlier.

Téa was surprised to see the lamps turned off, the only source of light coming from a thin slit where the thick curtains parted. Though it was dim, the light from outside was bright enough to reveal Seto turning repeatedly under the blankets. Téa stepped closer hesitantly, hovering just a meter away when Seto turned upright again, his face clearly a mask of pain. His eyebrows knit downward on his forehead, his teeth gritting against one another and glinting in the light just before his body seemed to relax.

Quite suddenly, he bolted upright, breathing heavily. A few moments passed before he caught his breath and realized he was in his own bedroom, and, judging by the lack of a presence beside him in the bed, quite alone.

"I really have made her disappear," he said aloud in a whisper, shaking his head.

"Her who?" a voice questioned softly. Seto turned to the source, astonished. He swallowed a heavy lump in his throat as he watched Téa emerge from the shadows, closing the door to the bedroom behind her.

At least this time she was looking at him directly. This time, she wasn't shaking or crying. She was just staring, waiting.

And if he didn't give an explanation, Seto knew there wouldn't be any more chances left for him.

"You," he finally said. Her eyes widened a bit, and Seto turned away. He turned to look at his hands, still white-knuckled and clutching at the comforter. "You," he repeated, softer this time.

"You dreamed… about me disappearing?" Téa clarified, taking another step forward. Seto didn't look at her, but he knew if he made any sudden movements, she might bolt again. But the effects of the nightmare lingered on him still, and he didn't want to scare her into disappearing for real, making his nightmare come to life.

Instead of speaking, Seto just nodded once, nearly lowering his chin to his chest. He managed to relax his hands, but he couldn't quite let go of the comforter. He detested the cold feeling that swept over his hands whenever he let go of the blanket, realizing that his hands were empty without holding her in them.

"And?" Téa prompted, obviously wanting more of an explanation.

"It's outside in the gardens," Seto finally said, his voice hoarse. "Some sort of gathering. I spot you and try to find you, but… I never can. People start turning to stone. You seem to be slipping between them, between the bushes and trees. I finally get to where you should be, but… you're not there. You're never there."

Téa sucked in a sharp breath before swallowing and asking a new question. "How long has this been going on?"

His words _'You're never there'_ could only mean one thing: the nightmare was recurring. Judging by Seto's reaction after he'd awoken, he'd had them enough times to be truly bothered by them. That was saying something, especially considering how long Seto had withstood nightmares constructed by Yami's Mind Crush all that time ago. But she wasn't prepared for the answer that came from Seto's lips a moment later.

"A few months," he admitted. "Off and on."

Téa swallowed. **Months?**

"How many is 'a few?'" Téa asked, her voice clearly hesitant. She swallowed for a moment, willing the ringing in her ears to go away. To hell with fear… even fear of the truth.

"About seven," Seto said in a low voice. If it hadn't been the dead of night with silence enveloping the whole mansion, she might have missed his words. But she hadn't.

"Seven?" Téa repeated, her voice coming out hoarse. Her words were louder than she intended, and part of her supposed it was only natural to sound like a bullfrog after hours of crying.

"**Seven?** Seven is 'a few' nowadays?" Téa shook her head in bewilderment. "You never told me. I never knew." She began to pace aimlessly around in the space between the bed and the door. "They're not your usual dreams. Are they?" There was something about the tone of her voice which wasn't quite questioning, but not quite accusatory, either.

Seto stiffly shook his head, an admission that he'd been having **nightmares** stubbornly refusing to cross his lips.

"I've had worse," he finally said, making a flippant gesture with his hand. "You shouldn't be concerned."

He glanced up long enough to see an angry expression flit across Téa's face, and he realized those words hadn't come out the way he wanted. He'd meant to say she shouldn't worry herself over his nightmares, even if she now knew they were about her, and they'd been happening quite frequently since January.

"Obviously **you're** concerned about something, or you wouldn't still be having them," Téa countered. "And if the 'worse' nightmares you're talking about are the ones from Yami, they're not natural, anyway. Those were just the result of your own brain trying to sort through what you went through and how you felt about it."

Seto's voice was wry as he regarded Téa, stalking around their room like some sort of caged animal. "You speak as if you know from experience."

He'd spoken on the assumption that Téa knew about Yami, the Mind Crush, and the subsequent nightmares the way she knew about everything else— by observation. But when Téa stopped her pacing and turned to actually look at him in the eye, she said nothing, and that was telling enough.

Seto blinked in surprise, a flood of questions coming to mind. Had she really experienced it for herself? But why would she have been on the receiving end of any penalty game, let alone Yami's?

_"He doesn't deserve you!"_

_"He means _everything_ to me!"_

Had it been then? Back at the Duel Dome, after Anubis was defeated once and for all, and Yami had questioned Téa's reasons for being with him? Had he thought her answer unacceptable, and…

_'He wouldn't have—'_

And then, today: she clearly hadn't told her friends what had happened —almost happened? hadn't happened— in the basement, or else Seto would have been chopped up into little bits by now, making his way through Domino's sewer system. The fierce loyalty Téa displayed rarely went unreciprocated. So if they didn't know and therefore had no reason to be mad at him **or** Téa, how…?

No, the question was more like "Why?" Yugi was obviously smitten with Téa; Seto had known that long before Téa had been in his employ, when she'd become something more than a simple employee, and even now, when things seem to escape definition. Yugi had said that he would get over her, but Seto knew from experience that it was easier said than done. It was yet another thing he didn't expect to have in common with Yugi Moto. But it wasn't Yugi in question here, it was that annoying, arrogant "other self" of his, the reincarnated Pharaoh with the power to change anything in an instant.

"Why didn't you tell me?" Téa asked, interrupting his train of thought. Her voice was quieter now, no longer sounding irritated. "All this time, and not **once**…"

"You didn't tell **me** how you felt earlier. If you had, I wouldn't have gotten the wrong impression and we wouldn't be having this conversation now," he countered.

"Are you blaming this on me?" Téa demanded, her eyes ablaze and her fists clenched at her sides. Now, as before, the simplest wrong utterance could mean the end of everything. So Seto stayed quiet.

After what felt like an eternal silence, Téa relaxed, letting her gaze drop to the floor. "You know, I came in here to apologize," she said. "I don't want to be a coward; I don't want to be scared or doubting you, Seto." She raised her head, her gaze now calm, a hint of sadness lingering. She let out a heavy sigh, her muscles finally relaxing to the point where she could unclench her fists. "What almost— no, what **happened** scared me. And I've been trying to work out just why that is, because I've been through so much, part of me felt like no one and nothing could make me feel that way anymore. I guess… I guess I just convinced myself that you weren't that kind of a person."

Seto raised an eyebrow and was about to ask just what sort of person she'd pigeonholed him into being, but she kept talking. "A sexual person, I mean. I figured, you'd never get to that point where you'd be desperate or wanting of something so… base."

Téa blushed a bit before she spoke again, her voice having dropped to a near-whisper. "That's not— I mean, it's not a bad thing; I wasn't lying when I said I wanted it too. It's just… there's a difference between being aware of that and- and acting on it."

"You figured that the logical side of me would have known better," Seto put forth. Téa nodded, her cheeks still red, as if she were ashamed to admit it. In another time, perhaps she would have been right; once upon a time, Téa had accused him of being inhuman and unfeeling, and certainly **that** Seto Kaiba would have had no interest in sex whatsoever. That Seto Kaiba derived pleasure from crushing his past, from defeating his enemies— not necking in a dark basement. But that Seto Kaiba hadn't known Téa Gardner that well, and as recent months had more than proved, she changed everything.

"I- I wanted you to change. To become predictable and safe. To be the kind of person I could always rely on… but that's not you. It's never **been** you, and… I didn't fall in love with someone like that." Téa stared at Seto, her gaze unwavering this time. "I'm not in love with that man."

There was a silence as Seto tried to digest her words and figure out just what **he** really felt about all this in the first place. On the one hand, she was right: he **had** been predictable, at least a little. They'd constantly dance around the issue of taking the next step in their relationship, logical or not. One step forward, two steps back. Téa had never realized just how frustrated he was, and Seto had never wanted to tell her. He'd never wanted to reveal what she was doing to him, inside and out. But if he didn't, then he might lose whatever he had gotten from her —what she'd willingly given him, after everything…

"I'm sorry for not giving the right message," Téa said, breaking the silence. "But I'm **not** sorry for feeling the way I did, or reacting the way I did. I…" Téa trailed off and began to play with her fingers behind her back. She'd never had difficulty admitting her fears before, if only because she'd always had someone to fall back on: family, friends. But lately it had all seemed so liquid, so intangible. Maybe it wasn't so easy for her anymore. It had never been easy for him. The sense of recognition that pooled low in his throat was acrid, bitter, unwanted.

He couldn't get away with apologies as a child, so he'd stopped making them.

"I know you've never really… had to do this. But I **do** know you've been afraid. And even if you can't say it, I— part of me knows. It's… it's really maddening," she said, raking a hand through her hair and disheveling it even more. "It's like I can't believe you understand a word I'm saying unless you say so. But I want to believe you do. But it's hard, when you're always covering it up, one thing after another—"

"I'm not covering anything up."

"You are!" Téa yelled, looking startled after her voice echoed a moment later. She looked guiltily toward the doorway, as if Mokuba might appear there any moment now, asking what was going on. "You always are," she said, softer now, but her voice still terse. "Can't you just say it? Just this once, and really mean it? 'I'm scared. I'm afraid. And I'm sick of covering it up and pretending and hurting the people I care about in the process.' Is that really so hard?"

"I. Am. Not. Afraid," Seto said through gritted teeth, irritation starting to win over the fear that had been burbling in him all night. It was an easy enough feeling to suppress; he'd had years of practice with countless opponents, from Gozaburo to Yugi. She'd get no satisfaction from him…

"I am not Gozaburo, Seto!" This time Téa really did yell, and she didn't look the least bit perturbed by it. She stood perfectly still a moment, her chest heaving and her shoulders shaking before she marched forward, almost too quick for Seto to react. He blinked, and then she was there, centimeters away from him, kneeling on the bed with a vice-like grip on his shoulders. "When are you going to understand that I'm not going to hurt you?"

Though the flush was still clear on her face, any traces of tears were long gone. Téa stared at him, unblinking, her gaze pure. He met her gaze hesitatingly, inexplicably unable to look her in the eye at first. But then he did, searching for something that he couldn't name.

"Please," she whispered. "I'm not asking because I'll get some sort of kick out of it. I just want to know that you can understand me."

Anger. Sadness. Disgust. Fear. Love. These were basic human emotions. She knew full well that he could be angry, that he could be disgusted. Somewhere along the lines of love, of "happiness," was that lust, that greedy love that had made itself known hours earlier. But could he know sadness? Could he understand fear, if he couldn't even admit to having felt it himself?

"I was scared," he said in the lowest possible voice, his chin to his chest and his thick bangs obscuring his face from her view. He looked up and noticed the momentary look of fear on Téa's own face when she glanced up quickly. "I **am** scared."

Téa gasped so sharply, Seto briefly wondered if she were having breathing problems. But she launched herself into him, very nearly toppling them both over into the headboard. "I'm not leaving. I'm not going anywhere. And… thank you." She pulled back, tears of a different sort streaming down her cheeks now. "I'm not afraid anymore."

They stayed like that, in silence, minute after minute. It was only when Seto felt one of his legs starting to fall asleep that he dared to speak.

"I won't do anything. If you don't even want me to touch you, I won't. Just— stay here tonight? Please?"

Téa pulled her hands away, looking at them sidelong as if they were foreign objects attached to her body. She backed away a bit —just a bit— and let her gaze stay fixed on the rumpled comforter. She swallowed once, her face briefly contorting into a mask of pain, as if she'd swallowed something particularly vile. After a minute, she took a deep breath and nodded once, slowly.

"I'll stay."

They shuffled about for a minute, trying to ease through the awkward tension that had been building since the afternoon. Téa seemed to move back with every centimeter Seto moved forward, something undeniably frustrating, especially after all they'd just talked about.

"Can you trust me?" Seto asked.

Téa studied him, this time her eyes doing the searching. "I'm going to try."

For him, for her, for now, trying would have to be good enough. For now.

It still stung, and Seto supposed that might have been why he didn't speak until nearly twenty minutes later, long after they'd turned the lights out. Somehow, they'd found a comfortable distance to settle into in what had been "their" bed for months now, few qualms barring the almost instinctive need to hold each other at night.

"There were other… dreams," he said. When Téa didn't answer, he half-wondered if he should turn over to see if she was awake, or if she was waiting for more detail. "That time —you remember?— I went into the shower in the middle of the night?"

More silence.

"It was **that** kind of a dream. Admitting that I couldn't control myself wasn't something I wanted to do. Losing control… even less so. But in the end, it had to be one or the other. I'm sorry."

"Apology accepted," Téa said softly, surprising Seto with the clarity of her voice. She clearly hadn't been sleeping and stirred awake by his words. "Try not to think so narrow-mindedly next time, though. There's almost always a third option."

"I'll keep that in mind."

Téa turned over on her side, her lips struggling between smiling and frowning. She was a bit surprised: Seto Kaiba was habitual about keeping secrets, in the way humans were habitual about breathing. He constantly suppressed any emotions other than anger, loathing, and disgust, and yet tonight he'd moved past all that. He'd admitted he was afraid, admitted he'd lost control over his… love, lust, whatever it was. And he felt **guilty** about it. Embarrassed, even.

_'I'm probably not supposed to feel happy about this, but… I am. Is that messed up, or what?'_

But at least it meant things were once again on the road to normalcy, right? Not everything would be the same, and Téa knew that. In fact, she hoped for it. She didn't want to be stuck in a perpetual rut of a relationship. Part of her was afraid of that too, in addition to everything else she'd admitted tonight. It was a tiny, flickering fear, and one she had yet to give voice to. But maybe all it would take was a good night's rest to go away, and she could start to thing positively about the future again, instead of questioning everything and everyone.

_'I… really want this to work. I think. I'm __**not**__ trying to make Seto into someone he's not. I can't force him to change. He can't be anyone but himself. He can't be…'_

Téa's own thoughts took a sudden turn as an image flitted through her mind: Yami. Seto could never be the Pharaoh, that enigmatic spirit that Téa believed she'd really been in love with for so long, since the day he'd first appeared. But it had been so long since she found out the truth about him, about the Millennium Items, about his true destiny. And she remembered Yugi and his heartbroken face and the truth they'd both admitted that day in the park…

_'Why am I doubting myself now?'_

It was one thing to doubt Seto after he'd given her reason to mistrust him, after he'd practically stomped on what trust she'd spent so long building with him, thinking theirs was a mutual effort.

Could that trust ever really be regained?

_"I'm going to try."_

Téa closed her eyes, adamant in her thought that she was going to try, and try her hardest.

Seto, for his part, also lay awake for several moments. Was he weak, now that he'd admitted practically everything to Téa? He'd never done that before, not with anyone. Not even Mokuba. His little brother needed a proper role model, someone who was brave and strong and didn't let the world abuse him into submission. But Seto didn't want Mokuba to end up like him, to have to go through these kind of things. Seto knew that it wasn't right, that it wasn't normal— and having Téa point it out to him only emphasized that truth.

He hated weakness. But he couldn't hate Téa or her reasons for what she'd said or done tonight. In the back of his mind, he understood everything: the whys and the hows, from her tears to her shouts. He'd never considered another person's feelings -save Mokuba's, perhaps- to be so important. He'd never bothered to register those suppressed thoughts in the back of his mind, the ones that explained to him just why she cried, or why she ran away: why she couldn't just say "I will trust you," but "I'm going to try."

He couldn't make her trust him. He couldn't make her believe that he was going to be perfect all the time, honest all the time. He couldn't even convince himself of that. There was nothing permanent to be gained by manipulating her: there was nothing she could do for him that he couldn't do himself, and there was no point in acting like someone he wasn't just so she'd think or act a certain way around him.

But she couldn't trust him. Not now, not yet. She had **some** trust in him, even now, he knew that— otherwise, she wouldn't be in this room, in this house, or even on the Kaiba property. But the slightest thing could shatter that trust, and Seto was still unsure of just what words or actions might provoke her.

She could easily manipulate him. Make him weak. Make him a fool.

But that was Gozaburo, talking. His spirit had been forgiven and moved on, but his words lived on within Seto, and likely would for the rest of his life.

As would Téa's: _"I'm not Gozaburo, Seto!"_

Far from it. But he couldn't quite reconcile what seemed so simple to Téa: was being in love more important than being strong?

He wanted to ask her. He wanted to find out the answer to this ongoing challenge, this eternally-perplexing puzzle of feelings. Seto hesitated as he rolled on his side, mentally considering all the possible reactions Téa might have if he touched her, even gently, even just on her shoulder. She'd been terrified of his touch earlier, but less than an hour before, she'd initiated an embrace on her own. But then she'd backed off again, and now she was curled up on the edge of the bed furthest from him.

She shifted for a moment, the comforter sliding off her bare shoulder and revealing something Seto had failed to notice before: a dark patch of skin, a sharp violet contrast to the paleness of the rest of her. The bruise extended well over her shoulder bone. It was no surprise she wasn't sleeping on that side.

**He** did that to her. Not the egg-headed Pharaoh. Not slimy, suspicious Bakura. **Him**.

Seto pulled his hand away, clenching it into a tight fist. He couldn't touch her now. He didn't deserve to. He couldn't **trust** himself to.

* * *

Joey and Yugi were busy cleaning out the card display cases of the game cabinets at the Turtle Game Store when Yami's voice unexpectedly broke the silence. Joey had failed to notice Yugi relinquishing control, or whatever it was that changed him into a baritone, bad-ass duelist who just happened to be the spirit of a long-dead Pharaoh.

"Téa was acting strange at the party."

Pharaohs probably asked questions that weren't in the form of a question, right? Joey suspected Yami wanted some sort of verbal agreement, but as he sorted through Yami's words, he wasn't so sure he could give one so easily.

"Er, maybe? Why, what'd you notice?"

Yami stared too intensely at a pile of card packs, almost like he had x-ray vision and was seeing through the foil wrapping. Of course, if he could, that would totally be cheating and yet would explain why he always seemed to have the perfect card on hand…

Joey shook his head free of the thoughts and continued spraying glass cleaner on the cabinets. It was much easier focusing on the areas of the cabinet that stubbornly retained their streaks than thinking about Yami appearing out of nowhere (well, not nowhere, but for no reason, really: since when did he appear when there wasn't a duel involved?) and questioning Téa's behavior at the pool party and photo shoot yesterday. Truth be told, Joey had a good idea of why she'd been acting a little funny. Point in fact, he had a lot of good ideas, but it wasn't as if he was privy to Téa's personal thoughts, so he wasn't sure just which one was the right one. And the only person that probably **was** likely wouldn't tell Joey or Yami.

"She avoided us. Seemed… distracted, upset, somehow. It's not like her not to tell us when something is bothering her."

_'Us, huh?'_ Joey noted. Actually, it was weird for Téa not to turn to YUGI when something was bothering her; if Joey or Tristan happened to be in the vicinity, most of the time she didn't care. But Yami was an altogether different story -always had been. Somehow, Joey doubted that would ever change. Yet here he was, acting like he was Téa's best friend.

_'Does he even know? Téa crushed on him for so long, it had to be obvious. He might be a couple thousand years old, but he can't be _that_ blind.'_

Didn't he understand just why Téa didn't come to them anymore? Why she'd intentionally sought out company with girls, because they could understand or sympathize where her admittedly **crude** male friends couldn't? Joey accepted that explanation as reasonable enough and moved on with his life. Yami, apparently, hadn't, and couldn't, assuming he'd even understood anything that had happened over the past few months in the first place.

Joey scratched behind his ear uncomfortably, extremely hesitant to recount specific incidents in which Téa clearly didn't feel right going to her guy friends to deal with her problems. Joey had long since learned that trying to push Téa when she didn't want to be pushed only resulted in her snapping, her normally pleasant demeanor shoved aside to make way for a girl akin to one of the Furies. Like back at the Duel Dome, when she'd loudly shouted at Yami that Kaiba —though she hadn't exactly said his name— meant everything to her.

In retrospect, Joey figured she didn't mean those words the way they sounded. She still had plenty of room in her heart for her friends. They meant a lot to her too; that would never change. Not even Kaiba could make her turn her back on her friends like that. But back then, she'd been mad —mad at Kaiba, mad at Yami. But while Yami had gone and saved the world again, Kaiba had been used as a pawn and nearly died. Yet it was Yami who'd been on the receiving end of her wrath, all because he assumed that Téa was making a mistake in who she spent the bulk of her time with.

_'Hell, it's a little more than that,'_ Joey realized. Maybe Yami really didn't get that. Maybe Yugi's feelings **didn't** transfer over into Yami, and he had no idea what it was like to really, really love someone.

It was crazy and almost sick imagining being in love with Kaiba, and Joey had absolutely no desire to imagine himself in Téa's shoes. But he knew what the feeling was like, all the same. He knew what it did to someone, inside and out, morning and night.

"Listen, Yug'," he began, though he knew full well it wasn't Yugi he was talking to. "So maybe Téa was actin' a bit weird yesterday, but it's her right, you know? Girls have their whole times when they don't wanna associate with guys like us—"

"She didn't seem to take issue with associating with Kaiba… or Bakura." Yami said the last name as if it spoke of decaying corpses and flesh-eating worms.

"Well, uh… can't explain Bakura, really, guy's weirder than a Magic 8 Ball, but come on, Yug'… Kaiba's her boyfriend and all. Guy might not deserve her and all, but they're totally into each other. Er, uh… Shackin' up and all, you know? I'd say that entitles them both to act a bit funky around one another every now and then, wouldn't you say?"

Joey's was a rhetorical question, but he didn't stop to consider that perhaps Yami didn't have a grasp on the concept of rhetorical questions. When Joey didn't hear any further shuffling from the area where his friend and fellow duelist stood, he looked up, gulping when he noticed the reflection of Yami's face, contorted into something altogether strange and amusing. His eyebrows were drawn deep toward the center of his brow and his lips were curved in the deepest frown Joey had ever seen on his face. But wasn't the sort of angry expression he wore when he was dueling a particularly diabolical opponent; it was the expression of someone trying his hardest to think without letting his emotions get the better of him. Clearly, when it came to controlling his anger, Yami had great difficulty… especially where Téa was concerned.

Joey thought, for the briefest of instants, that maybe Yami knew more than he let on.

_'Uh-oh.'_

"Uh, basically what I'm sayin' is, we both know they really are into each other, so even if we're not exactly fans of Kaiba and all, she likes him, and we're **her** friend, so for her sake, we gotta at least cut the guy some slack and all, give them space and not think he's screwin' her ov— er, I mean, not messin' with her head or anything, you know what I'm saying?"

Joey blushed to his roots, hoping Yami hadn't caught his Freudian slip that once again, implied something Joey wasn't entirely sure Yami understood— and if he did, would only serve to make him angrier; at **who** was the question and the problem, all at the same time.

"Wait for her to talk to us, if she feels like it, you're saying," Yami said slowly. "Don't intrude."

"Uh, yeah. Sounds about right."

"But we are her friends, are we not? Are we meant to simply stand by and," Yami's mouth curved into a frown again, this time looking alternately displeased and frustrated, "and not do anything if we see she is hurt, but is perhaps** unwilling** to come to us?"

Joey walked over to Yami and clapped a hand on his friend's shoulder. "Hey man, Téa's been through some rough shit. And she's a big girl now, and can take care of herself. I don't think she'd be stupid enough **not** to come to us if she needed our help."

"She trusts us," Yami stated, but Joey got the impression there was a hint of uncertainty in his voice. Maybe he thought that after the Anubis debacle, Téa didn't trust **him**.

"Yeah, man. You of all people—" Joey cut off, realizing he'd veered right back into the conversational territory he had been working so diligently to avoid. Joey turned back to the cabinets, scrubbing at the insides of the glass cases with surprising ferocity. He tried to ignore Yami's presence behind him, still and solid, quite possibly thrown for a loop by his words.

"Joey."

The blond kept scrubbing. Why was this one area so stubborn?

"Joey," Yami repeated, his voice firmer this time. Joey failed to see the reflection of Yami's irritated expression in the glass, so when Yami repeated his name for the third time, this time practically yelling, it startled Joey and he slammed his head on one of the cabinet door sliders.

"Ow ow ow…" Joey withdrew from the cabinet's interior, rubbing the back of his head with his free hand. He looked at Yami with one eye, noting how his friend looked awfully impatient for an explanation.

"Look, man, the truth of it is, Téa was into you." Joey took one look at Yami's expression and shook his head furiously. "No, not the right words: she was completely in love with you. I knew it, Tristan knew it, Yugi knew it, eventually. Heck, Kaiba probably knew it, too. But no one ever said anything, because no matter how much of a friend you are with someone, how do you tell them that the guy she's in love isn't who she thinks? She trusted you more than anything, more than anyone, but you never even saw what she was offering. Let's face it, man: you and Yug' might share the Puzzle and a face, but that's about it. Téa probably knew that in the back of her head, but she hated herself for it. She wanted to be in love with this version of Yugi that was never really there. You and him— peas in a pod, but not the same pea, you get what I'm saying?"

"…She loved me."

Joey nodded, tossing his rag off to the side. "Past tense, yeah. I thought she loved the whole package, to be honest with you. But when she finally figured that you're not just Yug' with a 'tude, she musta felt pretty bad about it. She wasn't in love with her best friend, she was in love with this spirit from a puzzle. But Yug' loved her, who he was, who she was, you know what I'm sayin'?. I know you had to have felt that. But everyone knows you're hardcore on getting your memories back, not on being someone's boyfriend. I think all of us figured that, and Téa respected it. Moved on, somehow."

Yami moved from behind the counters as if to leave, but Joey once again gripped his friend on the shoulder, stopping him. "You can't change anything now. Besides, Yug's already tryin' his hardest to let things be. If you fight it, it'll only make it harder on him **and** Téa."

Yami's muscles suddenly lost their tension and he relaxed, his posture taking on a droopy look.

Joey immediately felt guilt seep into the air, and he fumbled for the right words to say now fix what he'd so royally screwed up.

"Look, I don't know much about how it is with you and Yug'— shared body, shared mind, whatever. But I figure, if you guys… I dunno, 'talk' or whatever," Joey made air quotes with his fingers, "it'll be a lot easier on everyone. You can question why people do what they do and all… but even if they give you the answer, sometimes you think, afterward, 'Was it really worth it to know?' And you have to live with the consequences —your question and their answers. There's no way of takin' it back. You can't run away from what's already said and done, yanno? You just gotta keep moving forward."

"…Keep moving forward, huh?" Yami repeated, even after Joey disappeared into the back room, leaving him alone in the fore of the Game Shop.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> **Wow. This took over a year. The fourth anniversary of WDKY, along with both Seto and Téa's birthdays have passed while I've been working on this, off and on. For those of you that have kept up with my LJ, you probably know the various reasons why. All I know is, I'm glad to have gotten this chapter out once and for all, because it was damn hard for various reasons. I'm looking forward to working on the 26-28 arc, but I know how impossible it is for me to make promises or stick to deadlines when it comes to this fic. It is, however, what I've been looking forward to ever since I wrote Ch. 4 (which was ages and ages ago!), so hopefully I won't get road-blocked or anything.**
> 
> **For those readers who have come this far, whether you're new to the fic or have been with it since the first year it was up... thank you for sticking with me. Even if you had to re-read all 24 of the preceding chapters to understand anything referenced in this one, thank you! I really appreciate your time and effort-- because heck knows it is an effort to read fics as long as mine, and a WIP, to boot!**
> 
> **As always, review replies will go up on my LiveJournal, the latest chapters will be on Dragonfayth, and you can always see what's going on with me in general at my LiveJournal.**
> 
> **Hope to hear from you!**
> 
> **-Azurite, November 3, 2007**


	27. The Nightmare Trio

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Yami tries to end his story without consulting the supporting cast. A simple selfish action spirals the gang into a whole new adventure, scattered on different shores.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> **What Doesn't Kill You  
> Chapter 26: The Nightmare Trio  
> A Yu-Gi-Oh Fanfiction**  
> **By:** Azurite  
> **Site: **seventh-star DOT net
> 
> **Conceptualized/First Written:** 6/28/05  
> **Completed/Final Edit: **3/29/09  
> **Posted: **4/5/09
> 
> **Don't Forget!** All Review Replies are now hosted at my LiveJournal. Look for a section in my Memories called 'Review Replies,' and you can choose from the story/chapter of your choice to see what I had to say to your reviews! Thanks for your continued support!
> 
> **Super-Speshul-Awesome:** This chapter would not be possible without **Aelibia**, a.k.a. the Gnat on my Windshield. An incessant pest of my favorite kind, she kicked my writing into high gear, inspiring creativity, motivation, and so much more. Thank you, Nat. Words can't express how grateful I am to you for all your help. Let's keep working together until the end!

He was only half-aware of the footfalls and yells behind him as he tore up the stairs, sneakers squealing against the concrete. In the back of his mind, he registered the fact that he'd failed to change his shoes to the proper indoor ones: not **that** much of a crime, really…but he'd also neglected to tell the guys thundering behind him why he was so desperate to find Téa. It was just compounding one error on top of another, but he couldn't stop now.

By the time he reached the roof, he was out of breath, but somehow he managed to push open the heavy door with a slam that felt like it vibrated throughout the entire school. His feet began to tingle uncomfortably by the time he made it out to the clean, sunlit area of the roof. There, Téa stood alone and lunchless, staring listlessly out at the skyline.

"Téa!"

She turned around slowly, her fingers still sticky with sweat. Unsurprisingly, the heat and humidity still lingered in the air, typical for this time of year in Domino. Téa knew it, but she'd still chosen to wear her jacket anyway. She continued to wear it even when the lunch bell rang. She wandered out to the fence-lined roof of the high school and stared out at everything and nothing all at once. She didn't want to take the chance that her still-bright bruise, in its green stages now, might be seen through her white, school-regulated blouse. If it was seen, she knew just what to expect. Questions, demands for an explanation, arguments, fights.

Téa didn't even have the energy to talk, let alone make explanations for anyone— even her own friends. So when one of those friends came thundering up the stairs of the school, shattering the silence, she felt concurrently scared and angry.

But when Téa turned to face Joey, the expression on his face reflected anything but anger: fright, tinged with something else Téa couldn't quite place. At any rate, he babbled and gestured far too fast for her to understand. Before she got the chance to ask Joey to slow down and repeat himself, an out-of-breath Tristan emerged from the roof door and interrupted.

"Dude, slow down, will you?" Tristan snapped at Joey, who had nearly smacked his approaching friend with a wide gesture. "Look at Téa, I don't even think she's hearin' a single thing you're sayin'!" He thumbed toward Téa, who was facing the small crew of boys, now including Malik and Duke as well. She still had a vaguely dazed expression on her face, though the boys clearly thought it was only because of Joey's rambling, not anything else.

Truth was, a sort of fog had settled over her mind not long after the photo shoot, and it lingered in her mind still. It had gotten particularly worse today, the first day of a week free of Seto Kaiba. Business plans took him to the United States , but he hadn't told Téa until the last minute. She wasn't sure whether to be angry about that or relieved about the space she was finally getting.

_'Shouldn't I feel _guilty_ about being relieved?'_

She couldn't explain it. Maybe it was a sign. Just thinking about the possibility of **that** made her skin crawl in ways that her relief or lack of guilt had yet to do.

Joey took a deep breath, glanced at the circle of people surrounding him and spoke, slower this time.

"I screwed up. Big time. Last week, Yug' and I were cleanin' up the game store when Guess-Who makes himself known—"

"'Guess-Who'? Who do you mean?" Duke asked, looking perplexed.

"The 'Other' Yugi…" Malik murmured, looking first at Téa and then back at Joey. "Am I right?"

"Yeah. Yami, Other Yugi, whatever we're callin' him these days. Anyway, he just kinda…you know," Joey put the fingers of both his hands along his thumbs and moved them away in opposite directions, spreading his fingers as he went, simulating a sort of explosion with his hands. "Outta nowhere."

"No duel, no threat?" Malik inquired, sounding curious. "Does he normally do that?"

It was Téa who spoke first. "No, he doesn't. Only when Yugi relinquishes control. There was only one time when Yugi forced him out…."

Their "date," ages ago. The thought gave Téa pause, inciting a strange feeling from within her. She wasn't quite sure how to describe it.

"But there was no reason for Yug' to do that. We were **just** cleanin', that's it," Joey reiterated, growing frustrated. "And of all things, he brought up—" Joey stopped, looked up at Téa, who appeared astonished, and then both of them looked down glumly.

"Uh, Joey? You can't just leave us hanging like that! What'd he say? Or at least tell us why you're freakin' out," Tristan said, clapping a hand on Joey's shoulder.

"You," Joey said, looking up at Téa again, though her gaze didn't meet his. "He thought you were actin' weird at the pool party and wanted to know why you didn't talk to any of us. I— I said stuff. Must have got him thinking. Then today, just before class, I noticed Yug'— or Pharaoh, probably— starin' at his cards."

Before anyone could say anything, Joey produced the aforementioned cards from a pants pocket. He fanned the cards out, face-up, jutting his chin out at those who were not yet close enough to see the cards. Everyone stared down at the cards with a measure of curiosity and confusion before Tristan glanced up, looking befuddled.

"I don't get it. What's so weird about the cards— and why exactly do you have Yugi's deck?"

"That's just it, man. What's wrong with this picture?"

"Yugi'd never go anywhere without his deck," Téa breathed, beginning to understand. "And…"

"The God Cards. They're gone," Malik finished. He pivoted suddenly and started rushing toward the door.

"Hey, Malik, what gives?" Duke asked. "Something we're not getting here?" He thumbed toward Tristan, who looked just as confused as he did. "Did someone steal the God Cards and kidnap Yugi?"

Malik let out a sharp laugh, startling both Tristan and Duke. "If only it were that simple."

"So **what** then?"

"Yugi took the God Cards and went to the museum…right?" Téa said before turning to face Joey. He nodded.

"He's going to end this," Malik muttered. "As in, find out the truth, once and for all. Only those depicted or mentioned on the tablets have any control over the God Cards, and…." Malik shrugged. "He's the main character. It's his story, and he's writing the end to it."

No one said a word, but all eyes present widened. Finally, Tristan and Duke understood.

"We gotta get going, then," Tristan said. "When did he leave, Joey?"

"That's the thing," Joey said, shaking his head. "I cut out to get lunch the minute the bell rang. You guys know me. By the time I was getting back to the class, I saw Yug' takin' off with his bag in hand. I figured he was just takin' his lunch to the voc ed room to eat there. But I wanted to talk to him, see how he was, but then Kinomoto stopped me in the hall. By the time I was done and got to the voc ed room, Yug' wasn't there— or anywhere on campus."

"We can either waste time asking people on campus if they've seen him anywhere else…" Duke started.

"…Or we can get our butts to the museum before Yugi does something potentially stupid," Téa finished. "No ending the story without consulting the supporting cast. Come on!"

Without another word, she took off for the stairs and flew halfway down to the second floor by the time the bell rang. Joey, Malik, Tristan, and Duke followed in short order, much to the surprise of Miho and Serenity. The girls had been talking to each other just across the hall from the door to the roof when everyone came charging down.

"Hey, where are you guys going?"

"Can't talk, gotta save Yug'!" Joey yelled, before casting a quick half-wave at his sister and darting out after Téa. Tristan and Duke slowed down long enough to try to explain things, but when both caught sight of a teacher trying to usher students in the hall into their respective classes, they had to cut their explanations short.

"Gotta go, ladies!" Duke blew an air kiss to Serenity, much to Tristan's chagrin, before both boys headed out after the rest of their friends.

By the time everyone caught up and congregated about a block from campus, all were out of breath and red-faced.

"So what now? Joey saw Yugi before the bell, and then again, as he was heading out after Joey got lunch. That could have been what, fifteen minutes? Yugi's no sprinter, and the museum's clear across town from here," Duke pointed out.

"But lunch is forty-five minutes long. Yugi has a thirty minute head start, and no one said he had to walk all the way there," Tristan said.

"He's right," Malik added. "There's a special bus that stops right in front of the museum to cater to the tourists," he explained. "But it only runs from eight-thirty in the morning to four o'clock in the afternoon—even if Yugi would have left right after school and gotten to the stop on that line nearest here, he still wouldn't have made it on time."

"So he left early," Joey finished. "Without bothering to say goodbye."

Everyone fell silent, exchanging weighted looks.

"So what do we do? Something tells me talking to Yugi is something better done with numbers on **our** side, but none of us have a way of getting everyone there all at once; that bus line you're talking about only runs, like, once an hour in the afternoon, right?" Tristan turned to Malik. "So even if we took off at a dead-run—which, I'll be honest with you, I don't exactly think I'm up to at the moment—we'd never make it to the bus stop on time to catch the one for this hour."

"And even though we cut out of class early, none of us have a way of getting everyone there all at once," Duke added.

"No, that's not completely true," Téa said in a whisper. She brought out her cell phone and pressed a number on speed dial.

"Hi, it's me. Can you get me a limousine for pick-up one block east of Domino High? Yeah, thanks."

The boys all stared at Téa in open-mouthed shock as she pocketed her phone. "What? It's a perk."

Only Joey appeared embarrassed, face reddened, but neither he nor the other boys said a word until the Kaiba Corp. limousine arrived.

"You're even talkin' like him. What happened to the girl who was always polite, 'please' and 'thank you,' and all that jazz?" Joey asked, shaking his head.

Téa smothered the first laugh in what felt like a long while. "I **did** say thank you, you know."

"Eh, still…" Joey shuddered over-dramatically and then turned to stare out the tinted window, remaining wordless for the remainder of the brief ride.

* * *

_"Renowned scientist Dr. Arthur Hawkins has uncovered evidence of a long-lost civilization in the North Atlantic Ocean over two hundred kilometers southeast of Greenland. In a press conference in New York yesterday, Hawkins said he has reason to believe the ruins he discovered sunk in the ocean date back over ten thousand years, making it the oldest known civilization to date, predating even the Egyptians in Northern Africa…"_

Rex Raptor didn't really pay close attention to the newscast as it continued on the television set in the electronics shop he passed. He tilted his head toward the ground, his eyes glued to the laces on his shoes, flip-flopping left and right, lifelessly, meaninglessly. It hit too close to home for comfort, but Rex wasn't the type to admit it.

He was still angry with himself, not even looking where he walked, when he slammed right into someone.

"Hey, why don't you watch where you're going?" he snapped out of frustration, his gaze lifting just in time. His scowl quite suddenly deepened as the other person, who'd also been looking down.

"You! What are **you** still doing here?" Weevil Underwood demanded, pointing an accusing finger at Rex. "The Battle City tournament's **been** over, and everyone knows there won't be any more tournaments at the Kaiba Dome since it got decimated earlier this summer!"

"I know that!" Rex snapped. "What are **you** doing here?"

"Wh-wh—I'm here for the Egyptian exhibit at the museum, of course! I didn't get the chance to see it when it was originally here," Underwood retorted, pushing his glasses up his nose. "History fascinates me almost as much as bugs do: an ancient Egyptian connection to modern day Duel Monsters. But **you** haven't answered my question yet!"

"I don't have to answer to you!" Rex said, growing angry. "And by the way, **Underwood**," he said with a smirk, "The museum is the **other** way."

Weevil possessed just enough grace to blush, a horrid contrast to his green outfit. He pivoted on his foot and started to walk in the direction he'd come from— toward the museum that apparently held so much importance to him. Rex snorted and started striding down the street himself, his chin now jutted high as he walked faster and faster to keep pace with Weevil.

"You're really going to the museum because of the connection to the God Cards, right? You can't fool me, bug-boy."

"Speak for yourself, dino-brain! A second-rate duelist like you would have no chance of getting his hands on the God Cards!"

"And you would—" Rex turned, prepared to let loose a strong of further insults, when both boys collided into a tall, black-robed figure who looked none-too-pleased at them. The pair ended up with their butts on the ground, each cursing and scowling before they even realized the man they'd bumped into had yet to move or even say anything; he merely stared at them with a terrifying smile on his face.

"Rex Raptor. Weevil Underwood," the man stated, his face nearly concealed by his dark hood and a single eye covered by a tinted monocle. When he raised his head slightly, the boys could make out glinting teeth from behind a neatly trimmed beard.

"Get up," the man said. The boys obliged, their eyes still fixed on the man, right up until the point when he raised his arm and the boys closed their eyes in fear, expecting to be struck. Both pairs of eyes opened in astonishment when the strange green device on the man's arm extended outward into a very familiar shape, that of a Duel Disk.

"It's time to duel."

* * *

Yami stared up at the stone columns of the Domino Museum, imagining for a minute that they stretched on into the heavens, holding up the very sky. Briefly, weatherworn limestone appeared superimposed over the speckled white stone, a fragment of a memory from centuries gone by. There was no need to shake his head to rid him of the memory; it vanished on its own, flying away from him like a dream on wings.

He felt a push, or maybe a pull—not a real one, but something in his mind, urging him forward. This was it, then. This was the time, this was the place…. There was no going back. No looking back.

One foot stepped on the first of many steps up to the museum doors, but before its partner could join it on the second step, a cacophony of voices sounded out.

"Yugi!"

Though the pull continued to tug him, urging him onward, he fought it momentarily and turned to look toward whomever was calling him. Emerging from a black limousine only a few meters away were Téa, Joey, Tristan, Duke, and Malik. Téa spoke before Yugi got the chance to, the question of how they'd known where he'd be and how they'd somehow managed to catch up so quickly lingering on the tip of his tongue.

"Just what do you think you're doing?" The tone of Téa's voice was harsh and accusing; almost unfamiliar, barring that time back at the Duel Dome…. But he didn't care to remember that. He was here to find out **new** memories, his **real** memories.

Téa's expression softened as she placed two hands on Yami's shoulders. "No ending the story without consulting the supporting cast, hm?"

Yami blinked in mute astonishment; he hadn't even told them what he was doing. That had been part of the point— he wasn't even sure himself, but if there was a sliver of a chance, it would be just too hard to say goodbye.

"It could be dangerous," Yami finally said, shrugging off Téa's warm hands. She didn't attempt to touch him again, but she looked at him, the hurt quite clear in her eyes.

"Since when has that ever stopped us before, Yug,'?" Joey said, thumbing his nose and grinning.

"Yeah, you make it sound like we're strangers to this sort of thing," Tristan added. "We're kind of veterans by now, aren't we?"

"Not only that— aren't we a **team**?" Duke added, glancing at the others.

Malik nodded firmly in agreement. "Indeed. Pharaoh, if there is a danger, I should be there to ensure your safety." No one said anything about the irony of Malik's statement, given that less than a year ago, he'd been trying to kill them all and demonstrated anything but the sort of person they'd want "ensuring" Yami's safety.

"Let's go, guys," Téa said, her voice strong again. _'Danger or no… they're right. We _are_ a team, right? And Yugi's the leader, and we…we all matter to him, don't we?_

Yami continued up the stairs, his stride more confident now that he had his friends flanking him. He didn't look back to notice Téa still lingering on the sidewalk below.

_'Don't…_I_ matter?'_

Téa shook her head furiously, trying to rid herself of those thoughts. _'Who am I kidding? Of course I matter! This is no time to be a scaredy-cat!'_ But since Kaiba had left, Téa found herself doubting **a lot** of things. Her relationship, her home…her friends.

_'Friends are there for one another, and _my_ friends are going to leave without me if I don't stop being such a slowpoke!'_

Téa dashed up the steps two at a time without a second thought, quickly catching up to the others. It wasn't long before they were all in the museum, staring at the very tablet that Téa hadn't seen since before Valentine's Day, and which the others, besides Yugi and Malik himself, had never seen at all.

"I may be stating the obvious, but that looks just like Yugi!" Joey said, pointing at the figure on the right-hand side of the tablet.

Malik nodded and turned to Yami. "Would you rather explain it to them, or shall I?"

Yami shifted his weight from one foot to the other, looking slightly uncomfortable. "That's because **that** Pharaoh…is me," he began in a low voice, his gaze darting just beyond his ring of companions to the other museumgoers.

"Say what?" Tristan asked, looking flabbergasted. He peered closer at the brass plate to the left of the tablet. "Uh, but this thingy says the tablet is over 3000 years old!"

Yami said nothing in response. His gaze dropped to the three God cards in his hand. He felt a thrum of **something** that told him this was it; at last, this was the first step toward recovering his memories as that Pharaoh carved into millennia-old rock.

_'When I show these cards to the stone, the door to my memory will be unlocked. But_…_what will happen?'_ Like any good duelist, he'd gone over the possible scenarios. He'd thought, plotted, and strategized. But he hadn't asked Malik, who probably **knew**, hadn't asked his friends, who would probably worry….

What he feared to admit was the persistence of his own worry. This wasn't a duel or a game: this was it, the moment of truth, no going back, no second-guessing.

Yami lifted his hand holding the three God cards in it, splayed out, their faces to the ancient tablet. All at once, a bright light flashed— a golden-white color that flickered or pulsed as if alive.

"Do you see what I see?" Joey asked, wincing as he tried to focus on the source of the light: the cards or the tablet, right in the dead center. Which was it?

Téa and the others **did** see: it was not the cards themselves glowing the brightest, but the Eye of Horus in the center of the Millennium Puzzle-like carving on the tablet's center. But all of a sudden, that light began to fade, and with it whatever light had been reflecting off the God cards. Suddenly, an ice-like substance began to creep up the tablet from within its glass confines, obscuring the details of the Pharaoh and his great battle from view.

Bolts of pain shot through Yami's arm holding up the cards, making his limb feel leaden. "What the—?"

"Yugi, what's happening?"

"Something is draining the energy of the God cards!" Malik gasped, his eyes still fixed on the now-frozen tablet. "But where is it going?"

"Where is **what** going? Malik, we have to help him!" Téa shouted, trying to steady Yami even as he stumbled with the pain, his fingers contorting in ways unnatural.

"Drop the cards, man!" Duke said, holding up Yami's other arm. "Just let them go!"

"I…can't…" Yami gritted out, his fingers pressing deeper into the cards. Cards though they were, the paper didn't bend or wrinkle in the slightest. It seemed as if they, too, had a shield of something icy-hard and impenetrable covering them. All the while, some dark force leeched the awesome energy away from the three God cards.

Yami let out a guttural scream that startled everyone in the museum. He bit his lip and forced himself to stay silent after that, even as he fell to his knees, clearly in excruciating pain.

Téa stood at his side, shell-shocked and unable to move. _'Is this…how it's supposed to go? This can't be how the story ends! I have to be able to do something— '_ Téa reached out, hoping that she could do something— **anything**— but before her hand could even make contact with Yami, he turned at her, his eyes ablaze.

"Don't!" He groaned and let his head loll for a moment, before raising his head and glaring at Téa fiercely once more. "Don't touch me."

Téa's hand froze where it was, her eyes wide and unblinking. "I—" But she couldn't say any more; another loud scream from Yami interrupted her, whose body was beginning to buckle a second time, threatening to send him toppling to the floor completely.

"Break his fingers if you have to!" Malik snapped. "Whatever's draining him won't stop until he's dead!"

Téa frowned at Yami and then yanked his hand fiercely, pulling his fingers back with as much force as she could muster, while Duke and Joey attempted to support Yami from the other side. A series of sharp cracks split the air and Yami emitted another scream, but Téa didn't stop until the cards began to slip away from his palm.

The stiff and cold God cards slipped from Yami's hand, skittering to the floor like the flecks of paper they were. The black lightning energy formerly leeching away at Yami and his cards flickered and stopped altogether, leaving a crumpled Yami on the floor. He sat weakly, supported on one side by Duke and Joey and on the other by Téa, who let his hand—fingers unbroken—go before she took a step back, feeling oddly numb from head to toe.

Malik looked ready to say something, but before he could speak, another scream shot out, this time from outside the museum.

"Something has happened," Yami whispered. "We must go."

"Yug' are you—" Joey began, but Yami cut him off.

"We MUST go!" With that, he shook Duke and Joey's grips on his other arm off and he stood, albeit a bit unsteadily. A moment later, he seemed to have regained his composure and he dashed out to the entryway of the museum, the boys following in short order.

Téa turned to Malik, who stared at the God cards lying on the floor. He produced a cloth from his pocket and gingerly used it to pick up the cards, his touch so hesitant that Téa briefly thought he was **afraid** of the very God cards he'd once wielded.

"He's right— something has happened. We should go."

Téa gave a slow nod in response and jogged after Malik, but not before casting one last unsure glance at the still-frozen tablet.

_'What's happening _now_?'_

* * *

"No. Effin. Way," Joey said slowly, his hazel eyes wide and unblinking. A horned Cursed Dragon sailed past him, a pointed wing very nearly slicing off the tip of his nose. It arced upward into the sky, and a moment later, Joey shivered terribly, as if he'd jumped into ice water in his birthday suit.

"I'm not **seeing** things, am I?" Tristan asked, his eyes fixed on a Reaper of the Cards that was using a scythe to hack its way up a building.

"No, no you're definitely not. Not unless I am, too," Duke muttered, shaking his head and blinking rapidly. He didn't want to think he'd just seen an Orgoth the Destroyer go thundering into the nearby mall. But he was pretty sure he had, and he was pretty sure the screaming population of Domino City was seeing it—and other monsters—too.

"What is this, a prank with someone's Duel Disk?" Joey muttered.

"It can't be," Malik murmured.

Téa glanced at him—him, from the family of future foretelling Tombkeepers, looking as though he were in absolute shock. "There are too many of them to be coming from just one broken Duel Disk," she pointed out. "Besides, I've never heard of a malfunction like this before…" A supposed 'benefit' of being Kaiba's girlfriend meant she heard about the latest product developments and tests before the public did. She swore to keep such things mum from her friends, if only because Kaiba's business depended on it, but considering they currently thought his Duel Disks were behind this sudden **insanity**…well, it couldn't be true, could it?

_'Seto doesn't exactly tell me _everything_, though,'_ Téa realized with a slight grimace. He hadn't told her about his past (she'd found out on her own and nearly gotten killed as a result), he hadn't told her about his simulated battle with Yami (which had, again, nearly resulted in her death, but that was more the fault of Anubis than Seto), and he hadn't told her about his business trip to the States until right before he was about to leave.

Téa couldn't quite chase the thought that he didn't **trust** her, that even when he said he loved her, he still considered her part of the "geek squad." He was more than just an 'honorary member' at this point, too, after acknowledging that he was friends with everyone (in his own way), so why…?

"Well maybe it ain't just **one** busted Duel Disk, but a whole computer mainframe or somethin', you know what I'm sayin'?" Joey said.

"He's right," Duke added. "Someone could have hacked into Kaiba Corp.'s computers and caused this."

"In any event, we'll have to head to Kaiba Corp. to see if there's any connection," Tristan said.

"Yes, let's!" Yami said. Téa was about to motion the gang to head back toward the limousine that had taken them there, but before she could even do that, a giant purple clawed foot smashed its way into the asphalt not a meter away from her. A car squealed to a sudden stop, and the driver, a salaryman with thinning hair, took one look at the Twin-Headed King Rex and bolted from his vehicle, screaming soprano while he ran in the opposite direction. Tens of cars followed, crashing into newspaper stands, careening into sidewalks, braking suddenly when monsters suddenly appeared in their path.

"Uh, maybe it'd be faster if we **ran**?" Tristan asked, his eyes darting to the monsters that seemed to have tripled in numbers in only a minute.

Everyone nodded and took off in the direction of Kaiba Corporation, Téa hesitantly jogging in the rear.

This didn't feel right _at all._

They'd hardly gotten halfway there when suddenly the boys in front of her stopped. Téa slowed down, surprised to see a mop of light hair blocking the pathway.

"Weevil…? And Rex?"

"What are you two doing here?" Joey asked in surprise. He knew the two former regional duelists weren't natives to Domino City, and nothing short of a duelist tournament would usually bring them out. But Weevil and Rex didn't answer; instead they stared blankly in opposite directions, their eyes drawn to the myriad monsters floating, wiggling, stomping, and slithering their way around the city streets.

"Hey— hello? Anyone in there?" Joey waved his hand in front of their eyes, but the younger boys' only response was to laugh.

"Hee hee hee…it's begun! This is the sign! The sign of destruction!" Weevil chuckled, his eyes heavy-lidded.

"Heh heh, this world…it will all end soon!" Rex added, his mouth gaping even after he'd spoken.

"What are you talking about?" Malik asked sharply, but the only response Weevil and Rex gave was more high-pitched laughter.

Joey scowled. "I've had it with these two; they're no help. Come on, let's go." He motioned everyone to follow him around Weevil and Rex, and let the spaced-out duelists continue staring at the sky until some dragon swooped down and ate them whole.

_'Good riddance is what that'd be!' _he thought.

Minutes later, they reached the front steps of Kaiba Corporation headquarters in downtown Domino City, only to see a number of employees in dark suits and sunglasses pushing a huge group of reporters out.

"Our systems are operating as normal. Whoever said that these events are caused by any malfunction in Kaiba Corporation's Solid Vision 3D technology was misinformed! Because Mr. Kaiba is out of the country on business, you will have to wait until he holds a press conference for any official comment. Now please **leave**!" A harried looking Roland pocketed a handkerchief he used to wipe his sweaty brow, doing his best to look intimidating.

The reporters began to disperse, and right as they did, just enough space appeared for Roland to spot Téa standing amongst her friends. He took off his shades and briefly wiped the lenses, fixing Téa with an apologetic look before he smoothly put the glasses back on. She knew that look; she knew Roland well enough. Things at the company were stressful enough; they didn't need "Kaiba's girlfriend" wandering around with her famous friends, asking questions that were no better than what the reporters were accusing the company of.

"There's no way we're gettin' through **that** mess!" Joey exclaimed on sight of the reporters, many of them still thronging the entrance, shouting accusations at Roland, such as Kaiba's likely location within in the building, probably hiding at that, and how no one would believe anything Kaiba Corporation representatives said or did if they didn't issue an official statement to the press soon.

Téa inwardly winced and wondered if Seto, far away in the United States, was all right. She wondered if he even knew what was going on.

_'I wonder if he cares at all.'_

* * *

Hours later, the gang found themselves sitting around the television at Yugi's house, a room away from the Turtle Game Shop. Though the store was officially closed, Grandpa Moto was in the other room "maintaining" the three God Cards. Whatever icy-hard shell had formed around them earlier was gone, leaving the cards in pristine condition. Grandpa had been in the Game Shop for some time now, pretending to "clean" the God Cards with special gloves and protective casings whenever they walked through the shop to get to the kitchen catty-corner to the store's rear entrance. Every time, they spotted Yugi's Grandpa staring dreamily at the cards like some ancient lost treasure.

"Let him be," Yugi told them. "I never did make it up to him after I lost Exodia. The least I can do is let him look at the God cards for a while."

Joey had tried to protest, saying Yugi should never ever ever leave the God Cards alone. Or any other part of his deck, for that matter, reminding Yugi of how he'd just left his other rare and powerful cards at school earlier that same day and that losing Exodia wasn't his fault at all, it had been Weevil's, and, well, Weevil was a space cadet off in La-La Land now.

Every channel on the television featured some sort of special report; it seemed that the appearance of Duel Monsters was a worldwide event, what with Nightmare Penguins showing up on the African savannah, Funny Bunnies making themselves known in China, and Red Mermaids suddenly appearing off Australian shores.

"And now, we'll go live to Mr. Kaiba, chairman and President of Kaiba Corporation, who will make a statement about these recent terrifying events."

The screen changed to Kaiba, who looked as immaculate as he always did— at least in public. He sported that odd purple trench coat Téa thought she'd sneaked out of his closet and into a box meant for charity, but apparently he'd found it and taken it with him to America. Oddly enough, the background didn't look like the KC United States headquarters Téa had seen in pictures, but maybe they'd recently renovated or something. Another thing Kaiba never bothered to tell her.

"Our company has nothing to do with the recent 'Duel Monster' sightings around the world. As soon as they were reported to Kaiba Corporation, a system shutdown was authorized and a thorough diagnostic test of our systems was run. However, during this period, these 'monsters' were still appearing, and in greater numbers, all around the world, and, might I add, in places where Kaiba Corporation has no presence." Kaiba grimaced as he said this, as if disgusted by the fact that countries existed out there without even a single shop carrying a Kaiba Corporation product.

"Logically, one can no longer argue that Kaiba Corporation has anything to do with this event. Kaiba Corporation will give its utmost cooperation to the people as we attempt to solve the circumstances behind these sightings, as it is quite apparent that something outside of the Kaiba Corporation systems and products is behind these creatures' appearances."

"So wait a sec, Kaiba's saying his company has nothing to do with it? No way. Who else has the technology to produce holograms that huge?" Tristan asked.

"What if they're not holograms, after all?" Téa mused. "Maybe it could have something to do with the stone slab?" She glanced at Malik, and then at Yami, who nodded sharply before facing her. Téa felt an odd shiver race up and down her spine, but she somehow managed to suppress it, keeping her back ramrod straight so no one could tell how much all this was affecting her.

_'"This"…or _him?'

"I was thinking that, too," Yami spoke. "The moment when all this happened, some force blocked the pathway to my memories. Right after that, the monsters appeared. And then, what Weevil and Rex said…"

"What, that 'this world will end soon' and all that garbage? Aw, come on, Yug' don't tell me you're puttin' any stock into what those creeps say!" Joey exclaimed.

"There **was **something wrong with them, though," Duke said. "And I'm not talking your usual kind of 'wrong,' I mean something 'different-in-a-bad-way' wrong."

"Just what is the 'sign of destruction,' anyway?" Yami wondered aloud. But before anyone could brainstorm as to what Weevil and Rex had been talking about, the shatter of breaking glass and a hoarse cry emanated from the other room.

Everyone gasped, and without a moment's hesitation, dashed into the hallway connecting the living area to the Game Store. But by the time they got there, it was already too late: Grandpa Moto already lay collapsed on the floor, the primary glass cabinet shattered, cards and display boxes scattered everywhere.

"Grandpa!" Without anyone having realized just when, Yami had phased back into Yugi, who slowly helped his grandfather to rise.

"He's not hurt," Malik said after giving the older gentleman a cursory glance. "But we'd better get this glass cleaned up before someone does."

"Hey, what happened, Gramps?" Joey asked.

"Yugi…I'm sorry…."

"Grandpa? What's wrong?" Yugi asked, his eyes widening ever so slightly.

"The…God cards…."

"You can't mean…!" Yugi gasped.

"They were **stolen?**" Joey yelled, immediately rising to his feet and glancing toward the store's entrance, where the door swung listlessly in the wind. "No way I'm gonna let anyone get away with this!" He immediately dashed out the door, but barely made it more than two meters outside the entrance when he saw something that stopped him in his tracks.

_Obelisk the Tormentor_.

Not just some projection. Joey had seen enough duels to know what the projected form of Obelisk the Tormentor looked like. It was still huge and scary, but something told him that this was much more than a complex mess of protons and electrons or whatever.

A moment later, Yugi and the others joined Joey on the sidewalk, where they gasped as The Winged Dragon of Ra and Slifer the Sky Dragon joined Obelisk in short order, filling the sky with their awesome presence.

_'Only those with a connection to the Gods can summon them,'_ Yugi remembered. It may have been more than a year ago, but he knew full well what happened when someone **lacking** that connection tried to summon the Gods.

_They died_. Or at least got mentally scarred, as was the case with Mai in her duel with Dark Malik.

Suddenly, a bright light shone in everyone's eyes, drawing their attention away from the gods in the sky. But it wasn't just one bright light, it was three— three motorcycle lights turned on full-blast, their riders obscured by helmets and shadow.

"When the forbidden door is opened…" the first man on the right started, crossing an arm over his chest.

"The light of the Orichalcos shall purify this world!" the second man continued, making the same motion with his arm.

"We are Doma's three swordsmen!" the last one said in an unfamiliar accent, repeating the gesture his companions made.

"Three swordsmen? What are you, a buncha medieval throwbacks?" Joey taunted.

"Did you steal the God Cards?" Yugi demanded, getting straight to the point.

"Exactly," the middle one said, a sneer coming through his tone of voice. He flicked his hand into a pocket, producing a card. He flipped it over to reveal The Winged Dragon of Ra, bright yellow and apparently gleaming in the bright light. His companions repeated the gesture, the one on a yellow motorcycle flipping the card in his hand over to reveal Slifer the Sky Dragon, and the one on the red motorcycle holding up Obelisk the Tormentor.

"Nameless Pharaoh."

Yugi drew back with a gasp, utterly astonished. _'They know…about Yami? About the other me?'_ No one else did— not outside their circle of friends, except by extension: Pegasus, Shaadii, Isis, Odion, and a scant few others knew, but that truly was all.

"We're issuing you a challenge," the man continued, revealing an ornate Duel Disk strapped to his wrist, a deck of cards already in place. "If you want them back, come to the unfinished building." With that, the man revved up his motorcycle and took off in the opposite direction, heading for a building in the distance. There was a crane placed at the top, ready to lay down more steel girders. The two other men followed, leaving Yugi and the others looking stunned in their wake.

Seconds later, Joey bolted after them, and one by one, the others followed, running faster than they ever had in their entire lives.

_'Why am I doing this?'_ Téa thought, even as her legs began to burn with the over-taxation of her muscles. It was a painful reminder that she was out of practice. _'I don't get why I'm asking myself that, but, well, here I am! Whatever the weird feelings I've been having are…they're not as simple as "friendship," anymore, are they?'_

Part of her already knew the answer to that. That was the way of things; most questions **any** person asked themselves they already knew the answer to. The same held true for her. It wasn't just now that she'd begun questioning herself, and it wasn't just a matter of 'Why?' It was also a matter of admitting that, deep in her heart, she'd known the answers all along.

_'Am…I still in love with the Pharaoh? Has part of me refused to give up on him? No, that's not it. And it's not that I started to project those old feelings for him onto Seto, either. If I still felt anything for the Pharaoh, I would have taken the chance when it presented itself. Forced myself to learn to love Yugi, too…'_

But that was even crueler than injuring an old man to steal his grandson's famed God cards.

She would have been using Yugi, and that thought would have never sat well with Téa.

_'But using Seto _is_ okay?'_

At first, that's all their relationship had been: a means to an end. He hadn't been on her radar, not even in the slightest. He was just the same egomaniac with a grudge he'd always been… just, after her parents' death, he'd strangely been nice to her, given her a place to call home again. She'd been so desperate for the feeling of 'family' that she'd lost that it was easy to start feeling **things** for Seto Kaiba.

But then those feelings had become real. And then, reciprocated.

_"God Téa, I'm so in love with you…"_

It had felt like a dam breaking when he'd said those words, a rush of welcome relief. She hadn't felt that when Yugi'd admitted his feelings for her, but she'd imagined that was what it would feel like if the Pharaoh ever did.

But those feelings were from long ago, and in the here and now, she was in love with Seto Kaiba, no matter how much of a jerk he could be at times…right?

_'It happens to all of us,'_ Téa thought grimly. After all, the whole reason why **this** had started was because Yugi had taken off on his own without telling any of the friends **he** supposedly cared for and trusted so much. It wasn't just the Pharaoh taking over Yugi again; she knew this was something between the two of them, and she wasn't sure who she was more mad at: Yugi for shunting her to the wayside for whatever 'noble' reason, or the Pharaoh, for trying to leave without saying goodbye.

It wasn't a matter of holding the Pharaoh back from his true destiny anymore; she knew that. She'd known since Battle City, and that realization was what had eased her feelings away from the Pharaoh in the first place.

_'If I'd just kept on thinking, "there'll be a way for us to be together," then I'd be way worse off than I am now.'_

If she'd kept on having faith that there was a way for the Pharaoh to be a permanent fixture in her life, the tiniest thing would have broken her heart. Like today, with his trying to leave without a word to her or any of the others….

_'He'd probably say "it'd be too difficult to say goodbye to you" or something like that.'_

She knew it would be difficult too, which was why she kept running forward.

_'He might be ready to say goodbye, but I'm not. Not by a long shot!'_ Not with monsters crawling in the sky, her relationship with Seto hanging by a precarious thread, and the full truth of the Pharaoh's identity and past still a secret. _'Not now. Not like this.'_

"They're splitting up!" Téa hollered as she noticed the taillights of the three motorcyclists abruptly changing. The tall, bulky man with Ra in his coat pocket kept powering forward, while the cyclist on a yellow bike veered to the right and the cyclist on a red machine sped off to the left.

Yugi didn't say a word as he kept running in the same direction he'd been charging in for the past several minutes— after the gruff-voiced duelist with Ra.

"I'll take the guy with Obelisk, you guys—"

"Got it! Let's hope they all meet in the middle!" Joey cast an extremely brief wave at Téa before he and the other boys, minus Yugi, tore after the motorcyclist with Slifer. Téa veered to the left after the cyclist with Obelisk, well aware that the road would eventually lead to one of Domino's busiest thoroughfares. Was it possible the motorcyclists intended to split up to shake the teens off their tail and get away with their theft of the God Cards? Maybe they didn't intend to go to some empty construction site after all!

_'I won't give up so easily!'_

None of them would. Or maybe it was more like none of them **could**. They'd been in too deep ever since they went to Duelist Kingdom those years ago. And even though they were "just" teenagers trying to graduate high school, there was no way to just stop running and turn back.

At this point, there was nowhere to turn back **to**.

* * *

He was on his way to the Turtle Game Store when he saw her, tearing down the opposite side of the street like the hounds of Hell were after her.

He was exhausted from all that had been happening: near-constant phone calls, a press conference on his jumbo jet, and worry over whether or not Mokuba and Téa were caught outside in the mayhem or doing the smart thing and staying indoors. He wished he could say with some affirmation that he knew exactly where they were…but he didn't. Téa hadn't answered her cell phone when he'd called, and the phone had simply kept ringing when he'd tried the mansion and the Turtle Game Store. He was heading to the shop now, hoping to find everyone congregated in one place…and that was when he'd spotted her.

"Téa…?" A cursory glance into the bright oncoming traffic revealed no one was chasing Téa, but she certainly seemed to be running **somewhere** with purpose. "Follow her," Kaiba told his driver as he gestured to Téa, by now half a block ahead of where she'd been last.

"Sir?"

"Just do it!" Kaiba demanded. The driver hesitantly pulled back into the center lane of traffic with the intention of driving alongside the divider to keep Téa in his sights. She was running against the proper side of pedestrian traffic, but few people seemed to be out at this time of night, which would have struck Kaiba as unusual were it not for all the bizarre reports of Duel Monsters coming alive around the world.

The thought caused Kaiba to look backward and upward, but there were no Duel Monsters chasing Téa from behind or from the sky. In fact, to Seto Kaiba, the night appeared as any other—up until the God Cards quite abruptly appeared in the sky some distance ahead. The moment he tore his eyes away from the Gods in the sky back to where Téa was supposed to be, she was gone, but there was a figure running down the alleyway just ahead of where Téa was last.

"After her!" Kaiba motioned to his driver to turn off, and within moments they were caught in a maze of warehouses and detoured streets.

"I can't get any further, sir; the streets are too narrow. There's a construction site up ahead as well."

Well, that explained why Obelisk the Tormentor had suddenly appeared, towering over a crane.

"Fine. Stay here unless I call and tell you otherwise." Kaiba bolted from the limousine and slammed the door shut. He headed into the maze of narrow side streets to find Téa, and to see if the Gods he had seen in the sky were actually **real**.

* * *

Téa nearly tripped over an abandoned motorcycle—faintly red in the moonlight and still warm—before she realized she'd arrived. Looming before her was a massive construction site, the skeleton of a building just ahead, a crane perched at its apex. She could see the shadows of the boys emerging from an entrance up ahead where two other motorcycles sat, riderless. They reunited in the center, a wide area surrounded by crates, steel girders, and massive piles of lumber all around.

"They've gotta…be in…here somewhere…." Joey panted out, hands on his knees as he caught his breath.

"No kidding. These have gotta be their bikes," Duke managed between gulps of air. No one among them was not winded, though some seemed much less worse for the wear than others, Malik, Téa, and Yugi among them.

"I've been expecting you, Yugi Moto," a voice boomed suddenly, echoing strangely off the crates and the girders. "No, I should call you…**Pharaoh**, shouldn't I?"

"Hey! You're one of them, aren't you?" Joey accused, thrusting his finger up into the semi-darkness. The figure above them shook as if laughing, but they couldn't hear anything. A moment later, the person—a bearded man with a strange monocle over his left eye—was right before them. He'd jumped an impossible distance from the top of the crane and landed on his feet without a single scratch. He came down upon a platform made of lumber, the sort stacked in such a way that it looked stable and yet fragile, like it all might come toppling down at any moment.

"My name is Gurimo, and I serve Lord Raphael, one of the Three Swordsmen of Doma. I challenge you to a duel!"

"Fine," Yami bit out, hauling himself up onto the lumber pile without incident. "But I warn you, only those chosen by the Gods have the ability to properly summon them and make use of their powers. If you are not chosen and you attempt to summon the Gods, you will offend them."

To everyone's surprise, Gurimo started to laugh. "You can see with your own eyes whether I am able to summon the Gods or not."

"Interesting. I'll accept your challenge. Let's duel!" Yami raised his arm and activated the mechanism that clicked the two halves of the Duel Disk into place, the Life Point counter flashing to life. Gurimo did the same with his odd Duel Disk, a tapered protrusion emerging from the side into a deadly point. They were lucky all the man wanted was a duel; else, he probably could have gouged them open if he'd used that thing as a weapon.

"I'll go first—draw!" Yami did just that, practiced hands drawing six cards from the deck in one swoop. He took one glance at his hand of cards and withdrew one, inserting it onto a slot on the surface of his Duel Disk.

"I place Beta the Magnet Warrior in Defense Mode and lay one more card down. Since I can't attack on the first turn, it's your move."

High above the lumber stack, up in the girders of the partially finished building, three men emerged.

"Nameless Pharaoh, let us try your power."

Below, Téa felt another odd shiver run through her body, and she glanced up, right at where the men were standing. But the darkness was too thick for her to make them out, and none of them moved and revealed their position to the onlookers below.

"It's my move. I'll summon the Marauding Captain, in Attack Mode! With his ability, I can also summon a Level 4 monster—so I choose Shadow Tamer!" Beside the armored captain with his twin swords, a voluptuous warrior princess appeared, clad in white and brown, looking fierce with a whip held taut and ready.

But the man didn't declare an attack, though he quite clearly had the advantage. Instead, he withdrew another card from his hand, laughing all the while. "Let me show you my true power, **Yugi Moto**," the man said in a mocking tone. "Behold! The card born of the darkness! Its divine power will be ours, and will imprison all enemies within the duel circle!"

Suddenly, a fierce wind began to whip all around, stirring objects and creating an unearthly echo as it whistled off the steel in the construction yard. Dark clouds loomed overhead, hovering as if they were about to swallow them whole, girders, crane, and all.

"I activate…the Seal of Orichalcos!" Gurimo thrust the card down onto his Duel Disk, which suddenly flared with green light, a circle of strange symbols lighting up the rim surrounding the Disk portion of the device. The circle spun ever faster, growing wider and wider until it seemed echoed in the very sky itself, falling down as if to encircle everything within its confines…. As it came down and settled on the lumbar stack where Yami and Gurimo dueled, six points on the circle's inner rim glowed brighter, sending out beams of light underneath the duelists' very feet, connecting in a multitude of sharp lines. Finally, the lines formed a strange six-pointed star of sorts, the light flaring up more and shooting outward.

Suddenly, as if the light itself had somehow been responsible, Téa and the boys were blasted back from the lumber stack, flung outward as though they were no more than rag dolls.

* * *

Seto Kaiba had never felt the desire to 'live vicariously,' as the saying went. He didn't care much for thrilling movies, didn't envy skydivers and BASE jumpers, didn't sympathize for the poor saps who injured and humiliated themselves on so-called reality television programs.

But in that instant, that moment when he watched, as if in sickening slow-motion, Téa crash against the construction yard wall, he wished he could feel everything she felt—take any and all pain away from her, and make this pointless suffering end. Above all else, one thought rang clear in his fogged mind: _'She doesn't deserve this._'

She deserved better, actually: a life away from madmen who used cards to dictate the fate of the free world, a life away from conniving murderers and devious plots, away from ancient sorcerers, magic, **pharaohs**….

_'He's always putting her into danger!'_

The second that thought broke through his mental haze, time seemed to speed up again. His eyes were still fixed on Téa—even though the other boys were with her, beside her, having been blasted back just like her, Kaiba didn't see any of them. He simply didn't have it in him to care.

She didn't move.

Kaiba's eyes widened a fraction, wider than they'd ever been in the past several sleep-deprived, back-and-forth, back-and-forth days. His stillness abruptly transformed into a wild abandon as he struggled to find a way around the barriers separating him from her. He pinched his arm between two towers of girders; the opening was too frustratingly small. He missed spotting a toolbox on the ground and nearly sprained his ankle as a result, but with a hop and a hobble, he got over or around it, trying to find his way closer, closer— without ever letting his eyes stray from Téa's form. He got closer by a meter or two, but not close enough for anyone to see or hear, not soon enough to do a damn thing, to stop it all from happening again, dammit! And then…and then she stirred.

He saw her hand move first, as if it was some sort of singular entity on its own, a weak thing hanging onto the last vestiges of life. But that left hand trembled a bit more, a bit violently, and the tremor seemed to wrack Téa's arm, her shoulder, her neck. Then, her eyes opened, and before Kaiba could even think a coherent thought, she was back on her feet, limping but marching back steadily toward the pale green dome. The others followed in short order, Joey clutching his shoulder, Duke his right knee. They were all injured in some form or fashion; they all showed it plainly, but not on their faces, no, they all—Téa perhaps more so than any of her companions—looked strikingly determined, unfazed, unsurprised.

Were Kaiba to see his own reflection in a mirror at that moment, he would have realized that he was just the opposite of them; his own face was drawn in shock, worry, and that which he detested most but had no real control over: fear.

But that fear slowly dribbled away, replaced by a wash of confusion: while the others eventually let go of their injured areas, Téa still gripped her shoulder tightly, still had a grimace curving her lips, marring the fiery determined look in her eyes—a look Kaiba had come to recognize quite well. The boys stood behind her, each looking wary in their own way; it was Joey who reached out a hand as if to tug Téa back a bit, to get her away from the barrier the Seal of Orichalcos had created, as if it might spring out at them and blast them beyond the construction lot walls next time.

"Don't touch me!" Téa abruptly snapped, centimeters before Joey's hand even made contact with her. Joey's hand froze in mid-air, his expression more than a bit shocked. Belatedly, Téa's gaze dropped, her frown becoming more sad than angry. "I'm sorry. I'm fine."

A lie if he'd ever heard one. They all knew it, but Kaiba was the only one who **would** do something about it and yet **couldn't**.

It was pointless trying to get to her, anyway, he realized, letting his gaze finally fall from her silhouette; the mysterious barrier blocked the only direct route between Kaiba and the others. If Kaiba had wanted to experience the pain of the Orichalcos, he would have done it to save Téa, to prevent her from being in any pain. But it was useless now; what was done was done, right? And if there was one thing to be said about living vicariously, it was this: Seto Kaiba learned from others' mistakes. He would not venture a step closer to any of them until the barrier was gone. He wouldn't reveal himself either, lest that jeopardize his and Téa's safety even further.

And as for Yugi, trapped within that sealed barrier, once again dueling for the fate of the free world and who knew what else?

_'Let him duel.'_

* * *

"Everyone!" Yami gasped as he saw his friends struggle to stand from behind a sheen of green light. He instinctively ran toward them, aiming to leave the duel circle and help them, but he was barely within a centimeter of the inner rim of the circle when a force pushed him back into the circle proper. There was a brief sensation of numbness up and down the arm that he'd thrust forward in his run toward his friends, but it soon tingled and faded away—just like the ripples in the light barrier surrounding him on all sides.

Gurimo started to laugh wildly again. "Isn't it wonderful? A dueling arena without **any** distractions, where one can concentrate on what is most important: the duel! No one can come in, and no one can go out…no one but the victor!" Gurimo raised his head, revealing a smaller version of the very barrier that encircled the duel arena—the "Seal of Orichalcos" he'd called it—shining bright, along with a pendant that hung around the man's neck. "The loser's soul will be sealed within…forever!"

"What are you talking about?" Yami demanded, turning to face Gurimo fully once more. Gurimo only laughed, the pupils of his eyes looking off-color and inhumanely tiny, while the whites of his eyes stretched and gleamed, giving him the appearance of a bleached-white beetle.

_'Is this man able to create a Game of Darkness?'_ As soon as the thought crossed his mind, the Millennium Puzzle began to glow, the faintest traces of an Eye of Horus appearing on Yami's own brow. But just seconds after the light began to glow, it faded and vanished, as if sucked away into an infinitely dark space as tiny as a pinhead.

"It's no use!" Gurimo laughed. "The Millennium Puzzle is nothing more than a mere toy compared to the Seal of Orichalcos! Its powers have no effect here!"

Yami looked around the greenish space warily; he'd been unable to pierce the barrier when it had first gone up, and now it seemed to be able to suck the very energy from his Millennium item. _'A different power than the Millennium Items…?'_ But how? The Millennium Items were supposed to be the oldest source of magical power that still existed, and given that there were so few Items, and they were so selective of "their" owners, how could anything exist that could negate the energies of an Item like the Puzzle?

"I know you want to know why," Gurimo said, chuckling with each word. "The seal, you see, is far more ancient than your Puzzle, your pendant, any of your **Items**. Far, far older, and far more powerful. So powerful, in fact," Gurimo raised a hand, and the seal seemed to brighten, light filtering through the space like a cloud, passing through the bodies of the enemy monsters, the Marauding Captain and the Shadow Tamer. All of a sudden, their eyes began to glow a demonic red, and in short order the same symbol that appeared on Gurimo's head and surrounded the duel arena appeared on their brows. Both creatures shifted as their bodies seemed to ripple, and suddenly Yami swallowed a lump in his throat that he hadn't noticed before.

By now, Gurimo was cackling madly. "Yes, yes, Pharaoh, you are beginning to **see**, aren't you? The seal does many things…including increasing the strength of all of **my** creatures by 500 attack points!"

"Now…Marauding Captain! Attack Beta the Magnet Warrior!" The armored captain with his glowing red eyes shot forward, faster than Yami expected, and in an instant, his Magnet Warrior was no more than holographic shards disappearing into the ether. But Yami was nothing if not prepared; he quickly activated the face-down card he'd set on his first turn.

"I'll activate Soul Rope, allowing me to summon any four-star monster from my deck at a cost of 1000 Life Points. I choose…Gamma, the Magnet Warrior!"

The 1800 ATK-value Magnet Warrior appeared on the field, a coral-colored conglomeration of metallic parts and glowing pieces.

Gurimo guffawed openly. "You'll have to try harder than **that**, Pharaoh!"

"He sure is confident given that his two monsters, powered-up or not, don't add up to what Gamma's got," Joey griped. "What's this guy's deal, he forget how to do basic math or somethin'?"

"No…" Téa breathed, keeping her eyes fixed on the duel. "He's got something else planned."

Indeed, to finish his turn, Gurimo placed one card down in his Magic and Trap Zone. "Feel free to try again," he chuckled darkly. Clearly, whatever he'd laid down was some kind of a trap…but what kind? Or perhaps it wasn't a trap, but a powerful magic card, a spell meant to lure Yami into attacking one of Gurimo's two weaker, still-in-attack-position creatures. If Yami took the bait, he'd likely lose the one monster he had, his one defense…but if he didn't, Gurimo would only get stronger.

"I plan to do more than try!" Yami shouted back, his gaze never wavering from Gurimo's face. "Feast your eyes on this—Alpha, the Magnet Warrior!"

The third of Yami's famous Magnet Warriors appeared on the field, a moss-green magnet monster with a sharp blade clutched in one hand. But before Yami could even declare an attack, Gurimo's smile stretched so wide, it looked as though his face might split.

"Why thank you! You've activated my Hidden Soldiers trap. And now, unfortunately for you, I am able to conjure up a creature borne of ultimate darkness. Appear, Makyura the Destructor!"

"Is it just me guys, or has that bearded dude gotten a heck of a lot more arrogant since he played that weird Seal card?" Duke asked. "Not that there's anything wrong with self-confidence, but this guy went from quiet and simple to loud and probably more than a bit crazy."

"You're right," Malik said softly. "All of that man's monsters are now Dark, and so is the man himself."

"He also said…the soul of the loser will be sealed within that thing. What—What could he mean?" Téa asked, her voice nearly breaking.

"Exactly what he said," Malik stated grimly. "And judging by the looks of that Seal, that man wasn't lying when he said it's even more ancient than the Pharaoh."

Everyone looked at Malik in mute surprise, but no one could find the words to say, though they were lingering clearly on the edge of everyone's lips: "There might not be a way out of this. This might truly be the final duel."

* * *

"Your guy Gurimo ain't half bad, Raph," Valon said. "What're you gonna do if the Pharaoh loses his soul tonight?"

"If the Pharaoh's defeated here, he isn't worthy of being our rival," Raphael snapped.

"Well then," Valon said, leaning forward a bit. "That leaves Joey Wheeler…." He glanced at the blond boy below, who looked agitated and restless, unable to stay still but miraculously able to stay quiet in the face of what looked to be his best friend's final duel.

"And Seto Kaiba," Alister added softly. He pointed toward a darkened part of the lot where one could just barely make out a lithe figure in an all-white suit, his body pointed not in the direction of the duel, but of the Pharaoh's friends. More specifically, the lone girl amongst them all.

"Well, I'll be," Valon said. "Shoulda known that guy would show up. Just figured it'd be later rather than sooner. Well, no skin off our noses, right?"

"We have to collect all their souls," Raphael said in a low voice, clearly ignoring Valon's commentary. "And we **will** succeed."

"And what about her?" Valon asked, thumbing toward Téa. "Perky, brunette, female…guess that's the girl the boss mentioned, then, eh?"

"The boss didn't call her 'perky,' Valon," Raphael said in a gruff voice, keeping his arms crossed over his chest. Unlike Valon, he left his wrap-around sunglasses on his face, his chin tilted up and away from the battlefield below them, as if he couldn't care less about the whole proceeding.

"Well it suits her, don't it? Though I can't see what the boss wants with her. Not unless his tastes run a little young, you know what I'm saying?"

"Shut up, Valon," the man on Valon's other side snapped. "It's not our place to question why the boss wants to know about her. He'll tell us if it's necessary for us to know." This third man who'd spoken, a redhead with a high-cut top and a long gray trench coat, kept his sunglasses on as well, though unlike the tall blond, he appeared to be watching the ongoing duel with at least minor interest.

Surprisingly, Valon did fall silent after that; his attention didn't seem stuck on any particular person, least of all Yami and the robed man he was dueling. Instead, his gaze wandered to the five teenagers clustered on the edge of the field, each of them with varying degrees of upset on their faces. He leaned in just a bit to see if he could hear any of what they were saying.

"I'm sick of this!" the perky brunette was saying angrily. "Every time we get half a second of peace, a new lunatic who wants to take over the world, steal the Millennium Items, or get revenge against the Pharaoh!"

"Yeah, well, bad guys don't exactly keep a schedule book, Téa," Tristan told her. "They're usually crazy, remember?"

"Crazy and possibly dangerous. We already got blasted back by it once—" Duke began to point out, but Téa was already sprinting toward the battlefield as if she had a chance of breaking through the barrier that the Seal of Orichalcos had created.

In an instant, her fists made contact with what should have been empty air, but instead was a shield that moved like liquid, glowing all the while. In the spot where her hands made contact, the liquid shuddered violently and glowed a brilliant white, nearly a meter's worth of the surrounding space appearing to freeze.

_BAM!_

Valon's eyes widened in surprise, his head jerking back quick enough to cause his large goggle-like sunglasses to come sliding down his brow to rest crookedly on his nose. But he didn't reach up to adjust them; he kept staring at Téa, who was raising her arms to strike the barrier once more.

_'Things are already complicated enough as they are! Why do these lunatics always have to come around, threatening to plunge the world into darkness?'_ Téa thought, squeezing her eyes against the bright light that flared from the Seal.

_BAM!_

No one had ever managed to **touch** the Seal; everyone always got blasted back from it the moment they got too close. Only those who'd developed a strong connection to the Seal could even summon it, let alone remain unaffected by its power. After all, it was an intangible, nigh unstoppable force, something greater than anyone had ever known…anyone except the boss himself, of course, Valon corrected mentally. So how was this girl…?

No—maybe it wasn't a question of "how," but "why." And Valon sucked in a breath as the realization came to him: _'So _that's_ why the boss is so interested in her. Well, I don't blame 'im.'_ Valon leaned back once more, pushing his goggles back up onto his head. It was pretty amusing, watching this little spitfire do her best, her pretty face contorted with anger and upset all the while.

_'For once, can't a card game be just a card game, and not have something to do with the ancient past or the near future?'_ Téa thought._ 'Why can't things ever be simple for us anymore? We always get caught up in this… No, not "us,"' _Téa amended, _'"me."' _

Yugi and Joey willingly jumped into these kind of situations—they craved excitement, adventure—anything that would take them out of the mundane world of high school. Tristan and Duke followed because they felt as if they had no reason not to, nothing better to do with their time. Malik…he followed prophecy. Once, he'd tried to defy it, and it had only brought him pain.

_'Am I the only one who bothers to resist diving headfirst into every new trap that comes our way, every new enemy that wants to duel with the fate of the world hanging in the balance?'_

Why was it always about cards and games, monsters and magic, and a group of teenagers who should have **normal** lives? Why her?

_BAM!_

Valon glanced briefly at his partners flanking him on either side. Despite the unprecedented things this supposed-nobody girl was doing to the Seal, they remained as still as statues, their lips set in tight, grim lines. Neither of them looked the least bit worried that the Seal might actually shatter under Téa's onslaught.

_'Well, if they're not worried….'_ Valon shook his head briefly and resumed leaning on the railing to watch the spectacle below. Bright lights and big explosions, for sure, but…nothing would come of it. This was all just a test, after all. A test to see whose lives were worthy. And from the looks of things, Téa Gardner's very well might be….

With each successive pound, the shield grew brighter and shuddered more.

"Damn it, stop this! Stop it right now!" Téa screamed as loud as she could. The strain she felt was evident, what with the redness of her face and the tears starting to streak down her cheeks. Whether those tears were caused by her frustration or the intermittent bright light that flashed when she pounded on the area protected by the Seal was anyone's guess.

_'I just want to live my own life!'_

She raised her fists together, intending to hit the shield one last time with the most powerful blow she could muster.

All of her friends, Yugi and Gurimo within the barrier, and Kaiba on the opposite side, invisible to everyone present, stared in amazement as her fists made contact with the Seal's barrier one last time, an explosion of light bursting from the point of contact—so bright that those without sunglasses had to look away, and those within the barrier could almost make out the space where Téa stood, un-tinted by the unearthly green of the light of the Orichalcos.

"Foolish girl!" Gurimo snarled, momentarily distracted from his turn. "For your impudence, the Orichalcos shall take **your** soul along with the Pharaoh's!"

"I don't care! Just stop! Please…" The barrier's light died down once more, its liquid-like surface swirling and filling the momentary gap that Téa's blows caused. She sank to her knees in despair, her eyes too filled with tears even to focus on the shapes within the barrier anymore. "Just stop."

If anyone had heard her pleading whisper, there was no indication.

She sat there, heavy-limbed and unable—or at the least, unwilling—to move, her eyes having lost their focus. Always card games, always souls, destinies, and the fate of the free world hanging in the balance. Was there any escape from it? Was she stuck in this mess simply by virtue of being Yugi's friend?

While both Téa's thoughts and the Seal of the Orichalcos swirled about, the duel continued. Yami activated Shallow Grave in order to bring back Beta the Magnet Warrior from the graveyard, combining Beta with Alpha and Gamma to form Valkyrion, a decidedly powerful conglomeration of magnets and mechanics. Distantly, Téa thought she could make out a vaguely familiar voice high above, but she couldn't bring herself to raise her head and see who was talking, let alone make out their words.

But her fingers skimmed the space just ahead of her, a black space with a mass of splinters thrusting up from the lumber stack.

What looked so simple—like light and liquid—was powerful, and Téa knew it. She'd **felt** it. She hadn't seen when the barrier had convulsed and caused the scorching tear into the wood, but she realized that a split second could have been the difference between her and that piece of lumber. Her stopping when and where she did may have just saved her life.

_'What's a life worth when you can't _save_ anyone?'_

* * *

The two duelists played card after card, the tide of the battle seeming to shift with each passing minute. Yami gained the upper hand the moment his Valkyrion destroyed the Marauding Captain and knocked Gurimo's life points down to 2200, but Victory's favor was fickle and quickly shifted back to Gurimo when he played Monster Reborn to bring back the Marauding Captain and sacrifice him, Shadow Tamer, and Makyura the Destructor to summon Obelisk the Tormentor.

A chill swept through Téa's veins as she watched the god appear in the ink-black sky, looming far over the battlefield. In moments, the shape of the Seal of the Orichalcos appeared on the god's brow, with eyes that glowed an unearthly red hue. Against all odds, the man without a Millennium Item had managed successfully to summon a god, with no apparent ill effects.

_'What are you supposed to do when everything you think you know is wrong? When the whole world turns itself inside-out?'_

Téa had no answer for herself, but she had enough sense to ease her way down the lumber stack and back to the group of guys. She could feel their gazes on her, has the inclination that they were probably worried or concerned or something, but she couldn't force any words out of her mouth. What was there to explain, and was there reason enough even to bother, when their doom seemed to march inexorably toward them in the form and shape of one ancient Egyptian god?

"The most powerful creature that ever existed combined with the most incredible force ever imagined!" Gurimo cackled, his eyes widening even further as mad glee overtook him. Tendrils of red appeared in Gurimo's eyes, the vessels snapping one by one and tinting his sclera a red not unlike the glow within Obelisk's own eye sockets. "You're trapped in a circle of doom, **Pharaoh**," he continued mockingly, "and soon your soul will be sealed away for all eternity!"

With a simple command, Obelisk turned on its former master, destroying Valkyrion and reducing Yami's life points to 2000—and his soul that much closer to being sacrificed to the Seal.

"It'll take more than that to get Yug' outta the game," Joey said confidently, affirming his words with a sharp nod. Téa stared at him with tired eyes. If she could have managed it, she might have looked surprised, but it wasn't as if anyone's eyes were on **her** anyway; she might as well be invisible for all the attention she commanded within this circle of 'friends.' How could he be so confident when nothing had gone right **at all** today? From the very start, it had been one disaster after another. It wasn't that she doubted Yami despite their personal ups and downs; Téa didn't think she was truly capable of doubting his strength—but more like she was growing increasingly unsure of this new enemy. If Pegasus had simply been a grieving maniac with too much time and money on his hands, and Malik was a misinformed teenager with a split personality, then what was this? **Who** were they even fighting? Without knowing that, how could anyone be so assured of Yami's imminent victory?

There were too many questions and not enough answers.

But there was a spark of hope; Gurimo stumbled forward a bit, clutching a hand to his head.

"Uh-oh. Didn't the boss say that the Egyptian Gods' power wouldn't mix too well with the Orichalcos?" Valon said anxiously.

"Forget about it, the geezer's just getting too old for this," Raphael said gruffly.

Alister rolled his eyes, opting to glance at those not dueling below. Neither Kaiba nor his petite girlfriend moved in the slightest, their eyes fixed on different things, dead to anyone or anything else. It would be so easy to do it right now, Alister thought. There were a number of ways he could do it, too—a screwdriver to the head, a well-aimed chisel at his back, a sledgehammer to—

"That **is** why we had him test the Pharaoh first," Raphael was laughing darkly, the out-of-place sound interrupting Alister's thoughts. He frowned slightly before glancing back at Seto Kaiba. No, he wouldn't do anything dishonorable. Alister had a sense of pride—he wouldn't sink to the Kaibas' level.

"Watch what you say," Alister murmured as his gaze shifted back to the playing field. "If it were merely a matter of age, none of us would have a job right now."

"Ah…righto, righto," Valon acquiesced in a low voice, scratching the back of his head in embarrassment. Raphael just snorted and went back to staring down his nose at the duelists far below.

Yami quickly took advantage of his opponent's apparent deliriousness; he played Graceful Charity and drew three cards, discarding two. He then summoned Gazelle, the King of the Mythical Beasts in defense mode, set another card facedown and ended his turn. It was clear he was on the defense, and as yet had no quick strategy for defeating his own stolen god card, but perhaps he was in the midst of forming a strategy.

Whether it was magic, age, or something else that had caused Gurimo's nausea, the sensation seemed to fade quickly enough; he drew a card, set another face down, and attacked Gazelle with Obelisk, destroying the creature with ease.

"Urgh, why'd Yug' let that happen? Now he's got no monsters left to protect him!"

Téa wondered that, too. Though she'd been witness to nearly every single duel Yami took part in, and realized a strategy could consist of a single card and some good timing, there were few "strategies" that involved allowing monsters to be destroyed one after the other.

And then she remembered: _He wants to know the ending to his story._ He'd been trying to discover the truth behind his past for ages now, and had almost succeeded at the museum. He'd tried to finish his story without properly saying goodbye, without telling **any** of them….

Maybe he didn't **want** to win this duel. Maybe some twisted, lost part of the Pharaoh wanted to be free of a world that had no memories for him, to let Yugi live his own life and play his own duels….

A flood of 'no, no, no, no, no' welled up inside Téa, but like a wave crashing upon rocks, she had the sudden realization that if that was what Yami—the Pharaoh—truly wanted, there was nothing she could do to stop him. She was powerless—and she always had been.

"The Age of Destruction is upon us," Gurimo told Yami, and with his back to Téa and the others she had no way of seeing his face, of knowing if being destroyed by his lunatic was what he **wanted**. Even if it was…would it show? Could she tell? Once upon a time, she wouldn't have had a shred of doubt: of course she could; she was his best friend! She…loved him. Once. And now?

Now, nothing made sense.

"The Earth shall be covered in darkness, and it will be **your** soul that devastates mankind, Pharaoh!"

"What are you talking about?" Yami responded, his voice carrying the hint of a snarl to it. Being able to discern this much pleased Téa, and brought the tiniest of smiles to her lips; if Yami was **mad** at Gurimo, then it wasn't likely he intended to lose to the man on purpose. Even if he was feeling particularly selfish and suicidal as of late, his story wouldn't end here—not tonight.

"A great beast is now awakening from its ancient slumber," Gurimo explained, gesturing widely to the night sky. "It will finish what it started centuries ago! But… before it can arise, it must absorb enough souls."

"That…sounds familiar," Téa whispered aloud, forgetting for a moment that the other boys were beside her.

"Yeah…hey, didn't Rex and Weevil say something like that earlier?" Duke mused.

Yami must have had the same thought, for the next words out of his mouth were "What did you do to Rex and Weevil?"

"The Pharaoh's askin' an awful lot of questions…" a voice said from above—not at a shout, but loud enough for Téa to have heard. When her gaze snapped up to the skeleton structure, she easily spotted three figures with vaguely familiar silhouettes.

"And who do **you** think **you** are?" Téa yelled. The three shadows started, seeming surprised that they'd been spotted, but they didn't move. Téa's gaze left the shadows for an instant, and she noticed Joey and Tristan had also spotted the men, and were looking for a way to get up to where the so-called 'Three Swordsmen' were. They scrambled up staircase after staircase, but the shadows still didn't move; if anything, Téa imagined they were amused by Joey and Tristan's attempts to get closer to them. Joey sprinted up the stairs, but when he got to a floor where the staircase going up wasn't where it had been on the other floors, he stopped to look around, only to get nearly pushed off the building when Tristan, who'd just come up from the lower level behind him, barreled into him.

"Are you tryin' to kill me, you nut?" Joey demanded as Tristan hauled him up by the forearm. "Geez, I thought I was gonna die."

"Sorry, sorry, dude," Tristan said. Before the two of them could make out the next stairwell up in the dark, a floodlight suddenly clicked on, illuminating the structure and the three men that stood on one of the upper floors.

"**We** are soul collectors," the blond man said, a pair of cards trapped between his gloved fingers. "And their souls are in my hands. They are to be offerings for the ancient gods."

"Souls in cards…." The words were not spoken by just Yami alone. Téa and Kaiba both echoed them, though none of them heard each other. But each remembered the same thing: this method of soul theft was no different from when Pegasus had trapped the souls of Kaiba and Mokuba within a pair of blank Duel Monsters cards. Their bodies had been nothing more than empty husks….

"How do they have that kind of power…?" Yami mused aloud. It wasn't as if any of them carried Millennium Items, and there was no way there was some other ancient artifact like the Pyramid of Light that could be giving them power…right?

"The sooner you make your next move, **Pharaoh**, the sooner your own god shall deprive you of your soul!"

"Obelisk is indeed powerful," Yami replied in a careful, measured tone, "but it's not unbeatable. The card rightfully belongs to me, and I'm quite familiar with its strengths and weaknesses." His words had undoubtedly piqued the interest of all present, for there was a brief moment of absolute silence. Yami himself broke it as he played Monster Reborn to return Valkyrion to the field.

"Should I be impressed?" Gurimo asked sarcastically. "Obelisk already destroyed your magnet toy once, if you don't remember."

"Say goodbye to the god card," Yami whispered in response. Then, louder, he said "Valkyrion! Disassemble into the three Magnet Warriors!"

The magnets did so, and as soon as all three were on the field, Yami played the magic card Brave Attack, which protected his Magnet Warriors from Battle Damage and took away an opposing monster's ATK strength equal to the ATK of the attacking monster. In return, the three Magnets would be destroyed at the end of the turn, but if the math was right….

Alpha the Magnet Warrior attacked, chipping away 1400 ATK from Obelisk's massive 4500, reducing it to 3100.

"Pathetic! Your monsters can't even scratch Obelisk!" Gurimo taunted. Had he bothered to look through the miasma of green light that the Orichalcos created, he would have seen an array of disbelieving faces staring up at Obelisk, for a scratch had indeed formed on the god's plate-like armor.

"Beta the Magnet Warrior, attack!" Obelisk's 3100 dropped to 1400, and the gash grew deeper still. Gurimo realized his predicament a moment too late, as Gamma, the third and final Magnet Warrior, and 1500 ATK points strong, leapt across the field to deliver the finishing blow.

Gurimo's life points dropped to 2100, and he stumbled right as the Magnet Warriors disappeared in three explosions of holographic light.

Joey and Tristan had since given up on finding a way up to the 'Three Swordsmen,' and instead opted to return to the others outside the playing field below. Even with their former height advantage and the new floodlight brightening the area, they failed to notice Seto Kaiba quietly observing the duel from the shadows.

"So, guess the Pharaoh really is powerful, ain't he?" Valon asked, a wary edge creeping into his voice.

"He's learned to defeat the gods," Raphael responded. Valon looked to the blond, awaiting further explanation, but none was forthcoming. Such was Raphael's way, Valon remembered; Raphael wouldn't say one way or the other if it was a **good** thing if the Pharaoh won this duel, and not their own man.

"Fool! I don't need Obelisk to defeat you!" Gurimo scoffed as he straightened. Yami narrowed his eyes as the man made his next move: the Card of Sanctity, allowing them each to draw until they each had six cards in their hand.

"Now they're even," Tristan said. "Could be worse."

"It **is** worse," Joey pointed out, thrusting a finger toward the still-glowing barrier. "Nutso's still got his freaky magic circle on the field, and that gives all his monsters that instant power boost!"

"I summon Watapon to the field in Defense Mode," Yami remarked calmly. Gurimo started to splutter.

"Insolent worm! Have you lost your mind as well as your manners? It's not your turn!"

Despite the insults, Yami didn't raise his voice when he responded; he only quirked a single eyebrow up and smiled in an unsettling, predatory way. "And here I thought you knew all the cards there were to know. Watapon's effect allows it to be summoned to the field the moment it is added to my hand by another card's effect—which it just was. Thank you."

Gurimo audibly growled, for his move clearly hadn't been intended to give the Pharaoh a monster when he had none of his own to claim. He managed another faint scoff before thrusting a card toward his odd-looking Duel Disk. "No matter—that card is useless, anyway! Warrior Dai Grepher, come forth!" The Warrior appeared on the field, and an instant later, his eyes began to glow red and the now-familiar Seal of Orichalcos appeared on his brow. His ATK points rocketed from 1700 to 2200, changing him from a slightly powerful, ordinary warrior into a fearsome force to be reckoned with, especially considering the warrior had required no sacrifices to bring him onto the field.

"I activate Dark Renewal!" Yami proclaimed, reversing a facedown trap card that had been in his Duel Disk for some time. "I'll sacrifice your Dai Grepher and my Watapon to summon a Spellcaster from my graveyard—the Dark Magician!"

Joey gave a small cheer as Yugi's signature monster made its appearance on the field, and he especially delighted in the ire plain on Gurimo's face. "He musta sent the Dark Magician to the graveyard when he played Graceful Charity! Man, Yug's always thinkin' ahead of the game!"

"You have no monsters to protect you, Gurimo," Yami observed.

There wasn't much else Gurimo **could** do, given that he'd already used up his Normal Summon for the turn. But in an instant, the disgusted and irritated expression on his face vanished, replaced with an eerie serenity. Gurimo placed one card facedown in his magic and trap-card slot. "This will be all I need."

As the turn play shifted to Yami, he declared his attack despite the potential threat of a trap card backfiring on his Dark Magician. Gurimo quickly activated the card—a magic card by the name of Shield Wall— and Yami watched in dismay as four token monsters appeared on the field in Defense Mode, the Dark Magician only able to target and attack one. Since the creatures were in Defense Mode by default, Gurimo's life points remained the same.

Gurimo activated another set magic card, this one Bronze Knight. He discarded three cards from his hand, and suddenly three Bronze Knight Tokens appeared on the field in Attack Mode, with initial ATK and DEF values of 500 each.

"Hold on—**six** monsters?"

"That's right, Nameless Pharaoh," Raphael called down before Gurimo could respond. "The Seal of Orichalcos allows the controlling duelist to play monsters in his magic and trap card zone!"

"And," Gurimo continued smoothly, "you can't attack the back row of monsters without first going through the front!" Gurimo cackled in delight as the Seal took effect on his newly summoned Bronze Knight Tokens, boosting them up to 1000 ATK each. "Your single Dark Magician is no match for my army of monsters!"

Téa's brow furrowed; it seemed Duke's earlier theory that Gurimo was getting steadily crazier was right on the money. She was no professional duelist, but even she could see there were a number of ways that the Pharaoh could easily bring down Gurimo's "army." For one thing, not one of his frontline Bronze Knight Tokens were strong enough to withstand an attack from the Dark Magician, which meant Yami could always whittle away at Gurimo's life points bit by bit. But there were a number of cards Téa **knew** were in his arsenal that could take the Spellcaster's single 2500-point ATK and turn it into a wave that would destroy all of Gurimo's monsters, frontline **and** back, in one fell swoop….

"My move!" Yami declared. He quickly set two cards facedown in his magic and trap zone, and followed up by summoning the Queen's Knight in Defense Mode. Téa watched him through the green haze of the Orichalcos intently; there was a reason why he was electing not to attack now, but what was it? Yami jutted his chin upward slightly, as a non-verbal indication that his turn was complete. The moment Gurimo lay his hand on his deck to draw, Yami pulled out one of the cards he'd set in his previous turn, activating it. "I activate Dust Tornado—and I'll destroy your Seal!"

A great wind whipped through the area, sending dust, dirt, and bits of trash whirling through the air. Moments later, the dust settled… but the Seal of Orichalcos still glowed bright green, its liquid surface seemingly entirely unaffected by Yami's move.

"The Seal's too powerful to be destroyed by your measly trap card, **Pharaoh**," Raphael said mockingly.

Gurimo, meanwhile, continued his turn as if nothing had happened at all. He played the magic card The Warrior Returning Alive to bring back Warrior Dai Grepher, whose ATK points immediately shot up to 2200. Then he played The A. Forces, raising the ATK value of all the Warrior-type monsters for each Warrior and Spellcaster-type monster on the controller's side of the field. To Yami's dismay, Warrior Dai Grepher and the three Bronze Knight Tokens each gained 800 ATK points, making them formidable opponents indeed. Warrior Dai Grepher was now strong enough to finish off the Dark Magician in one blow, and the three Bronze Knight Tokens could easily dispatch of the rest of Yami's life points without giving him a chance to retaliate.

_'No! It can't end like this, it can't!'_ The feeling from earlier was back in full force now, especially now that Téa knew Yami was in this duel to lose intentionally, to send his soul someplace different, maybe someplace with answers. To have him yanked away forcibly from her world—because of a **card game**? She was ready to go back and pound on the Seal again, but with the speed of an electric shock, Téa realized it wouldn't do any good. Her eyes wandered from Yami's shadowy form inside the Seal to the scar on the lumber not far from where the Seal met the wood.

She'd done that. She'd caused the Seal to shift, ever-so-slightly, and the force was enough to carve a chunk the size of her arm out of a solid block of wood. It could have **been** her arm. Téa rubbed her shoulder anxiously, remembering how the first time, when the Seal had projected out suddenly, she'd been hurtled back right onto her still-green bruise. If she dared to play with the Seal again, it was likely it wouldn't be **just **her shoulder hurting.

All the rage Téa felt seemed to deflate in an instant, leaving her limp-limbed and unable to stare straight ahead. Again, she was helpless. Powerless, while her best friend—Because yes, despite everything, that's what he was, wasn't he? And wasn't she the same to him?—dueled, his life and soul on the line because of a **card** game!

Gurimo quickly took the chance to attack the Dark Magician, knocking Yami's life points down to 1500. But the moment he made to attack Queen's Knight with one of his own Bronze Knights, Yami activated a magic card he'd set—Magical Academy. Yami quickly discarded two cards from his hand and the Queen's Knight herself to summon the Dark Magician Girl, whose attack points swelled from 2000 to 2500 due to the Magical Academy's effect, and then up another 300 points thanks to the Dark Magician's position in the graveyard.

"Now, it's over," Yami said quietly.

Gurimo only scoffed, but there was a trace of fear in his bloodshot eyes. "A few extra points won't help you against my warriors!"

"He's wrong, Pharaoh; they're always wrong," Téa murmured. She shook her head at Gurimo's foolishness; it wasn't mere luck that always pulled Pharaoh through his toughest duels, it was intelligent strategy, it was quick-thinking, it was a solidly-built deck, it was…**trust**. Whether he called it the "Heart of the Cards" or something else, Yami **trusted** his deck. Nothing and no one else mattered besides that, not even his friends. The realization stung a little—to dwell on their presence there, their infallible encouragement for him, pouring their hopes and energy into a duel they couldn't take part in…. Nonetheless, Téa knew the arrangement didn't exist frivolously. It was how it had always been. And who was she to try and change it?

Yami didn't seem the least bit apprehensive as he drew, his eyes never leaving the battlefield or his opponent. Téa's heart seemed to lift the moment she saw Yami's lips curve upward ever so slightly, forming a smirk that she knew all too well.

"I play Diffusion Wave Motion!" Yami called, activating the magic card Téa had known all along would turn the tides. Trust, luck, or something intangible and in between brought that card into his hand, right when he needed it, and now….

Yami gave up 1000 of his life points, dropping him to a dangerously low level, in exchange for this one finishing move to save his soul: the Dark Magician Girl waved her scepter and each of Gurimo's monsters fell pray to her magic. Knight after Knight, Shield after Shield, and finally, Warrior Dai Grepher. With each warrior destroyed, the remaining warriors' attack value lessened, increasing the damage to Gurimo's life points.

And then there were none.

But it wasn't Gurimo who collapsed to his knees; it was Yami, whose voice was raspy and almost unfamiliar as he demanded the return of his God cards.

"Never!" Gurimo hissed. He raised the arm holding Obelisk and hurled it up into the sky; all eyes were on the tall blond as he stepped forward ever-so-slightly and caught the card deftly between two fingers, looking otherwise dispassionate about the results of the duel. Gurimo suddenly started to gag and choke as the brilliant green of the Orichalcos began to close in— on him, and him alone. The barrier passed through Yami's body without even the slightest feeling of static and instead ripped across the lumber toward the bearded man before exploding in a column of brightness. Suddenly, it was gone, only the faintest traces of dim glow surrounding Gurimo's boneless form on the ground. His eyes were wide open and staring vacantly into space, his mouth hanging open.

"Time to go," the blond said to his compatriots in the structure looming above the duel field.

"Stop! Return the God cards at once!" Yami shouted out hoarsely. He felt too exhausted to move, and the others seemed too paralyzed to do anything about the Three Swordsmen making off with the God cards—whether it was by fear or something else was anyone's guess. Téa herself desperately wanted to chase after them, but what would be the use? Gurimo had clearly been a mere underling to the three thieves, and yet he'd managed to nearly suck away the Pharaoh's soul to who-knows-where, sacrificing him and everything he was to some so-called 'Great Beast.' Who was **she** to go after anyone that not only possessed all three God cards, but also wielded a strange and mysterious power allowing them to steal souls?

"I…can't…." Téa murmured, frustrated with her self. Half of her remained locked in position, her knees bent and ready to sprint after the three thieves the moment they exited the structure and tried to leave the yard. But the other half of her—knee, arm, and all—was pointed straight at Yami. He'd fallen and he didn't seem to be getting up. He'd won the duel and kept his soul, but he'd come so close…wasn't this the time she was supposed to be here for him, above all others? Or…did he even **need** her?

"You'll have to duel all three of us to get them back," the blond man shouted. "But since you're such a good sport, here." He sent two cards whirling down from his position and then disappeared with the other two men into the inky black shadows. As Téa approached the former duel field slowly, she could make out the fading faces of Rex Raptor and Weevil Underwood. By the time the two cards touched the ground, they were nothing more than blank Magic Duel Monster cards.

"Hey, you lousy yellow-bellied cheatin' swindlers! You get back here! I'll take all three of ya on, right here, right now! Come on, what are you waiting for?"

In the shadows, Valon chuckled to himself. "Reminds me of me when I was a younger bloke." He paused and then shouted over his shoulder, "No rush, mate! We'll fight soon enough. Hey, Wheeler! The name's Valon! You'd best be remembering that, 'kay?"

If Joey responded to Valon, it wasn't loud enough for Téa to hear. She'd already left the boys' sides and headed up the lumber stack to Yami, who had risen unsteadily to his feet and was now approaching the fallen Gurimo, ignoring Téa's concern about his own exhaustion. He focused so intensely on the empty face of his former enemy lying before him that he failed to catch the hurt in Téa's own eyes as he swatted her arm away as though she were nothing more than a persistent fly.

But Kaiba saw. Even with the duel done and the three so-called 'Swordsmen' making off with the God cards, none of that stole his primary concern. And despite all that, he still couldn't bring himself to move. There was no Seal blocking him now, merely a perfectly clear path from here to where she was, standing in the illuminated duel field just a meter behind her precious Yugi. But the willpower to go up to her, to check on her, to see if she was all right simply drained away. She didn't want his help. And the only person **she** wanted to be of help to ignored her, but she kept hovering near him, constantly there, even though Kaiba could tell…he could **see** she was aching on the inside….

"Is he dead?" Tristan asked, nudging Gurimo hesitantly with his foot. With the man's voluminous robes and back angled halfway toward the side of the lumber stack and halfway to the sky, it was hard to detect any signs of breathing.

"No," Yami stated after inspecting the man's eyes more closely. "His soul is gone." Still on his haunches, Yami plucked the Seal of Orichalcos card from the man's intricately designed Duel Disk. No longer an image of a complex-looking Seal, the center of the card featured none other than Gurimo's own face, hands up as though pressing against the card's surface, his eyes white and wide with fear. "More precisely," he said, rising to stand once more, "his soul has been trapped in this card. But that doesn't explain where this…power comes from."

Téa's downcast eyes suddenly spotted something bright near the corner of the duel field where Gurimo once stood. "Guys? Think this has anything to do with it?" She picked up a teardrop-shaped crystal that seemed to glow hotly between her fingertips. As the boys approached to inspect Téa's find, the greenish light faded, and with it, the heat.

"This…stone. It's no ordinary stone." Yami plucked the crystal and its attached chain from Téa's hands without a word of thanks, the sudden motion startling Téa into taking a step back. She stared at Yami briefly, but then looked away. Fleetingly, Kaiba could have sworn he saw a mask of anger steal across her face, but she quickly disguised it with the same hurt expression from before. He clenched his fists at his sides; damn Yugi for hurting her **again**! For putting her into danger, for never appreciating her, for—

_"When are you going to understand that I'm not going to hurt you?"_

_'But I've hurt you,'_ Kaiba realized, an acrid taste filling his mouth. He watched as Téa's hand mechanically moved up to her shoulder blade again and massaged it gently, thoughtlessly, her eyes still on that crystal pendant even as Yami and his other lackeys inspected it. Téa was detached from the crowd, but no one seemed to notice.

"This stone is dark…like the power within the Millennium Items," Yami was telling the others.

"Go ahead, play detective, **Pharaoh**," Kaiba scoffed. His weakness and ineptitude got them all tangled in this mess in the first place, wasn't it? If only he could whisk Téa away, take her from this place and make her forget about **him**—about all of them…. He turned on his heel and stalked out of the construction yard without a word to anyone. The sooner he recovered the God Cards and got them back into some **responsible** hands, the sooner they could **both** be free of this madness: free from soul-stealing 'swordsmen,' free of annoying mutts and ancient thieves…free of Yugi Moto, once and for all.

* * *

Yami, as always, led the pack of boys and the one lone girl back into the night streets, where they easily found Rex Raptor and Weevil Underwood blinking and gawping in surprise.

Tristan and Joey abruptly swooped in from the sides of the formation and each hauled one of the former regional duelists into the air by their shirtfronts.

"How ya doin' Bug Boy?" Joey asked with a bit of a sneer. "Feel like predictin' some doom today?"

"What are you talking about? Unhand me, you cretin!" Weevil snarled, struggling futilely.

"What did the two of you do yesterday?" Yami asked, unperturbed by the fact that Joey and Tristan were essentially holding Rex and Weevil against their will. Téa hesitated; she didn't like either of the younger boys any more than she liked finding ants in her kitchen, but she didn't like the way the boys were treating Rex and Weevil, and how the others— Duke and Malik— were just standing by, letting it happen.

"Let them down," Téa said sharply, casting the angriest glare she could muster at both Joey and Tristan. The boys, startled perhaps by the sound of her voice, did as she said. Téa said nothing further, knowing it would only provoke an ill response from Rex and Weevil when in fact, they really needed to know what had happened yesterday— when this all began.

Weevil dusted off his shirt and jacket as if removing invisible fleas, while Rex made a showy effort at adjusting his jacket and hat. But neither of them turned tail and run away, which was what the boys likely expected after having let them down.

"Some old guy with a beard got the jump on us," Rex explained. "More or less **forced** us to duel him."

"Forced you?" Joey asked with a quirked eyebrow and a lascivious grin. Téa elbowed him in the ribs.

"Yeah, **forced** us, dog breath, or can't you hear?" Rex repeated angrily. But then his gaze wavered to Téa and his expression calmed some. "Big guy, weird thing on his eye. Weird Duel Disk, too. Hey, did Kaiba Corp. come out with a new model somethin'?" His question was directed at Téa; clearly, he was no stranger to the fact that Téa and Kaiba were dating, and figured she would have inside information on any hot new products.

"No," Téa answered honestly, though part of her felt perturbed by the fact that, once again, she was relegated to being Kaiba's "girlfriend," nothing more. "It's not anything Kaiba Corporation made. What happened next?"

"Well, Beardo squashed Weevil here like a cockroach," Rex snickered, but his humor was short-lived, as the bug duelist clonked Rex on the head with a fist.

"You're the one that held me back, you dinobrain!"

The two of them were about to start bickering between themselves when Téa surprisingly reached out and separated the boys with a firm hand on each of their shoulders. "And then what happened?"

"The guy…he played some weird card," Rex murmured, scratching behind his ear.

"Yeah, the Seal of—Seal of Something," Weevil added.

"The Seal of Orichalcos?" Yami asked, piping up suddenly.

"Yeah, that's right!" Rex and Weevil said in unison. They both turned and growled at each other again, but this time Rex stopped the glaring match, turning back to the assembly in front of him.

"So what, are you **with** that guy or something?"

Joey furiously burst out from behind Téa and once again hauled up Rex by his shirtfront. "What the hell are you implying, you two-bit dinobrain? Yug's the one that got your souls back! If it wasn't for him, you two would be zombies walkin' into traffic right now!"

"Earlier, you were saying something about the end of the world—the sign of destruction. What did you mean by that?" Duke demanded.

Joey let a gagging Rex drop to the floor. While he coughed, Weevil answered: "I don't know about dinobrain, but…I don't remember."

"Me neither," Rex finally bit out.

Joey sighed heavily and looked ready to keep walking down the street, back to the Turtle Game Store.

"Hey… Yugi, do you think we can see the God cards?" Weevil ventured. Alarms immediately blared in Joey's head, remembering how Weevil asked to see Exodia in much the same manner, and then tossed the cards into the ocean. That he remembered…the God cards were gone. For all that, Rex and Weevil remained the least of their worries. But did it also mean that, for once, it was a **good** thing that Yugi didn't have the God cards? Joey shook his head in silent confusion; if Yug' didn't deserve the God cards, then who did? No one, in his mind.

"Unfortunately…the cards were stolen."

Rex abruptly let out a rasping sound, while Weevil's eyes bugged out, giving him the appearance of a squeeze toy on overload. Both seemed to be fighting the urge to say something, or perhaps run as if they could catch up to the thieves and grab the God cards for themselves.

"But we'll be getting them back, one-two-three, you just watch!" Joey said. At that point, Yami and the others seemed to decide that now was as good a time as any to depart, and started to walk around and beyond Rex and Weevil. "Hey, keep an eye out for us if you see any suspicious lookin' biker punks, okay?"

Weevil and Rex both plastered the widest smiles they could manage as they gave little waves back to Joey and Tristan, unaware that Téa, leading up the rear of her group, still had them in her sights. The moment Rex and Weevil thought they were out of the boys' earshot, Téa clearly heard them both chuckle darkly and mutter, "The God cards are up for grabs! Soon they'll be all mine!" With that, the two boys snorted and angrily stared each other down again, walking in the opposite direction and keeping pace with one another the whole while.

Téa never really considered Rex **or** Weevil a threat, but…given the circumstances, maybe there **was** reason to worry if not just one, but **two** more people wanted the God cards— people who would probably do anything to get their hands on them.

She sighed heavily, finally motivated to speak up. "Guys, these things have to have something to do with one another. Come on, monsters appearing at the same time some biker gang decides to steal the God Cards?"

"Aah," Joey howled, scrubbing his hands in his hair rapidly. "Why does this weird stuff always gotta happen to us?"

No one dared answer for no one **had** an answer to Joey's rhetorical question. But Téa couldn't help but think that it wasn't the weird stuff that was happening to them, it was **them** happening to the weird stuff.

"Yugi, darling!"

Téa looked up in time to see a petite blonde girl with red-rimmed cat-eye glasses go flying past Tristan and Joey only to launch herself at Yugi. Téa raised an eyebrow as Yugi received the girl with the most befuddled expression she'd ever seen on his face.

"Yugi, do you have any idea who she is?" she asked, stifling the smirk that threatened to curl her lips. Judging by the expressions of similar confusion on all the boys' faces, no one recognized Rebecca Hawkins. _'Get rid of the teddy bear and the pigtails and everyone forgets you,'_ she thought.

Rebecca only looked fleetingly distraught by the possibility of Yugi having forgotten who she was. Suddenly she beamed and withdrew a Duel Monsters card from her skirt pocket. "Remember me now?" she asked, doing something with her eyes that she probably thought made her look coy. Téa just shook her head and watched the proceedings with a fraction of amusement.

"Oh!" Yugi's eyes widened as he recognized the Ties of Friendship card that he'd won when he defeated Pegasus. He'd given that card away, to… "Rebecca Hawkins!"

"I **knew** you'd remember me, Yugi darling! As if I'm that easy to forget."

_'Again with that weird eye-fluttering thing. Doesn't she realize it makes her look like she's having a seizure?'_ But Téa didn't say anything, even as the slightly-amused smile on her face slipped the moment Rebecca squeezed Yugi's arm gently. Seizure-glances or not, there was no way a gesture like **that** could be misinterpreted. A growl almost escaped Téa's throat before she stopped herself and looked at her clenched, white-knuckled fists before realizing what she had almost done. She took a deep breath and let it out slowly, raising her gaze just in time to see Yugi's uncertain one flick back to Rebecca. He'd been looking at her carefully, as if checking to see how she was reacting to Rebecca lavishing attention all over him. Their gazes had only met for a split second, but it had been enough for Téa to see everything from hope to fear to disappointment flash through Yugi's eyes. She hadn't known him all these years for such expressions on Yugi's face to slip right by her notice.

Téa narrowed her eyes as she realized what had just happened in a matter of seconds: _'He _wants_ me to be jealous. Well, I'm not going to be! Let Rebecca drape herself all over him like she's some sort of rug. It makes no difference to me. None whatsoever!'_

At least that's what she kept telling herself, even as Yugi's smile widened and Rebecca pushed herself closer to him.

"Bu—that brat!" Joey was muttering, his eyes as wide as saucers. He looked frozen in a state of disbelief, completely blown over by the idea that Rebecca Hawkins could have returned to Japan , let alone without her precious 'Teddy.' "And she looks different. Did you get a haircut?" Joey finally asked Rebecca, prompting her to peel herself off Yugi's chest.

"No, bonehead, she traded her teddy for glasses. You really couldn't tell?" Tristan asked. Téa rolled her eyes at her friend. He hadn't recognized Rebecca any more than Joey had; it wasn't until Yugi had announced Rebecca's name that any of them had gained the least bit of recognition on their faces.

"I don't need a teddy bear anymore," Rebecca said with a sugary-sweet smile. "I graduated, after all, and besides…I have a boyfriend!" Rebecca suddenly clutched tightly onto Yugi's arm, and Téa found herself choking on an air bubble that somehow had worked its way down the wrong pipe.

Rebecca looked at her curiously, but resumed her seizure-like eye-flutters in Yugi's direction when Téa stared back at her, waving her hand to indicate she'd be just fine, stupid coughing fit or no.

"Geez, add another weird event to the list," Joey said. "You really grew up fast," he said, but Téa couldn't tell if the tone in his voice was sarcastic or sincere.

"**Anyway**, Yugi darling, my grandpa really wants to see you. Come on, come on!" She started tugging on Yugi's arm, and before long, all the boys were following Rebecca's lead toward the Domino Museum. Téa sighed heavily as she watched them go, and a moment later, she joined them, once again bringing up the rear.

* * *

Malik headed up the group of teens—as loathe as Téa was to admit it, Rebecca was actually a teenager now, at age fourteen—entered the museum, thankfully bypassing the line of people outside that had to pay to see the exhibit. They headed straight to the too-familiar room featuring the collection of relief tablets that supposedly predicted Yami's past, and perhaps his ultimate destiny. A man in a tweed suit with a shock of gray hair stood before the tablets, inspecting them intently, while off to the side was a man that Téa could have recognized in a crowd of a thousand: Yugi's stout grandfather, who sported a tamed-down version of his grandson's wild hair. For whatever reason, Solomon Moto didn't seem to be too interested in the same tablets his longtime friend was. Instead, his gaze seemed to wander to any number of other Egyptian artifacts that Malik and his sister had arranged to be brought to Japan , any artifact except the relief tablets.

"Grandpa! Professor Hawkins!" Yugi exclaimed, apparently surprised to see his grandfather in the museum as well.

"Ah, Yugi, just the person I wanted to see!" Professor Hawkins greeted him warmly, turning from the reliefs. "And Mr. Ishtar! I must compliment you; this is quite the splendid exhibit. I must thank you for bringing it to Japan; seeing this sort of example of ancient Egyptian culture is quite rare in this country." Malik bowed his head slightly, acknowledging Hawkins' words, but he didn't say anything in reply. Téa glanced at him, wondering if he was keeping his mouth shut on purpose. He didn't **look** like he was suspicious of Hawkins, so why was he being so reticent all of a sudden?

"My grandson, Arthur?" Solomon referred to Professor Hawkins's initial exclamation. "You know if you have any Egyptian archaeology questions, you could always ask me," The grey-haired man said with a strange half-smile on his face.

Professor Hawkins chuckled lightly and shook his head. "It's not an Egyptian archaeology question I have for Yugi, old friend." Hawkins faced Yugi directly this time, all traces of his smile vanishing in an instant. "Actually Yugi, what I wanted to talk about was these recent monster sightings. I have a theory—"

"It could be bunnies?" Tristan muttered under his breath. Unfortunately, his voice wasn't quite as soft as he expected, for Hawkins started chuckling again.

"No, not bunnies. And not Mr. Kaiba, either," Professor Hawkins continued smoothly, as if someone would logically suggest 'Kaiba' next, if bunnies weren't behind the monster appearances. Hawkins' gaze shifted to Téa. "I saw his press statement a short while ago, and I have no reason to disbelieve him. In fact, I believe Mr. Kaiba and countless others around the world are simply unfortunate victims of circumstance."

Téa pursed her lips, hard-pressed to imagine Seto as a victim of **anything**, but part of her hoped Professor Hawkins was right, all the same.

"In fact, I believe the epicenter of all these mysterious sightings is someone else entirely." The professor pivoted on one foot, facing Yugi once more. "You, Yugi."

Everyone's gazes widened, including Rebecca's, as her python grip on Yugi's arm abruptly slackened. Yugi's eyes widened to the size of saucers, his hands squeezing the Millennium Puzzle in an attempt to hide his nervousness. His mouth opened and then closed again, as though he couldn't think of the proper words to respond with.

"What are you saying, Hawkins?" Solomon began to bluster, the loudness of his voice capturing the attention of other museum patrons in the room. Solomon paid them no mind, and marched straight up to Professor Hawkins, un-intimidated by the several extra centimeters or so Hawkins had on him in height.

"Ah, you're right Solomon, I misspoke," Professor Hawkins corrected himself, taking the opportunity to step back and survey the relief tablets again. In particular, he seemed to focus on the one with the Yugi and Seto-look-alikes depicted on it, battling each other with the ancient versions of a Blue-Eyes White Dragon and the Dark Magician. "What I meant to say," Professor Hawkins said, turning away from the tablet once more, "Was you, Nameless Pharaoh."

* * *

"Please tell me you're packed already," Mai said crisply over the phone.

Téa chuckled nervously, pausing on the steps of the museum. "Hi to you, Mai," she said, nodding slightly when Joey looked her way upon hearing Mai's name. "I just have to get my things from the mansion. We're still meeting there for our cab to the harbor, right?"

"Yeah. Here's hoping there won't be any issues with the departure. I've been checking the news on and off today, and monster sightings are down. It's like a weather report now: highs in the upper thirties, humidity at seventy-two percent, with a five percent chance of monster showers," Mai said grimly. "I don't know about you, but nothing's going to stop **me** from dueling."

"Me neither. So I'll see you at the mansion in a bit?"

"Let's say a half-hour, darling. I'd rather avoid the crowds at the harbor than be fashionably late and stuck in the middle of them."

"Right. See you soon." Téa flipped her phone shut, disconnecting the call before turning to face the others.

"I gotta get going," she said. "The tournament…."

Yugi's eyes widened. "Oh, right," he murmured, sounding a bit disappointed. Téa frowned. It was if he'd forgotten about it entirely and was sore about her having to leave. How many girls did he want hanging off his arm, anyway? Wasn't **one** hyperactive, super-intelligent blonde from the exotic country of America enough for him?

"What tournament?" Rebecca asked curiously. Téa scrutinized the blonde still gripping Yugi's arm like he was a life preserver. She couldn't tell if Rebecca was being polite due to Yugi's presence or if she was genuinely curious about the tournament.

"The Pan-Pacific Ladies' Duelist Tournament Cruise," Téa said. "Have you heard of it?"

"Heard of it?" Rebecca grinned. "I won that tournament when I was eight! Good luck!" she said with a sugary-sweet grin threatening to split her face in two.

Téa chuckled wanly. "T-thanks."

"Hey, I got an idea!" Joey put in. "Let's all split a pair of cabs back to the dungeon and see Mai and Téa off!"

Before Téa could interrupt with "The Dungeon?" and protest against the guys seeing her off, everyone else was nodding in agreement—well, not Rebecca, but Yugi was nodding so vigorously it seemed like she was, too—and Joey was flipping open his own cell phone to call a cab company. Joey took the liberty of informing the others how everyone technically rode for the price of one anyway, and it wasn't as if a handful of them didn't have the money; besides, for friends, wasn't it worth whatever the cost would be? Téa sighed, realizing nothing would stop the guys from tagging along at this rate.

Maybe being seen off at the docks wouldn't be so bad. At least it wouldn't be as lonely.

* * *

Mokuba replaced the house phone on its receiver as he grabbed his jacket from the closet and started heading toward the garage.

"Geez, how does a limo driver get lost downtown when he's told to stay in place? I don't blame Big Brother for being mad at him," he said, despite there being no one else in the house to hear him speak. Seto had called just a few minutes ago, saying he'd arrived back in Downtown Domino and asked his driver to stop at a construction site. When he'd returned to the spot where the limo should have been parked, it was gone, and the man couldn't be reached on the satellite car phone or his cell phone.

_"He probably got scared off by those stupid monster sightings," Seto theorized. "I'll give him one opportunity to explain himself and that's it. No more second chances."_

Good thing they had a veritable fleet of drivers that could be reached at a moment's notice. One of them was already waiting in a new limo downstairs, ready to take Mokuba downtown to meet Seto. Considering all the scary monsters that had been appearing and all the over-eager reporters that seemed inclined to blame it on them, Mokuba couldn't wait for his brother to be home.

He hopped in the limousine with a smile that remained on his face long after the taillights of the vehicle disappeared, out of sight from the Kaiba Mansion.

* * *

"Hello?" Téa pushed open the front door of the mansion with a measure of hesitation; she wasn't sure if Mokuba was home, or if not, where he was.

Today had been a very long day, beginning with Yami trying to "end his story" without telling any of them, climaxing with the theft of the God Cards and a duel of souls, and it wasn't even close to being over yet.

A solemn silence returned Téa's call. She turned back to her friends, scattered on the steps. "You might as well come in guys. It's air conditioned."

"Magic words!" Tristan shouted with glee, bolting from his sitting position on the steps into the house. "Aah, air conditioning, how I missed thee!"

The others followed in shortly thereafter, Joey rolling his eyes at his best friend's antics. "You sure you don't need any help with your stuff? I know you girls always have like, cases and boxes and trunks and stuff."

It was Téa's turn to roll her eyes, this time at Joey. Yugi and Duke also looked at her expectantly, asking with their eyes if they could help. "I'll be fine, guys. I only have two bags, and neither of them are anything I can't handle. It'd be pretty stupid if I needed a guy's help with my things for a Ladies' Duelist Tournament Cruise, wouldn't it?" Before they could answer, Téa turned on her heel and headed up the stairs to the room she shared with Seto. If it weren't for the small, random things that indicated the room belonged to Seto as well, it would have been easy to mistake the room as just Téa's: her suitcase and its contents spread out over the bedspread, an array of cosmetics scattered across the top of a chest of drawers.

Téa sighed and swept them all into a bag, which she then zipped up and stuffed into one of her drawers. She'd long ago decided that she didn't need to be one of those duelists who was all looks and no substance. The only makeup she carried lay in her purse, along with a few facial cleansers already packed away in a small pouch in her suitcase. She'd had a hard time deciding just what clothes to bring, so she'd opted for her defaults: tube-tops, dressy tank-tops, several pairs of shorts and skirts, a few pairs of thigh-highs, some platform sandals and boots, and a smattering of light jackets. She knew the weather in San Francisco in the summer was vastly different from that in Domino, but if worse came to worse, she could always buy clothes on the ship or in the States, right?

She double-checked to ensure she had her passport, her tickets for the cruise, and her wallet before zipping up her suitcase and hefting it off the bed. It was probably close to weighing more than she did, but there was nothing she could do about that. Téa clumsily loaded her smaller bag with a few books, seasickness medication, and her deck of Duel Monsters cards on top of the bigger bag and began bumbling down the angled staircase to where her friends were still chatting.

She went through every single room—just in case—before resigning herself to the fact that neither Mokuba nor Seto had remembered that today was the day of her big tournament. No, they were both too busy doing their own things to remember anything about her.

_'So much for family,'_ Téa thought sadly. She removed a small notepad from a drawer in the kitchen and hastily scribbled a note that she left on the tiny end table near the stairs.

"Hey, the cab guys are sayin' they're gonna split if we don't get down there in five minutes. You ready, Téa?" Joey hollered.

"Yeah, I'm ready," she said, casting a backward glance at the solitary note sitting on the solitary table in the empty mansion. "I'm ready."

* * *

"The traffic wasn't as bad as it was earlier, now that most of the monsters have disappeared. I wonder why? Think they're all taking naps or something?" Mokuba quipped as he and Seto entered the mansion from the garage entrance. After the door clicked shut, Mokuba looked around curiously. "Wow, it's dead in here. I guess Big Sis isn't home yet."

Seto furrowed his brows, concerned. Téa had definitely left the construction site, hadn't she? Seto grimaced; he'd impulsively left before she had, and therefore had no idea **where** she was. He rounded the staircase in the hope that he'd see a light coming from their shared room upstairs, but the entire house was dark, save a single light over the entryway. Then he spotted it: a note on the end table. It took him only seconds to read it, glance at the nearest clock, and bolt back toward the garage.

"Big Brother? Hey, where are you going?" Seto tossed the note over his shoulder, which Mokuba readily caught and read. "Her tournament? No way! I can't believe we almost forgot about it! Are we gonna make it on time? You have to take me along, Big Brother, I can't just let her go without saying goodbye!"

"We will," Seto said with a grimace. "Come on." He gestured Mokuba toward his garage's newest acquisition: an imported bright blue and silver SSC Ultimate Aero TT, the fastest car on the planet.

"'Screw the laws, I have money'?" Mokuba quoted impishly, sliding into the passenger side door and reaching up to pull the passenger-side door closed.

Seto grinned, but only slightly. "Something like that." He slammed his own door shut and revved up the engine, speeding out the Kaiba Mansion garage in a matter of seconds, leaving only a cloud of leaves spiraling in his wake.

* * *

"Whoa, lotta people here," Joey observed after they got out of their respective taxis and inspected the harbor crowd. The area was thick with people, noisier than the docks probably were in the daylight hours, and the air smelled vaguely of fish.

"Lotta _chicks_," Duke observed, turning as one of those 'chicks' in a tight-fitting orange mini-dress walked by. "Hel-lo!"

Téa thwapped Duke soundly on the arm with the rolled-up tournament guide she'd remembered to bring from the mansion. Duke winced and bobbed his head lightly over one of his hands: the closest Téa supposed she'd ever get to an apology of any kind from Duke Devlin.

She unrolled the guide and glanced from its cover to the massive cruise ship teeming with people and glittering with lights. The photo on the front didn't do the _Arielle_ justice: it was a massive white vessel with glistening lights covering nearly every surface, even the aft balcony which greeted Téa and the others upon their arrival at the harbor. The ship's name was emblazoned in a curling bold turquoise script with water lilies blossoming from the ends, a light blue rose-like shape coiled up behind it.

"They've definitely retrofitted the ship since I was last in this tournament," Rebecca chuckled abashedly.

Téa raised an eyebrow as she glanced at Rebecca, but she pursed her lips and didn't say anything. So what if Yugi was letting Rebecca hang all over him like she was some sort of decorative animal hide? So what if he was just **standing** there with his face all red and his eyes fixed to the ground, not doing a damn thing?

_'Doormat,'_ Téa thought. She'd hoped he'd grown past this. She'd hoped he'd learned a little from Yami— at least one or two of the **good** qualities the Nameless Pharaoh possessed. Téa sighed deeply. Now wasn't the time to be thinking of him. Or **any** of them, really.

"You about ready?" Mai asked, clapping a manicured hand on Téa's shoulder. "Don't tell me you've lost your mojo before we've even gotten on board."

Téa was well versed at fake smiles by now, and it was one of these that she offered to Mai, ignorant of the narrow-eyed stare she got in return. "I'm as ready as I'll ever be."

She was about to turn and say her farewells to her friends when she heard a feminine squeal from over her shoulder.

"Oh my God, is that _Yugi Moto_?"

"What? _The_ Yugi Moto? What would _he_ be doing here?" another girl asked. Out of the corner of her eye, Téa could see the girl hopping up and down, trying to see over Téa's shoulder and the combined mountain of suitcases. Téa intentionally shifted her stance to hide Yugi even more from their inquiring gaze, grateful for once that Yugi wasn't as tall as the average Japanese boy.

"You should probably go," she whispered to Yugi, afraid that if she spoke at normal level, the hawk-eyed girls might also overhear her. "Before you get mobbed."

"She's right, Yugi-darling," Rebecca said, her tone grating on Téa's ears. "You don't want to be mobbed by a bunch of _fangirls_, do you?" Rebecca nodded in assent on Yugi's behalf, cutting off any chance of a reply from his own lips. For some reason, Rebecca's steely grip on Yugi's arm seemed to be affecting his ability to talk.

Téa rolled her eyes at the spectacle, mentally grousing, _'Oh, so now you're agreeing with me?'_ But she bit her lip and kept silent, gaze to the ground. She looked up once with another one of her should-be-patented false smiles, her eyes squeezed shut tight enough so the tears wouldn't fall and none of them— especially not Rebecca— could see the hurt lingering just under the surface.

"Well, I guess I'd better be going…." Téa turned away and grabbed the handles of her two suitcases, hoping that this way, it would be easier. Better, even. Her grip grew white-knuckled and her palms slippery, but she kept marching forward.

_'I can't stop. This is _finally_ my chance to break away from this, to finally show them…!'_

She was barely two meters away from her friends when she heard a voice call out to her urgently.

"Téa, wait!"

No matter what her better judgment might have argued, Téa's body seemed to act of its own accord, freezing in place and swaying forward ever-so-slightly with the suddenness of her stop.

A small hand closed gently around one of her arms, but it was enough to get Téa to turn and wrench her gaze away from the glitter of the _Arielle_ and her future. It was Yugi, who had miraculously wrested away from Rebecca and was now staring up at her with pleading eyes.

"Good luck, Téa," Yugi said, his voice just barely above a whisper.

"Yeah, kick ass and take names," Joey added, coming up beside Téa with Mai's suitcases in hand. Mai glanced at Téa with both of her suitcases in her own hands and yanked her bags from Joey with a scowl.

Tristan and Duke walked forward, both shouldering each other in an effort to be the closest. It was Tristan who finally won the match with a hard jab that left Duke wincing and grabbing his shoulder in pain.

"Uh…well, I'd say something witty and intelligent, except Yugi and Joey stole my lines."

"You **shoved** me aside for that? I could have come up with a better line, you monkey!" Duke said.

"Then why **don't** you, jerk wad? Hey Téa, bring me back a snow globe or somethin' okay?" Tristan winked. Téa nodded dumbly, but did her best to keep the smile on her face. She was beginning to feel like a plastic doll, her cheeks sore and her mouth cold from how wide her smile kept it.

_'Does he really think this is some sort of pleasure cruise?'_ Téa wondered. _'What does he think I'm going on this trip _for?_'_

But she didn't voice these thoughts aloud. She kept the fake smile on her face and her fingers wrapped tightly around her luggage grip. That was when she heard the sound that didn't belong; it wasn't the sound of fangirls squealing or of luggage wheels scraping across asphalt, but the distinct clack-clack of expensive Italian men's dress shoes hitting concrete, the sound of someone walking with decided purpose.

"Did you really think I'd let you leave without you saying goodbye to me?"

The blood in her veins ran cold, and had anyone but a mob of Yugi-fangirls seen her from the front, they would have seen her skin tint the color of ash. Subconsciously, one of Téa's hands slipped from her luggage grip to her stomach, where she could feel the volley of butterflies flapping like mad inside. She turned slowly; she simply couldn't force her body to move any faster.

Téa saw his brightly polished shoes first, then his all-white (pristine even at the docks; how was it possible?) pant leg. By the time her eyes had followed the swivel of her body, she knew who it was without a doubt in her mind.

"Seto…?" The question mark wasn't because she doubted her ears, doubted her eyes, but because she wondered why— or how!— he could be there.

She had yet to fully process his presence there—right in front of her—when he closed the distance between them and enveloped her in a breath-stealing embrace, willfully ignorant of the camera phone flashes snapping off all around them.

"Don't let anyone get in your way," he whispered, his breath hot on Téa's ear. His words seemed to lift the bright haze that had filled her mind, and now her brain rushed to fill the space with myriad thoughts.

"Seto, how…?" She pulled away and looked up at him, truly befuddled. How was he there? _Why_?

"Hey, good idea, group hug!" Téa heard Joey call, and in the next instant, Seto's husky voice turned into an outright snarl as he was pressed even closer against her by the force of the other boys hugging them from all sides.

"I'm going to **kill** that mutt," he growled under his breath. Téa couldn't help the smile that suddenly crossed her lips. Unlike the others she'd had this evening, this one was genuine.

She'd miss this. Not the bone-crushing hugs or the commentary from the peanut gallery, but the rapport she had with the others and they with each other. Her smile slipped though, upon realizing that, even if she felt this way, it didn't mean anything. It didn't change the whole reason why she was doing this, didn't change the fact that these moments were just brief flashes amid their bigger duels to save the world and solve the mystery of the Pharaoh's memories.

No one took a nostalgic, emotional girl seriously. She'd show them that memories and tears weren't all there was to Téa Gardner.

After this tournament, they **would** take her seriously. They'd respect her for who she was, not simply as some "cheerleader" that stood on the sidelines and didn't understand the true mechanics of a duel.

"Duke, if it's my shoulder you were going for, _you missed_," Téa murmured behind a forced grin. "And Joey, my boobs only provide minimal protection from your gorilla hugs. Tone it down a bit, will you?"

"Why don't we just…shake hands, guys?" Yugi suggested before Duke or Joey could comment. He was the first to pull away from the sandwich that was Seto and Téa, and as he stepped back, his eyes seemed to dart toward everyone but Téa herself.

"Gorilla, hmm?" Seto stroked his chin thoughtfully, glancing out the corner of his eyes at Joey. "I like that. Much more ungainly that just a simple 'mutt.' Fit to be caged."

"Now see what you've done?" Joey whined plaintively to Téa. "Gone and given him an idea!"

Téa chuckled briefly and shrugged her shoulders nonchalantly. "Sorry?" Joey's scowl only deepened; even he could tell she didn't mean it in the least bit. When Téa stepped forward to shake his hand, she had to extract it from where it crossed over his chest. The handshake Joey returned was limpid at first, but as Téa started to pull away, he squeezed her hand tightly, wordlessly, and then let her go.

This befuddled Téa, until Malik stepped forward. When he spoke, his words were soft and barely audible to Téa, less than a meter away. "Come back safely to us someday." He squeezed her hand once, not too tightly but not gently either, and then stepped away, a half-smile curling his lips.

It was Yugi she spotted next, standing in the same place he'd been before the group hug, his eyes to the ground and the toe of one of his shoes rubbing into the asphalt. Téa stuck her hand out, hoping Yugi would take it, but what he did instead nearly knocked the wind out of her: he took her proffered hand and swung it around himself, forcing Téa into a tight hug.

"I believe in you," he whispered, only loud enough for her ears. Téa pulled away a moment later—a moment that came all too fast for Yugi—and that was when he realized that of all the smiles she'd shown him that day, none had been real. But before he could formulate the words to ask, the gentle fake smile he'd seen her wearing all day returned to Téa's lips.

"I know," Téa responded. But who was she responding to? Was it her best friend Yugi that had hugged her tightly? Or had it been the enigmatic Pharaoh who'd whispered those words to her, words she'd been wishing for years he'd say? Long ago, she'd come to the conclusion that it would never happen, or he'd never mean it and it would all be pointless anyway. But now to finally hear them…no, it was useless after all. She was on her own now; she didn't need anyone's well-wishes. She would win in this tournament, and she'd do it because she had the skill to do so, not dumb luck or belief in some mystical "Heart of the Cards" or anything else.

She straightened up and put her hands on her luggage grips again, forcing another smile as she looked back at her friends. "I'd say it's go time."

Minutes later, they'd managed to weave through the throngs of people crowding the gangplank. A porter took Téa and Mai's suitcases ahead of them onto the ship, while Mai followed shortly thereafter, having kept her goodbyes short and sweet. Even now, her only gesture to Joey and the others was a simple two-fingered salute at her brow, a quick wink and the slightest of smirks gracing her lips.

_'If I could only be so casual about this,'_ Téa thought, swallowing the acrid lump that had formed in her throat. She was having a hard time keeping her plastic smile in place; it was slipping only now that she was so close to saying goodbye.

"Téa, wait." Seto gripped one of Téa's wrists, stopping her halfway up the gangplank. The fact that he'd come as far as he had with her, while the others stood awkwardly below on the harbor seemed to have caught the attention of a great deal of people— Téa heard the murmur of the crowd again, saw the bright flash of camera bulbs out of the corner of her eye, felt the heat rise up to her neck.

"Take these," he insisted, abruptly pushing a thin stack of cards into Téa's hands.

Téa needed only to look at the top card before she began to sputter, "Seto, I couldn't possibly—"

"You **can**. You **will**," he stated firmly, leaving no room for argument. His hands had already fallen slack by his side; if she tried to push the cards back to him now, they'd flutter away in the ocean breeze.

"But—" It still wasn't right. These cards were—!

"No buts." His voice dropped an octave lower. "Please."

Téa sucked in a deep breath and dropped her head in a single nod. "Okay, but…I'm not going to promise I'm actually going to **use** them."

"Fine," Kaiba agreed, looking satisfied but, much to Téa's befuddlement, not smug. He wasn't treating this like a duel he'd won or an opponent he'd bested. He just looked…**content**.

_'Like I need to be thinking about this before my big tournament!'_ Téa shook her head rapidly, as if expecting the motion would jiggle the tangle of thoughts in her head right on out her ears. It was time to go. Time to focus on something **other** than Pharaohs, God Cards, romance and Kaiba!

She bowed her head slightly and started walking up the gangplank again, thinking Seto would head back down so the last of the passengers could board. But instead, he let the space between them widen for only a moment before he grabbed her wrist again and this time spun her forcibly into his arms, tilting her back deeply before his lips claimed hers.

_'Oh,'_ Téa thought, and then her mind went blank. She felt her eyes close as if weighted, and from there on out, it was just pure sensation: his lips moving warmly and expertly over hers, one hand gripping firmly at her hip, his heat seeming to soak through the shorts Téa was wearing. The moment his tongue pushed up against the seam of her lips, the blankness of Téa's mind vanished and she gripped him as tightly as he gripped her, one of her hands clenching at his shoulders while the other found its way past his iron grip and into the hair at the nape of Kaiba's neck.

She didn't know how many moments passed, how many camera bulbs she'd dimly seen flashing, or how many wolf whistles and catcalls she'd heard. But she was hyper-aware of the moment when Seto's hand dared to drop a few centimeters lower and he tried to hold her tighter, bend her back into his arms a bit further, and that was when **she** stopped. She pushed a hand firmly against his chest and stepped back at the same time, severing the intimate contact their upper bodies had been in only seconds before.

Seto was still standing there, his hair thoroughly mussed and his blue dress shirt collar sticking up. Téa smirked slightly and patted the offending fabric down before taking another full step back, acknowledging her friends on the harbor below with the same two-fingered salute that Mai had. She winked at them all and then turned around and didn't look back once.

* * *

As Kaiba descended the gangplank back down to the harbor, he caught sight of Joey practically stewing in his sneakers, looking quite peeved. He kept on scuffing the toe of his shoes on the ground only to realize the damage he was doing and then stopping to look up at Kaiba and growl under his breath. When Kaiba finally made it past the gates, Joey exploded with a string of shouts.

"Freakin' show-off! What are you, some sort of preying mantis, leaning Téa back so you can eat her head off? Yeesh!"

Before Kaiba could reply, a blonde that Kaiba hadn't taken notice of before—_'Ah, that Hawkins girl'_—piped up.

"What do you mean?" Rebecca asked, looking confused.

"You know, a preying mantis. They prey on things," Joey explained, standing up a little straighter as he did so. He completely missed Rebecca's jaw falling open in complete shock and the exaggerated roll of her eyes.

_'Dumb mutt. Probably thinks he's smarter than Hawkins because he knows the name of an insect.'_

"Actually," Rebecca said, pushing her red-rimmed glasses back up onto her nose, "It's a PRAYING mantis." She demonstrated a prayer pose and then dropped one hand to her hip. "And it's the **female** of the species that eats the male—not just his head, but the whole body—after she's mated with him."

Duke, Tristan and Joey all cringed uncomfortably, while everyone else gave a collective sigh.

Yugi shifted his weight from one foot to another and spoke aloud, his eyes still on the ship. "I noticed you gave Téa some cards, Kaiba."

Kaiba didn't respond, even when Joey, Duke, and Tristan all turned to glance at him. Yugi continued.

"Do you think she can win even without them?"

"That's why I gave them to her," Kaiba said with a confident smile.

"H-Hey!" Joey blustered. "Just what are you saying? Téa can duel just fine!"

"Joey, Joey," Yugi interrupted, trying to intervene before a full-fledged argument could break out and call too much attention to them. "I think Kaiba was saying he gave the cards to Téa not because she would **have** to use them, but she **could**, if she wanted to. I mean, he trusted her with them—"

"Whoa, whoa—just what kind of cards did you give her, Moneybags?"

Kaiba rolled his eyes at Joey and then sighed. Everyone was staring expectantly, and there was no point being close-lipped about it now, was there? They'd all find out about it sooner or later. Still, it was the mutt asking, and who was he to pass up an opportunity to goad Joey on? Sure, his treatment of the blond nowadays was a far cry from how he treated him a year ago, but things couldn't change too drastically in that regard.

"It's none of your damn business, mutt," Kaiba responded snidely, but his eyes glittered with anticipation that Joey would get all riled up and retaliate with a barrage of questions.

And retaliate he did: "What are you talkin' about, 'none of your business,' you—you—!"

"Joey, dude, calm down!" Tristan said, tugging on Joey's arm. "You're making a scene," he hissed, gesturing with his chin toward the crowd of people whose attentions were shifting from the ladies on the ship to the commotion Joey was making.

"Damn right I'm making a scene! Who do you think you are, Moneybags, shovin' some cards at Téa and then tryin' to pretend it never happened?"

Kaiba opened his mouth to dig at Joey a bit more before Yugi interrupted, his voice audible despite its softness. "You gave her the dragons, didn't you?"

Joey's bluster deflated like the air from a hot air balloon. "You—what?"

_'Damn Yugi,'_ Kaiba cursed silently. As insightful and meddlesome as ever.

"Big step," Duke commented.

"Right, whatever. Yes, mutt, I gave her the dragons." He glanced off to the side, where there were at least a few people with their cell phones in hand. Who knew how many of them had the number of one of the ladies on the ship, and would reveal whatever he said to them? He wasn't going to put Téa's strategy at risk, even if she didn't plan to use the cards. "De-Fusion, Polymerization, a few other cards, too." He smirked when Joey started to turn red again, ready to bluster.

"But Big Brother, won't you need those cards?" Mokuba questioned curiously.

"Maybe, maybe not," Kaiba said carefully. He certainly didn't have any plans to get caught up in another adventure with Yugi, the mutt, and the rest of their motley crew, but…. The thought of the God Cards being in the wrong hands left Kaiba with the urge to find those three idiot motorcyclists, get the God Cards back and be done with it. But he couldn't. No, he **wouldn't**. He didn't need the God Cards anymore, didn't care about stupid titles or duels for vengeance. Let Yugi and his gang run around the world trying to be saviors. It wasn't **his** job to be part of that, no matter what associations he'd shared with them in the past.

_'Let them think what they want.'_ They hadn't even bothered to tell him to his face that the God Cards had been stolen yet, or that there was a new threat involving a strange new card, monster sightings, and a Duel Disk that wasn't an authorized Kaiba Corp. model. There hadn't exactly been much time since he and Mokuba had arrived, and the crowds were still thick and swirling around them—hardly a time or place to be discussing sudden, secret, or strange-anything—but it was enough of an indicator to Kaiba that they didn't trust him as much as they all claimed.

'_So much for friendship speeches and smiley faces,'_ Kaiba thought grimly as he watched the _Arielle_ depart into the night.

* * *

"Well, well, well, if it isn't Mai Valentine."

A girl with thick, curly black hair, perhaps Téa's age or a bit older, sauntered up to them, confidence rolling off her in waves. She jutted her hip out, clad in a scarlet skirt that barely reached the ends of her thighs, and placed her arm with the Duel Disk II strapped to it on it. She cocked her head and eyed Mai and Téa critically, her brown eyes shifting up and down the girls as if she were a butcher inspecting meat.

"Aren't you supposed to be retired by now or something?"

"**Excuse** me?" Mai snarled icily, her violet eyes narrowing into slits.

"You heard me. Aren't you a little **old** to be at a 'Young Ladies' Duelist Tournament'?" the girl asked offhandedly, lifting her hand only briefly to make air quotes with her fingers. Before Mai could respond the girl continued, a smug smile creeping across her painted lips. "This isn't some two-bit tournament where sticking your breasts out and wearing skirts too short for your buttis going to help you any. There are no male duelists to distract here, in case you didn't know."

"I'm well aware of that, pipsqueak," Mai shot back, standing up a bit straighter in her high-heeled boots. She easily towered over the other female duelists present; without her heels, she was already 175 centimeters; with her boots on, she was easily 185, tall enough to be a super model and quite the intimidating female duelist. "But in case you missed the memo, I don't **need** distractions to win duels. If I did, I wouldn't have made it as far as the Duelist Kingdom semi-finals or the Battle City quarter-finals."

"Oh please," the girl snorted. "Duelist Kingdom may have been the first major tournament in Duel Monsters history, but it was a joke and Pegasus knew it. There were hardly any rules, and I heard he rigged it with his own 'player killers' anyway. And Battle City, well…I heard you were on your **knees**, begging for mercy from that Ishtar guy. And he **still **kicked your ass. You're a pathetic excuse for a female duelist role model if there ever was one."

Mai's rose-colored lips opened slightly, as if she were about to make a scathing retort, but Téa's fingers curling around her upper arm stopped her. The curly-haired duelist clearly noticed this gesture, her brown eyes flicking from Mai to Téa. For a split second, she almost seemed surprised— though whether because Mai Valentine had someone with her or because that someone was Téa Gardner—neither of them were sure. Heedless of speculation, the expression vanished as quickly as it arrived, and a devilish smile crept its way up the girl's lips, sending chills down Téa's spine.

"**You**," the girl sneered, thrusting her chin out at Téa. "I know you."

"Oh really?" Téa asked, an eyebrow raised in query. But before she could say any more, the girl with the thick curly black hair interrupted again.

"You're the little air-headed cheerleader who's always hanging around Yugi Moto and Joey Wheeler, like some kind of leech trying to suck off their fame," she sneered. "And on top of that, the newspapers are calling you Seto Kaiba's **girlfriend**? They should get their stories straight—you're probably nothing more than a cheap accessory to him, if that."

"Maybe **you're** the one that ought to go…suck off," Mai snapped, frowning. "Preferably back in whatever barnyard you came from." Mai didn't normally bother with crude insults or personal attacks—not at duelist tournaments, not anymore. Clearly, this dark-haired duelist had pushed one button too many in Mai's mind and that made her worthy of being taken down in the fastest way possible.

"Mai, don't," Téa said softly. "Let it go."

Mai wheeled on her feet, staring at Téa with her eyes ablaze. "Are you kidding me? You're just going to let this no-account stranger come up to you and tell you who **you** are, and whether **you're** worthy of being here?" Mai's violet eyes flitted off to the side, glancing at the smug curly-haired duelist without turning to face her. "What makes you think she even has the **right**?"

"By the way," Mai said, turning around to face the other girl, "I guess you missed it earlier when Seto Kaiba **kissed** Téa here in front of everyone before the ship left? Or when Yugi Moto and Joey Wheeler—you know, those duelists Téa's 'leeching' off of—hugged her so hard, told her they'd miss her so much, she nearly turned blue?"

The curly-haired duelist frowned, but quickly covered up her displeasure with a smirk. "An act, I'm sure. What would world-famous duelists want with someone like **her**? I know what **you** probably wanted from them, though," the girl continued. "You probably thought they'd all lend you a hand in this tournament, maybe give you a leg-up by association. Well, I hate to break it to you; it doesn't work that way here."

"I don't need anyone's 'leg-up,'" Téa snapped in a tight voice.

"Well, then, a pack of free cards," the girl said, refusing to back down. Her dark eyes seemed to sparkle when she saw Téa's expression falter in surprise. "Ah, hit the nail on the head, didn't I? I bet they managed to distract you with all that weepy fake talk about missing you that you just forgot to ask. I bet they wouldn't trust you with a cheap trap card, let alone any of **their** famous monster cards. And now you're on a ship of **true** duelists, probably without a clue what you're going to do. Maybe you should drop out now and **swim** back to shore while you still can."

Téa clenched one of her hands into a white-knuckled fist. The other hand closed tightly around her deck box where Seto's cards rested, innocently unexposed.

_'I didn't want to take those cards from him in the first place, but he insisted. At first, I thought it was because he trusted me, but maybe he thinks I can't build my own tournament-worthy deck…?'_

The curly-haired duelist leaned in toward Téa. "You know just as well as I do that you don't belong here," she said in a low whisper. Téa's eyes widened a fraction; her gaze was still riveted straight ahead, though focused on nothing in particular.

Though the other duelist could not see Téa's face from where she stood, her face mere centimeters from Téa's ear, she seemed to sense it, as a devilish smirk curled her lips. "You're just trying to fit into a world that doesn't suit you, because it's the only way they'll notice, and it's the only way they'll care. But let me save you some heartache: they won't notice. They won't care. And you won't win a single duel here."

The curly-haired duelist leaned back again, expecting to see a look of abject horror on Téa's face, but she found herself startled when the face looking back at her was anything but.

"If this is your idea of trying to trip me up so I'll show you my deck before a duel, so sorry; you lose," Téa said, her expression relaxed into a mask of eerie calm. "But I can guarantee you we'll finish this in the duel arena sooner or later. Come on, Mai." And with that, Téa turned on her heel and walked away. Mai smiled briefly before turning back to the baffled woman.

"I'm looking forward to that duel when she kicks your ass. And she's got a whole lot of powerful friends—Yugi, Kaiba, and Joey to say the least—who believe in her. She'll pull the rug from right out under you… and I'll be there laughing on the sidelines. See you, pipsqueak." Mai thrust a perfectly manicured hand up in a sharp wave before pivoting on her heel and following after Téa.

* * *

"Not bad digs for a pair of future championship-winning duelists, wouldn't you say?" Mai grinned as she glanced around her and Téa's assigned quarters. "Well, what do you think?"

Téa remained in the doorway, simply staring as though there were something through the side of the ship capturing her attention, or that held her spellbound. She didn't seem to notice the accouterments of the wide chamber at all, outfitted with two twin-size beds, a wide curtained window opening out onto a small private balcony, and a cushioned love seat covered in royal blue fabric.

"Don't tell me you're hung up on what that pipsqueak said back there," Mai said softly, putting a hand on Téa's shoulder. "Hell, you handled it better than I did! With…with **finesse**! Assuming that brat even gets seeded, you'll kick her ass and that'll be the end of it."

"Maybe," Téa murmured as she walked to one of the twin beds and set her bag down. "But Mai, you know…" She looked up at the older blonde, her expression suddenly distraught. "She was right. I never even met her before, but she just saw right through me."

"What are you going on about, Téa? Didn't I just tell you not to believe the bull coming out of that pipsqueak's mouth? She said all that stuff to unnerve you—Dueling 101: freak your opponent out. Come on, you've seen it enough times to know better!"

"I have, I know, I do, I **do** know better! But you know the reason why it works, the reason why it **always** works, whether it's some girl we've never met, or Joey, or Yugi, or Seto—it's all the same! She was right Mai, I **don't** belong here."

Mai's eyes narrowed again as she crossed her arms over her chest. "Then why **are** you here? Why did you challenge me to a duel and wipe the floor with me; why did you bother assembling a deck? Why did you accept the cards—from Malik, from Pegasus—"

"From Seto, too," Téa interrupted softly. "He gave me these." She withdrew the fifteen cards—enough to function as a side deck, if she so desired— from her deck box, fanning the cards out in her palm.

Mai only needed to see the top half of one of those cards before she withdrew a sharp breath and sat down on the bed beside Téa, her angry expression melted away. "I can't believe it…" Her eyes lifted to meet Téa's forlorn gaze. "Are you going to use them?"

"How **can** I, Mai? It'd be like admitting that girl—that 'no account pipsqueak'— is right!"

"How so?" Mai asked, baffled. "She thinks you're just some bimbo hanging off the fame those boys enjoy as top-ranked duelists—she doesn't get how close you really are with them. And Christ, Téa, Seto Kaiba gave **you**— you, his girlfriend, not his plaything or accessory—his Blue-Eyes White Dragons! Not one, not two, but all three! If that's not a show of trust, I don't know what is!"

Téa furrowed her eyebrows, looking distressed again. "Maybe…but isn't he basically saying that no deck I could put together would ever be tournament-worthy? That I couldn't win if it were just me and my cards, my decisions?"

"You're reading too much into it," Mai assured her. "If he were thinking that way, he wouldn't have handed you fifteen cards, he would have handed you forty. Hell, he would have sat down with you and analyzed your deck before letting you out of the house. He would have forced you to take that massive suitcase of cards with you that he's always hauling around. Forget the tournament rules about bringing no more than forty cards and a side deck. He'd tell you, 'Screw the rules, I'm Kaiba!' or something."

Téa couldn't help the smile that curved her lips at that moment. "He probably would have said something like that. But you know, Mai, he didn't."

"That's right. He **trusted** you to make your own decisions. And that includes choosing whether or not to use those cards. Now, you mind showing me your deck? You don't have to worry about me selling you out or anything—I **want** you to win, remember?"

Téa didn't hesitate as she removed her deck from the box. Mai shuffled through the cards quietly, mentally taking note of those cards that she'd seen before— in Téa's previous deck, when they'd last dueled— and which were new. There was a whole host of cards that Mai had never even **heard** of in there as well.

_'These must have been the ones she mentioned getting from Pegasus. She only could have done better if she'd convinced Yugi to hand over his God Cards.'_

"He knows you," Mai smiled briefly. "He didn't try to turn your deck into his deck. All the cards he gave you will support what you've already got."

"I didn't even show him my deck," Téa said softly. "I didn't—I was afraid. That he'd say it was terrible, that I'd never be able to win—"

"Didn't we already go over this? If he really thought that, why would he have only given you fifteen cards, and not a whole new deck? This is Kaiba, here—didn't he like, hack into Pegasus' satellite mainframe or something just to make your **birthday** present?"

"Yeah," Téa murmured, smiling. "Yeah, he did."

"He's mostly a good guy," Mai said, leaning back. "Thing is, even though the guys do so much for you, try to take care of you, they don't even know how to take care of themselves. Our time away from them will be just as much a test for them as it is for us. Think they can last without us?"

Téa grinned. "Seto can, I think. As for the others…."

Mai cocked an eyebrow. "You're awful sure about a guy that couldn't seem to take his suction cup lips off you. I mean, come on, what kind of a guy puts his girlfriend in the spotlight like that, in front of thousands of people?"

Téa blushed the color of a maraschino from the base of her neck to the roots of her hair. "It wasn't that bad…."

"Wasn't it?" Mai lifted a manicured finger up. "Never let a guy put you in a position like that, Téa. Always stay on top."

Téa's color deepened to a pomegranate shade. "Mai…" she muttered, shifting uncomfortably.

"I'm serious, Téa," Mai said, though she was smirking through her lipsticked lips. "You know the praying mantis? The female of the species is the one that tops the male, and then bites his head off and eats him when she's done."

Téa blinked at Mai, pursing her lips together in an effort not to laugh. Instead, she said, "Have you been hanging out with Weevil lately?"

Mai smacked Téa lightly on the head with her own rolled-up tournament guide. "No, smart ass. Why do you ask?"

Téa abruptly sobered up, remembering Weevil's empty eyes and monotonous voice, doom saying the end of the world. "Earlier, we ran into him. He…wasn't himself."

"Uh, details, Téa? I'm not the _Evening Star_, here. You can tell me what happened."

"He looked like he'd had his soul sucked out of him," Téa said flatly. "He was wandering around Domino like a zombie, predicting the end of the world."

"And?" Mai asked. "You took a picture and left him there?"

"No," Téa said slowly. "Mai, promise me that what's said in here **doesn't** leave this room."

Both of Mai's eyebrows shot to her hairline. "You're not going to tell me you smuggled Bug Boy home and had your way with him, are you?"

Téa's eyes widened to the size of saucers. "Eew, Mai, are you kidding me? No!" Then she quieted, staring at her folded hands resting in her lap. "The God Cards were stolen. The guys and I went after the people who took them, and then this freaky guy calling himself 'Gurimo' challenged Yugi to a duel."

"Par for the course," Mai said. "Okay. Go on. I get the feeling that this wasn't a regular card game."

"Is it ever?" Téa quipped. "Long story short, Yugi won, but Gurimo didn't have the cards. And when all was said and done, he was just as much a zombie as Weevil—and Rex, too—was earlier."

Mai whistled low under her breath. "Let me get this straight: it's raining monsters, duelists are turning into zombies, and the God Cards are back out on the loose? Yeesh, now I'm glad we left Japan."

Téa gave a half-hearted chuckle. "I'd agree with you, but is it really okay to be leaving them like this?"

Mai shot up from where she was sitting. "Are you kidding me? Of course it is! Besides the fact that we've been planning this for **months**, you should be relieved! You're getting away from that madness and being sensible about it, too. Why do you always have to be the ones off saving the world or investigating weirdness?"

"Yeah," Téa whispered. "Yeah…."

"Don't look so bent out of shape," Mai said, clapping a manicured hand onto Téa's shoulder.

"The guys didn't seem too upset about me leaving despite all this craziness. Maybe they don't need me after all."

"Maybe **you** don't need **them**," Mai revised. "Why do you always put them first? Remember: always stay on top."

"So you're saying I should eat their heads off?" Téa asked with a grin.

"You planning on mating with all of them, or just Bug Boy?"

"Maaaai!"

* * *

The laughter from Mai and Téa's suite filtered out into the hall, bringing a smirk to the lips of the one person out there.

He wasn't eavesdropping, per se…he had a job to do. He shouldered himself away from the wall and returned to a shallow alcove a couple feet away. He adjusted a few wires in a box there, just a few meters from the girls' suite door, and then snapped it shut quietly. Using the sleeve of his left arm, he rubbed the slight sheen of sweat that had formed on his brow. He longed to toss the ridiculous crewmember's hat he had to wear off his head and just let his wild brown hair be free, but he had to keep up the charade for just a bit longer. A little bit of discomfort on his end was no problem…not with the payoff he was going to get.

He replaced the hat on his head, altering the brim so it sat at cocked atop his mop of naturally spiky hair.

A young female duelist coming down the hall looked at him curiously. "Evenin' miss," he said, only barely disguising his accent. The girl passed him, her eyes never leaving his, her cheeks burning a brilliant-red upon catching sight of his smirk.

Oh, yes, the payoff would be huge.

* * *

**Wow. This chapter was over a year in the making. I've never taken so long to write a chapter, and for that, I do apologize. But I'd never want to put out anything I wasn't completely satisfied with, and with the help of numerous people, most especially Aelibia, I'm finally happy with this chapter. **

**I've had a few people say that WDKY's gotten to the point where it's too long to read; this fic isn't and has never been for them. I realize that with lengthy chapters and long spans of time between updates, it's a harder read, but my hope is that the story itself will compel you to read and enjoy again and again, and discover more to the universe with each re-read.**

**That said, there are only (!) 10 chapters to go! I hope you'll stay with me, as it's been a heck of a ride so far and will only get more exciting from here.**

**Thank you, reader, for coming this far with me. Let's go the rest of the way together!**

**— Azurite**


	28. Chapter 28

**What Doesn't Kill You  
Chapter 27: Adrift  
A Yu-Gi-Oh Fanfiction  
By:** Azurite - azurite AT seventh-star DOT net  
**Site: **seventh-star DOT net   
**Conceptualized/First Written:** 6/28/05  
**Completed/Final Edit: **8/6/16**  
Posted: **8/6/16

**WDKY finally has its own website! Check out wdky [DOT] seventh-star [DOT] net for Review Replies, Changelogs, and more!**

**A note on Duel Monsters cards:** For the most part, I've kept to the dub card names, effects, and attacks. I've only ever changed them when the dub/TCG name was just plain stupid (looking at you, _Dark Hole_). Spell Cards are Magic Cards, though in the past, I may have used both terms. I capitalized some dueling terms on purpose, e.g. Battle Position and Life Points. Hope it doesn't bug anyone.

Like last chapter, I use some of the original Japanese conventions, e.g. Doma instead of "Doom," etc.

* * *

 

Téa couldn't remember the name of the song. The words "topsy-turvy" kept floating in and out of her head, from her left ear to her right and back again.

_Swish-swoosh, top-sy tur-vy._

Everything tilted side to side. She was in a garden of endless green. It was a sick sort of black-green color that could have swallowed Téa whole if she let it. She stumbled and tilted in just the right way, weaving among the melting gray statues of people within. Through and past, just missing some woman with a slipping face and some fat man with a flute of cement champagne in his gooey sausage fingers.

Suddenly she was in a maze of bushes, and while didn’t feel so crooked anymore, Téa still ran. She knew something was after her, loping and purposeful, wanting only her. What it wanted with her, Téa didn't know, but she knew she couldn't let it catch her. She wasn't some pretty bird destined for caging.

So she ran.

An oppressive black fog slithered after her. It leaked through the leaves and seeped through the soil. It would surround her, tie her up and gag her until she was silent forever. Téa dashed and danced ahead of it. She always found a path that wound around another corner and deeper into the labyrinth. As she rounded another hedge, she caught sight of a something bright and shiny. Téa approached it on steady feet. Then something in the air changed: a static electricity, a pulse, a wave or a wisp of clarity. Whatever it was, it blew the oppressive fog out of the way.

_'Come closer.'_

This was a dream. Téa knew that much. She knew she couldn't wake up until she escaped the fog, until she was safe from its–_'his?'_–chokehold and she bathed in the light.

Finally, Téa rounded one last corner and saw a brilliant blue-gold-green-silver-white light. It filled the whole pathway ahead of her. The fog couldn't come close. She was safe now. She reached out for the light…

…and with a tumble fell right out of her bed. Téa saw shapes that weren't quite stars dancing in and out of her line of sight. But the brilliance of her dream-light was still so bright that she couldn't focus enough to tell what they were. When her vision finally cleared, her other senses kicked in. Her mouth and throat protested a shocking dryness, while her ears rang with a shrill whine. The topsy-turviness of the boat seemed to have ceased, but Téa had yet to find her sea legs. She stumbled and tripped on her way to the suite bathroom.

Once there, she closed the small door and turned on the single fluorescent light. Téa found a small comfort in its dull buzz. After a few moments, she pushed herself away from the door and toward the tiny sink area. She splashed cold water from the pump faucet onto her face. The reflection she saw in the mirror didn't appear her own. The girl that looked back at her had red rings around her eyes. She looked gaunt, her cheekbones appearing to stick out thanks to the the shadows under them. Had that curly-haired girl's comments gotten to her so much?

_"You're the little air-headed cheerleader who's always hanging around Yugi Moto and Joey Wheeler, like some kind of leech trying to suck off their fame."_

Up until now, Téa Gardner's adventures with her friends had always been willing. So she hadn't known what she was getting herself into when she went to Duelist Kingdom. Or when she tagged along during Battle City. She thought that Seto dropped his rivalry with Yugi, so when Seto challenged him to a rematch, she had no idea why. She only realized what that chain of events meant when Anubis was seconds away from killing them all.

Then, someone stole the God cards and another adventure loomed on the horizon. But she'd opted out. She'd planned for this longer, wanted it for longer…wanted it for herself, for once.

_'It's not selfish to do something for myself every once in a while, right? But…I am doing this for them, too. To get them to finally see me as more than just some "cheerleader."'_

The curly-haired duelist was somewhat right. Her friends might not be gossips who thought she was just a pretty face with no Duel Monsters know-how. But they definitely took her for granted. It had taken years for the realization to sink in, and it shocked Téa's system.

But…

_"And on top of that, the newspapers are calling you Seto Kaiba's girlfriend? They should get their stories straight—you're probably nothing more than a cheap accessory to him, if that."_

It took her years to realize that her best friend was taking her for granted. How long would it be before she realized something just as painful about Seto? Hadn't they already been through enough heartache? Téa didn't think she could take any more heartache. Lies, the mistrust, the almost-everything but always-nothing imbalance of their relationship…it all added up.

_'I need to call him.'_

Téa flicked off the bathroom light and opened the door. She marched straight to the small bag where she'd stowed her cell phone and retrieved it with a swift yank. Her fingers were millimeters away from the button for sending a message to 'SETO CELL PVT.' This was the guy that had kissed her in front of a crowd of thousands, including all her best guy friends. And probably just to show off! This was the guy that had shoved fifteen cards into her hands for who-knows-what-reason. It didn't matter what she and Mai had theorized earlier. She wanted to hear the answer from his own lips: _Why did you give me these cards?_

"Ugh, what are you doing up, Téa?" Mai mumbled from her bed, smacking her lips together. She reached up to adjust her sleeping mask, but it caught in her hair and stayed there, while Mai’s arm flopped back to the bed.

"Calling Seto," Téa replied. She exited out of the messaging screen and immediately tried to call him. She had full signal strength, but the phone just clicked and went silent when she tried to call. She tried his other lines: the work line, the car line, the house line. Nothing. She tried messaging again, sending the simple message "Call me now," but minutes went by and there was no reply. The message appeared to have gone through. It sat there in her Sent folder, but there was no indicator that she was receiving –should have received– a message or not.

"Argh! Why isn't this working? Do I have signal strength or don't I?"

"We're in the middle of the open ocean, Téa. Try the boat's line. I think it's a satellite phone." Téa picked up the phone on the nightstand between their beds and dialed again.

"Didn't know you couldn't go a single night without exchanging mushy 'goodnights' with your lover-boy. Yeesh," Mai grumbled. 

Téa shot Mai an irritated glance before turning back to the phone. She got the same click-silence as before. She set the phone on the base and then tried all the numbers for Seto she knew. Now all the numbers for the Turtle Game Shop. Joey's cell. Malik's line at the museum. All produced the same result: nothing.

"Come on, Téa, what's the deal here? Kaiba's a big boy now. You don't need to check up on him."

Téa put the phone back on the cradle and sighed. "I wasn't checking up on him," she said, but part of her knew that was a lie. It wasn’t as if she could ask to cuddle up with Mai because she felt a cold loneliness creeping in after that weird dream.

"I was calling him to find out what the heck is up with him giving me these cards," Téa said, pointing at the deck box on the end table.

Mai lifted her head from her pillows and glared at Téa. "I thought we went over this. You **aren't** just feeding me a line, right? You're forgetting we're not in this tournament to be clinging to the boys and giving them hourly updates!"

"No," Téa agreed as she bobbed her head once, her voice a whisper.

"Damn right!" Mai said, sitting up now. "We're here for ourselves, and we're here to win!"

Téa forced a smile onto her lips, but she couldn't help glance at her cell phone screen, dimmed to dark.

_'Why hasn't Seto called me?'_

* * *

 

"Okay, hold up," Mai said, stopping Téa in front of the dining hall the next morning. Thick swaths of clouds fragmented the morning light that streamed through the windows below-deck. Everything seemed bright and hazy. Téa blinked, but sleepiness still clung to her eyelids.

"Before we go in there, there's a few things you ought to know. Keep your eyes open, but **don't** look at anybody. We don't need to give anyone a reason to jump our backs. Keep your deck with you at all times, and make sure to check on it every so often. We don't know what kind of people we're dealing with yet, but after today we'll have a pretty good idea.

"If anyone mouths off to you, just ignore them," Mai continued, ticking off points on her fingers. "You are **better** than them, remember that! You don't have to let these people bait you. That doesn't mean you should be passive, though. Be assertive, but not aggressive, you know? And let your attitude show on the outside. Reveal some emotion, but only the right kind, and not too much. Show them you're not afraid, you're going to eat them for breakfast, you're meant to be here and they aren't.

"Oh, and remember to wear comfortable underwear because when you're up there and everyone's watching you it's not like you can fix it. Actually, better yet, got a thong? I mean hell, if they're going to be looking, might as well give them some nice goods–"

"Mai!" Téa exclaimed. "Did zombie Joey eat your brain last night or something? **Really**. I get it. Thanks for the information overload," she said, pulling her skirt down a bit further, just in case. "I think I'll be fine."

"I'm just trying to watch out for you, Téa," Mai said with a sigh. But she didn't give Téa a chance to reply. She strode off toward the dining hall, head held high. Téa followed shortly thereafter.

Bright daylight flooded through the windows surrounding the dining area. Girls of all shapes, sizes, and colors milled about, talking, eating, or examining their decks. A neat arrangement of tables, booths, and elongated tables prevented any congestion of foot traffic through the area. This meant the white-jacketed crew could assist anyone within a moment's notice. It almost seemed as if they were dancing between the tables and chairs.

"Good mornin' ladies," one such crew member said, tipping his navy-brimmed hat over a mass of brown hair.

"Good morning," Téa responded without thinking. She was still nice to people, strangers or otherwise. She remembered her manners, despite hanging around boys that thought "politeness" meant not calling people "fat cows" or "blithering idiots." Téa was sure it was what would get her through this tournament with her scalp intact. Téa stared after the crewman long after he'd threaded his way among the tables and into a crew-only area.

_'Why was his voice so familiar?'_

She was just imagining things.

Mai was already walking ahead. She seemed intent on grabbing a table that would allow them to see the action without other duelists seeing them. It was one of the few tables with soft-cushioned booths surrounding it. Other duelists seemed to shy away from the elevated accommodations.

A cold shiver slid down Téa's spine. She froze before following Mai up the short set of stairs to the upper level of the dining room. Was someone watching her?

Mai's words echoed in her head. _"Keep your eyes open, but don't look at anybody."_ Téa opted to tilt her head, looking through the veil of her hair to see if anyone was staring at her. No one seemed to be, until she spotted a figure in all white, leaning against a wall at the other end of the room. It was the crewman from before! He didn't look familiar. A white hat with a shiny black brim hid most of his hair, and a pair of sleek sunglasses concealed the upper part of his face.

She kept her gaze steady for just a moment longer, hoping that no one would notice her just pretending to adjust her thigh's deck box. A glint of sunlight streamed in through the window. In the moment Téa looked away and finished her "adjustment," the crewman vanished.

Téa shook her head. _'Not off to a good start if I'm already getting the heebie-jeebies from one of the crew! Geez, relax!'_

Of course, it was easier said than done –and easier done on a full stomach than an empty one. Téa wasted no more time following Mai up the short stairs to their luxurious booth.

* * *

 

"Still haven't been able to get ahold of Joey, huh?" Téa asked, leaning against the doorframe of their suite.

Mai jolted from her place on her bed, stuffing her cell phone under a pillow. "No," she admitted. "This is the third time I've tried, actually, on the room phones, the sat phone out on deck, and my cell."

"Don't you think we should talk to the crew or ask someone else if we could borrow their phone?" Téa asked, pushing herself away from the door and drifting into the room. With one press of the wrist guard, she shucked her Duel Disk II and deck box onto the neatly-made bed. The second day of the tournament was now over, with both women having won all their matches without any losses to their names.

"No!" Mai insisted. "We don't **need** the boys," she said, stabbing the "Off" button of her phone with her fingernail. "They’re just **boys**,” Mai spat, as if the word tasted foul. “We don’t need them,” she repeated, her voice a shuddering whisper this time.

Téa blinked. Since when was Mai so concerned with what others thought of her? _'Or maybe_…' Téa realized, _'This is the real Mai Valentine, once and for all. No more playing the "Big Girl," no more faking that she doesn't need anyone…she really _does_ care what everyone thinks about her!'_ Maybe too much, actually. Wasn't the whole point of this tournament –for Téa, at least– to prove that they could stand on their own two feet? They weren't "accessories" of the boys, but duelists in their own right!

"So uh–" Téa began. She thought about suggesting they try and call the boys (to brag about their spree of victories) when they arrived. Mai cut her off with a smooth slice of her hand.

"Let's check out your deck. According to the latest reports, you haven't used any of the cards you got from Kaiba, right?"

Téa sighed. If Mai wanted to change the topic, then fine. There wasn't much Téa could do to convince a stubborn woman like her, anyway.

"No need," Téa replied, pulling her deck out of her Duel Disk and the 15 cards she'd gotten from Kaiba out of her deck box. Was it her partial belief in the “Heart of the Cards,” or had all the duels she'd watched paid off?

Press members that kept hounding her. They said she was breaking all the records set by prior lower division female duelists. She completed all six rounds in less than half the time given. The tournament rules allotted matches a total of one hour. There was no time limit for each of three duels in each match. Téa had managed to win the first two duels she played with everyone she went up against –no need for a third duel. For better or for worse, this left Téa with a great deal of time between matches and rounds. She used that time to study her possible future opponents and their decks and strategies, plus assess her own deck.

"You too, huh?" Mai grinned. She leaned back on her palms, looking all the world like the cat that ate the canary. "I might not be beating any world records, but that's only 'cause I like to make 'em suffer."

Téa scoffed. "I know! Ever since day one…" Téa shook her head, a smile creeping across her lips as she remembered her first meeting with champion duelist Mai Valentine. Téa had taken an intense dislike to her immediately. Now, here they were, dueling partners and roommates aboard a cruise meant for female duelists. Time certainly changed the way she had thought about many people, Mai included.

"Me, I'm more of the 'Do it and get it over with' type…" Téa continued. Mai’s eyes narrowed and her lips curled into a smirk. Téa’s cheeks flamed red and she waved both her hands in front of her as she yelped, "For duels! _Duels_!"

"Even for that curly-haired witch?" Mai asked, twirling a finger near her ear.

"Alessa Marino?"

Mai rolled her eyes. "You bothered to find out her name? She's not worth the time."

"Hey, if there's one thing I've learned from dating Seto Kaiba, it's 'know thine enemy!' Besides, I'm not the one who has to worry about her," Téa said, handing a yellow printout to Mai. "You do. She's upper division, not lower."

"Ugh, you're kidding me!" Mai glanced over the sheet, the day's current standings in the tournament. With five days left in the tournament, it was anyone's game. Still…Marino was doing well, championship experience or no.

"Hey, what about the girl she registered with?" Mai asked, glancing over the sheet. "The one who just stood back and let Marino spout all that B.S. earlier?"

"Oh, I remember seeing her earlier," Téa recalled, taking the sheet from Mai. "I think her name was Serena C-something. Ah, here it is," she said, poking at the paper with a fingernail. "Serena Compagno. She's lower division like me, but I haven't faced her yet."

"Like I said–" Mai began, but Téa cut her off with a grin.

"'Keep your eyes open!' I know, I know. I'm not picking up these end-of-the-day reports for nothing, Mai. What do you think **I've** been doing with my leftover time between duels?"

"Getting a manicure?" Mai smirked, pointing at Téa's rose-colored nails.

Téa blushed as scarlet as her nails. "Well, all that talk from earlier about everyone's eyes being on you and needing good underwear on top of everything else–"

Mai threw her head back and laughed. "Funny, I would have thought the spotlight would be no big deal to you by now, dating Kaiba and all."

Téa's blush deepened. "It's not the same…. Anyway, between duels I've been watching other people. You know, observing trades and checking out whatever stats I can using the ship's database."

"Oh yeah, the tournament honchos made us register all cards in play didn't they?" Mai asked. "I had to scan my deck through this thing to ensure all the cards were legit. I'm betting someone brought in counterfeits to a previous tournament, so they had to think of something for this year."

Téa frowned and took out the side deck Kaiba had given her, glancing over the cards, including the Blue-Eyes White Dragons. The Blue-Eyes Ultimate Dragon was in her Fusion Deck, too, if she chose to use it. But not the Blue-Eyes Shining Dragon; Kaiba had kept that for himself, even though it was useless without the other dragon cards. It was a link back to him, Téa supposed. It was her **only** link back to him.

Mokuba had told her that Pegasus thought Kaiba had made the Pyramid of Light card himself. That the only card Pegasus himself had made to counter the God cards was the Blue-Eyes Shining Dragon. Fact was, they **still** didn't know just who had arranged for Anubis to come to Japan in the first place. Or why Kaiba found the Pyramid of Light card with the Blue-Eyes Shining Dragon after he'd defeated Pegasus. Kaiba had the ability to counterfeit cards if he wanted. He had the technology and even the willpower, but….

_'There's no way. He doesn't fight that way anymore. Cheating isn't winning.'_

But he had once, when he'd been ruthless enough to think that winning was everything, and any methods employed to win were just a means to an end. Still, Téa felt hesitant as she ran her fingers across the surface of the side deck Kaiba had given her. None of them were counterfeits. It was impossible. He wanted her to **win**, not humiliate her in front of a crowd of hundreds, right?

Téa stared at the Blue-Eyes White Dragon cards, hoping the answer would float into her brain from the cool eyes of the dragon. But no answer came, and the doubts within Téa's mind continued to churn and whirl.

* * *

"Stop it," Mai said in a crisp tone, continuing to shuffle her deck without looking at Téa. The two of them sat back out in the dueling area, and once again, Téa's mind wandered to Yugi, Joey, and her other friends…and Seto.

"Stop what?" Téa asked. A thin smile nudged at her cheeks. Her gaze flitted to Mai before it wandered again, seeking an uncertain point in the distance.

"Thinking about them. About **him**," Mai amended. "A little bit of your mooning was fine before, but now it's starting to get noticeable. And if I'm noticing it, it won't be long before your opponents –like that Serena chick– will, too." Mai finished looking at her cards and shot an icy stare at her dueling partner.

"I wasn't–" Téa began, but Mai interrupted her with a crisp wave of her hand.

"Don't. Just don't." Mai frowned and glanced about to see if anyone was looking their way. She maneuvered Téa into a nook where the ship stowed some of its supplies.

"You're freaking out, and it's showing," Mai said, pressing her hands against Téa's shoulders. "You're thinking Kaiba isn't contacting you because he used you for a publicity stunt. That all he wants still is to be number one, to be the most popular duelist, the most talked-about guy. You're thinking he's putting on a great show and you're just a prop in his act."

"How did you know–" Téa started, but again Mai cut her off.

"It's written on your face, plain as day," Mai stated in a low, firm voice. "I can tell, because I know you, and you're about as easy to read as those convenience store paperbacks."

Téa flushed and bowed her head. Sure, Mai was a friend and had known her for long enough to catch her quirks and see through her foibles, but…

Mai dropped her hands from Téa's shoulders and looked away. "It's not anything against you, honey. But I know heartbreak, so it's easy for me to spot."

"'Heartbreak'?" Téa echoed. Was that what this was: the slow, painful realization that someone you thought you loved wasn't who you thought they were?

"It is on your end," Mai said. "But to him? Come on. He trusts you. **That's** why he gave you the cards, **that's** why he acted so out of character and brought your guys' personal relationship into the spotlight. He wanted you to know how far he'll go for you."

"You're starting to sound like someone else I know," Téa smirked, her brows raised as she thumbed her collar up and out.

"I don't know why you won't own up to how much he needs you," Mai said with a sigh. "The more you keep thinking he's back to his old self, the more off your game you get."

"That's the thing, Mai!" Téa snapped, lowering her voice to a hiss when the shadow of a nearby duelist fell into the galley. "How do I – how do either of us – know that Seto or any of the others have grown up at all? We try and move on from the insanity that's followed us around for years. _They_ seem to go after it, just traipsing on one adventure after another. So this time, I said no. I wanted to do my own thing for once, to stick to my own plans and not be anyone's 'cheerleader accessory'!"

Mai let out a long sigh and leaned against the galley wall. "That Alessa girl got to you bad. Damn, I'm sorry. I didn't know."

"She didn't 'get to me,' Mai! Everything she said–"

"Everything she said was bullshit!" Mai snapped, not bothering to lower her voice anymore. "Look, Kaiba's–he's a good guy…pretty much." Mai winced as she spoke.

"And as for the boys? If they want to go off on their own little adventures saving the world from monsters, let them! They should be able to handle their own problems, and now you're letting them prove it. Do you **want** them to need you so much that you can never live your own life?"

"No," Téa admitted finally, her voice a choked whisper. No, what she wanted was for her own friends to believe in her, to invest the kind of time and energy she had in them. Her encouragement had played no small role in helping both Yugi and Joey become champions… and changing Seto Kaiba for the better.

Was that asking too much from boys that seemed to have greater destinies than her own? They kept getting caught up in magic and mayhem that threatened to end the world. Was it even possible to hope for them to believe in her? After all, this was a duel tournament unlike anything any of them had participated in. They **couldn't** be there on the sidelines, cheering her on the way she did for them.

"No," Téa said, firmer this time. She raised her gaze to meet Mai's. It was time to grow up. That meant not wanting to be **wanted** so much, not by her friends and not by Seto. No, she didn't make it this far–in the tournament or in life–by playing second fiddle all the time. Téa Gardner was here to prove herself–to the world, but more importantly, to her own heart.

* * *

 

Téa ran her right index finger over the smooth edges of her Duel Monsters cards, back and forth. She listened with half an ear to the goings-on in the ship's arena below her. Alone in a loft-like space overlooking the arena, Téa's eyes weren't on the final duels taking place downstairs. Instead, she directed a vacant stare at the side deck in her hands–the cards that Kaiba had given her. Everyone else was too busy watching two of the last duels before the championship match. Duel one: Alessa Marino versus the third surviving upper division duelist. Duel two: Alessa's partner, Serena Compagno against the third lower division finalist.

In a matter of minutes, Téa knew how her fate would play out. Either she would be facing Serena with her unsettling calm smile and sparse words… or she would be facing someone else. After something like 18 duels, she had stopped paying attention to anyone but Alessa and Serena. Mai acted like she didn't care about Alessa, but duel after duel went by, and she hadn't lost a single one. Now, Mai was actually bothering to watch Alessa's match downstairs. The other duelists said that both Alessa and Serena were as unstoppable as Mai and Téa, but everyone knew that even one loss would do them in.

"AND THAT'S THE FINALS, LADIES!" a loud voice proclaimed, startling Téa out of her reverie.

_'Wait, _that's _the finals? What about–'_ Téa stood up, about to head downstairs from the lounge when she caught sight of the crowd downstairs, murmuring to themselves in astonishment. In the center of the throng, a smug-looking Alessa looked down on her downcast opponent. Serena had left her duel ring and stood below Alessa, staring up at her partner with a haunted smile. It looked like she had won, too.

"I know, I know! You're shocked! Flabbergasted! Confused!" Duelists around the arena winced as the microphone squealed with feedback. The enthusiastic emcee had the grace to blush as bright pink as one of the multicolored streaks in her hair, but only for a moment.

"It's a surprise I've been ITCHING to share with you," the announcer continued. She pretended to scratch herself on the hip with the free hand that wasn't holding her microphone. "And now I've scratched that itch! The final duel will be nothing less than an all-out battle of brains, beauty, brawn! A tag-team duel of epic proportions!"

Téa headed downstairs as the announcement continued, trying to remain calm.

She didn't know which was worse. Was it the possibility of getting defeated by a silent opponent with the perfect poker face? Or a snot-nosed, obnoxious, arrogant duelist who thought she knew everything about Téa's relationships? To have to deal with them both at the same time? A shudder rippled from her toes to her neck, prompting Téa to shake her head, her hair whipping in front of her face.

Mai moved her way through the throngs until she met Téa at the base of the stairs from the lounge. Just then, the announcer made a sweeping gesture, her rainbow locks arcing through the air. "Presenting the two teams that will battle against each other for the championship. Here we have Alessa 'The Conqueror' Marino and silent Serena Compagno from Italy… Up against Japan's 'Deadly Sweetheart' Mai Valentine and my favorite cuppa, Téa Gardner!"

Mai and Téa shared an incredulous look upon hearing their "nicknames." But their amusement was short-lived. The crowds thinned to make way for Alessa approaching them, her arms crossed over her ample chest. Serena followed behind her, her expression blank. She didn't seem all that surprised by the announcement. She also didn't seem pleased by her and her partner's recent victories.

"So, you managed to make it this far, leech," Alessa said, jutting her chin at Téa. "I'll take great pleasure in crushing you beneath my boot and showing the world what a sorry excuse for a duelist you are."

"Watch your mouth, brat," Mai snapped immediately, before Téa could even move her lips. "We didn't make it this far–**together**–because she's a sorry excuse for anything."

"Beginner's luck," Alessa sneered.

"_Eighteen_ duels worth of 'beginner's luck'? You _are_ crazy!" Mai exclaimed, twirling her finger beside her head.

Alessa glared at Mai. "Coming from the woman who cheated her way to Duelist Kingdom with perfume? And need I remind you of your pathetic loss to that impostor Malik Ishtar in Battle City?"

Mai reeled back from Alessa's words, one of her violet eyes beginning to twitch. Her manicured nails dug crescents into her palms, even through her fingerless gloves. Téa thought she heard at least one knucklebone crack, but the announcer intervened before Mai could wind up a punch.

"Whoa whoa whoa, them's fighting words indeed! But save the snappy battle patter for the battlefield, eh, ladies? After all, you have only…" the announcer made another grandiose gesture, this time whipping her left arm in a wide arc to reveal an oversized digital watch on her wrist. "THIRTY MINUTES TO DUEL!"

A gasp rippled throughout the crowd.

Though Téa had started out by beating most of her opponents in half the required time, the later duels had started to take longer. Her most recent duel only ended when her opponent surrendered, quite literally at the last minute.

The largest duel ring of the many scattered throughout the ship lit up. Glowing tracks of lights blinked toward the two dueling platforms. Each of the platforms hissed as hydraulics pushed out a doubling of the metal platform and the railing that surrounded it on three sides. The Life Point gauges on each of the platforms lit up with blood-red digits. The hanging television above the arena flashed a clock with its numerals in the same menacing shade. In moments, the countdown would begin.

"Shocking, I know, right, ladies?" the announcer spun from the duel arena in a 180-degree arc to face the crowd of duelists. "And this shock comes with a single new rule: if your partner goes down, **you** go down with her!"

Téa glanced at Mai. "So if one of us gets to zero Life Points–"

Mai continued staring at the arena, her gaze hard. "Then we're both out of a championship. I don't think either of us is going to let that happen."

Téa glanced at Alessa and Serena, briefly catching her lower division opponent's eye. Téa looked away, and then down at the side deck of 15 cards in her hand. She hadn't used a single one of cards Seto had given her in any of her duels up until now, but….

If there was anything she had learned as a witness to countless duels, it was that the cards didn’t make the duelist. Instead, it was the way a duelist used them. Yugi called his strategy "The Heart of the Cards," as if something from within the cards resonated with him. That didn't help him pick out what cards in his Grandpa's shop to use in the first place. Téa wasn't sure if she could believe in "The Heart of Cards." But she'd been putting everything she had into this tournament. It was the same way she did everything else. And **that** was why she would win.

The cards belonged to Seto, but they were in **her** deck now, and only she could use them to get what she wanted.

Téa strode up the stairs leading to the dueling platform. Yet another crew member waited with his own modified Duel Disk for validating the duelists' decks. With a single deep breath, Téa removed the top 15 cards she had sorted earlier from her deck and replaced them with those that had been in her side deck. She shuffled them in and lifted her head up as she replied to Mai: "You **know** it's not going to happen."

Téa pushed her new deck into the crewman's Duel Disk and turned away from him, a confident smile gracing her lips. This time, she met Serena Compagno's gaze without blinking. She watched with silent delight as Serena's own smile fell from her lips. Serena then attempted to catch up to Alessa, busy stomping her way to the platform on the other side of the arena.

"Deck validated," a robotic voice announced, and the crew member's Disk ejected Téa's deck .

"Good luck, Miss Gardner," he said. "Though you won't need it." Téa glanced at him, but she didn’t recognize him. She turned back from the thick crowds she’d glanced at to thank the crewman for his unexpected well-wishes, but the area was empty.

_'What in the world did that mean?'_

Mai approached her from behind, having validated her deck with a different crewman. "Let's go. It's time we ended this."

"Right," Téa said, taking a breath. She had experience, strategies, and an attitude that had gotten her through almost ten days of duels without a single loss to her name.

_'I have all that I need.'_ Téa rubbed one finger across the top of her deck. It was silly, but she knew in her heart of hearts that the Blue-Eyes White Dragon was near the top, sending electrical pulses through her finger. With it, she would show them all.

"It's time to duel."

Mai cracked a grin at Téa's words and nodded at her partner's wide smile, and the two of them headed up the stairs to their dueling platform.

* * *

 

_'I changed my mind, I hate the Greek myths,'_ Téa thought, watching as Mai swiftly drew a card from her deck. Fifteen minutes left. For every punishing blow Alessa's Greek warriors delivered, Mai's Harpies or Amazons countered. But Serena kept forcing them to discard with her Trojan princess Cassandra the Seer and her Prophetic Insight. Their options were getting few and far between.

Her fingers still tingled as she ran them over the edge of the one card she'd had in her hand since the first draw: one of the three Blue-Eyes White Dragons. She just **knew** it had been near the top of her deck, before the duel even started. She'd shuffled though. She'd validated her Light-based deck after adding Kaiba's Side Deck, and yet….

But she didn't want to rely on the Blue-Eyes. On **him**. But Téa knew it would have to come down to that. She had known that the moment she heard the final match would be a Tag Team duel. Besides, Alessa furiously targeted any monster Téa summoned. It didn't matter if it was in Defense Position (goodbye, Shining Friendship) or Attack Position (so long, Hysteric Fairy). She was never able to have enough possible Tributes to bring out anything even close in power to the Blue-Eyes. Until now. Now she had a Kaiser Sea-Horse on the field, which she could use for two Tributes to get a Light Monster on the field… a Light Monster like the Blue-Eyes.

Serena's Trojan-themed Denial deck seemed almost **too **perfect a fit with Alessa's powerful Greek heroes. She controlled the field by revealing the top cards of Mai's and Téa's deck with her Cassandra the Seer. Then she paid 500 Life Points to send them immediately to the Graveyard if she deemed them too powerful.

_'Did they know about the Tag Team duel as the championship match? No, they couldn't have…'_

But if the element of surprise factored into this duel, it wasn't working against Téa. In her third turn, as in the moments before the Duel had started, she knew that she would draw a Blue-Eyes White Dragon. And so she had.

She already held Polymerization, Mystical Elf, and Guardian Angel Joan in her hand. Lately, Alessa and Serena seemed to be ignoring her, targeting Mai's Harpies instead of anything Téa got out. As a result, she'd managed to get a Dunames Dark Witch along with the Kaiser Sea Horse on the field. She also had the Life Point-restoring Trap Solemn Wishes. Then there was Waboku for negating Battle Damage and protecting a single monster. Finally, the set White Dragon Ritual card. It was time for a choice. She could sacrifice her Kaiser Sea Horse on her next turn –if it survived until then– and bring out a single Blue-Eyes to try and do some damage of her own. Or, she could wait it out and see if she could get the Paladin of White Dragon and Special Summon the last Blue-Eyes in her deck. And if she did that, she could use Polymerization to fuse it with the two in her hand, and…

"You know the amazing thing about birds?" Mai asked, smirking as she fingered the card she'd just drawn. Serena had paid 500 Life Points so Mai had to discard her last draw. But Serena could only use the Cassandra combo once per turn.

"Oh, spare me the trivia," Alessa said with an eye roll.

_'She's one to judge,'_ Téa thought, holding back  a growl. Mai was still at 3300 Life Points, and she wasn't far behind a 3000. For all the time they'd been wasting so far, Alessa and Serena had only done a small bit of damage to either Mai or Téa.

"They always return **home**!" And with that, Mai slapped the card onto one of the empty Monster slots of her Duel Disk II. "I summon Harpie Lady to the field! And you know what that means, I'm sure? Just for fun, let me remind you: it means my Harpie's Pet Dragon's attack goes up by 300 points!"

The collared Dragon roared mightily as its attack increased. Judging by the twitching smile on Mai's face, Téa knew her partner was far from done. "And I'll be activating this handy card here," Mai pressed a button on one of her Magic and Trap card slots, revealing her set card as Elegant Egotist.

"Thanks to this card, I can Special Summon Harpie Lady Sisters!" A golden light surrounded the Harpie Lady on the field. It spread to both sides, taking shape as two other Harpie Ladies with different hairstyles.

"I've been saving **this** little gem for a time like this," Mai added. "I activate Pot of Greed!" Serena had already used Cassandra's Insight this turn, so she couldn't see the cards Mai drew from her deck.

"I activate Mystical Space Typhoon! Say goodbye to your Prophetic Insight, **Cassandra**!" Mai jutted her chin in Serena's direction. Serena rewarded her with a momentary flicker of annoyance crossing her otherwise stoic face.

"And now… I think I'll attack your precious Legendary Warrior Achilles, Alessa darling! Go, Harpie's Pet Dragon! Saint Fire Giga!" The red and black dragon roared, its chainlink leash clanking as a massive ball of flame formed in its outstretched maw. Just as suddenly, the dragon released the ball, sending it rushing toward the armor-clad warrior on Alessa's side of the field.

There was a great explosion of light and sound, but when the Solid Vision special effects died down, the proud grin slipped off Mai's face. Achilles still stood on the field, even though Alessa's Life Points had dropped to 2600.

"Oh, did I forget to mention?" Alessa asked, a faux innocent grin distorting her face. "My Legendary Warrior Achilles is **immortal**! You can't destroy him in battle!"

Mai let out the growl Téa had suppressed. "I end my turn."

"Finally! I don't know about you, Serena, but that felt like one long slog!" Despite Alessa's wide-grinned confidence, she didn't so much as glance at her so-called partner in this Tag Team duel. Though she'd benefitted from Serena's Trojan defenses, she hadn't said much to her. Was their teamwork just that good?

Téa cast a worried glance at Mai, but her partner stared across the duel ring as Alessa drew a card.

"I'll discard Poseidon, God of the Sea from my hand to destroy your Dunames Dark Witch!" Alessa pointed at one of the two monsters Téa had remaining on the field. Moments later, the Witch exploded as if made of glass.

_'So what? I can still tribute the Kaiser Sea-Horse to get out one of the Blue-Eyes. Or if I get the Paladin of White Dragon, I can use my Mystical Elf as Ritual Tribute to Special Summon the last Blue-Eyes…'_

"And by discarding two Magic cards from my hand, I can Special Summon Athena, Goddess of Wisdom!" An armor-clad woman with an spear at least one and a half times her height appeared on the field with 2300 ATK. Even if Athena couldn't scratch Harpie's Pet Dragon, she could bring its ATK down by destroying one of the Harpie Lady Sisters!

"Your Harpie Ladies are real pests, Valentine! It's time I sent them flapping! Athena, attack one of those Harpie Ladies! Goddess Spear!"

Athena whirled her spear in the air before she leapt up and disappeared. Then she reappeared in mid-air, the spear lodged in one of the Harpie Lady's chests. The Harpie Lady's claw grasped the spear and seemed like she might shatter any moment…

"I activate my Trap! Waboku!" Téa called, pressing a button on her Duel Disk.

Three robe-clad emissaries of reconciliation appeared on the field, clutching tiny olive branches. Athena glanced down at them and nodded before retracting her spear and once again vanishing to Alessa's side of the field.

"I negate all the damage your precious Athena would have dealt, and my monsters are safe!

Alessa turned a furious glare on Téa, but instead of it intimidating her, she grinned, feeling strangely giddy.

_'Don't you _dare _forget about me! _I'm_ going to be the one to take you down, Alessa!'_ Téa didn't dare vocalize those thoughts, though; she'd learned from watching Seto, Joey, and even Yugi in their countless duels: boasting was the fastest way to tell your opponent what you had planned for them, and Téa wanted to see Alessa's face go ash-white with shock. She'd splutter, blush, complain, maybe even swear up a storm, but she wouldn't be able to do a damn thing about it.

Téa had never been so excited.

"My turn!" With a sweep of her wrist, Téa drew the top card from her deck. There was no way Serena would risk another 500 of her Life Points without Cassandra the Seer's Prophetic Insight. She'd have to _guess_ which card Téa had just drawn.

But she jutted her chin at Serena anyway and raised an eyebrow in questioning. Serena's cool gaze wavered almost imperceptibly. Her eyebrows furrowed downward for a split second before she directed her gaze to some distant point.

Téa couldn't suppress the grin that crossed her face. Once again, somehow, someway, she **knew**.

"Thanks to my Solemn Wishes, I get another 500 Life Points. Another turn and it'll be like we're right back at the beginning, won't it?" And right now, that would mean she and Mai would win. But no, she wouldn't be content with stalling and winning just by having more Life Points at the end of the duel. No, she would make sure they both hit rock bottom before that timer got anywhere close to zero.

She added Paladin of White Dragon to her hand with only a glance at the blue-tinged card. Her fingers were tingling again. The beginnings of a simultaneously odd and pleasurable cold sweat built at the base of her neck.

_'What is this sensation?'_ She couldn't recall any of the boys –or even Mai– talking about it. Was it some well-kept Duelist secret? Some sort of near-victory high that Duelists only got when they were teetering on the edge of a momentous victory?

Téa wasn't arrogant; she didn't think she had gotten to this point on her own. No, she'd gotten to this stage, to this duel with the help of Mai and yes, Seto, Yugi, Joey, Pegasus, Malik, and all the others. But she wouldn't be thanking them in her victory speech.

After all, anyone could have a deck of cards. Only **she** could combine the strength from the cards Kaiba had given her with her own. Only **she** could use the strategies she'd seen and adapted from duels with Yugi, Joey, Pegasus, Malik, and others. She was the one standing here now. Not them.

"I activate White Dragon Ritual by tributing Mystical Elf from my hand– and I summon the Paladin of White Dragon!"

A murmur went through the crowd; Téa could hear them asking “why does she have a Paladin of White Dragon? What is she thinking?” While it wasn’t as rare as the legendary Blue-Eyes White Dragon, the cards were pretty intimately connected.

They hissed about her having made a mistake, switching out 15 cards she’d been dueling fine with. They whispered about the Paladin of White Dragon. It was little more than a substitute collectible for a Blue-Eyes; didn’t she know that? Was Alessa right all along; had Téa somehow skated through the tournament on pure luck?

That last murmur threatened to snap the growing smirk curling Téa’s lips. But she clenched her jaw and continued staring straight ahead at Alessa.

_‘Let her think that she’s right, that the crowd’s on her side. She’ll never know what hit her.’_

Téa’s smile only widened when Alessa glanced back at her from the crowd with a trimphant look on her face. The Italian duelist didn’t expect Téa to look even more confident after having played what appeared to be a simple Level 4 card.

Téa favored Mai with a laughing smile. The blonde returned the look with wide, joyous eyes and a Cheshire grin.

The paladin, wearing gold-trimmed white armor, sat atop a beast. Téa supposed it was some sort of Blue-Eyes White Dragon chick, if such a fearsome creature had ever existed as a hatchling.

It sat on the field for only moments before Téa took another deep breath. She made sure that not only Alessa and Serena heard her, but the entire crowd –all the cameras, all the crew, everyone on the ship and beyond. "I Tribute the Paladin of White Dragon and Special Summon a Blue-Eyes White Dragon from my Deck!"

In seconds, her Duel Disk shifted the last remaining Blue-Eyes not already in her hand to the top of her deck. Téa placed two fingers on her deck, tucking her thumb under the top card. She pulled her elbow back in a rapid arc, her fingers barely gripping the card with its back facing her opponents. She smirked and paused for a brief moment before thrusting the Blue-Eyes White Dragon card onto an open slot on her Duel Disk.

The Blue-Eyes had just materialized on the field when Téa saw Alessa trying to form words. She kept failing, repeating a series of exasperated “Buh…wha…ah…ha…” Alessa squeezed her eyes shut before trying again. This time she managed a stuttering “Th-That's not– she's not– I–"

"I** tried** to warn you, Alessa!" Serena snapped, her voice rising above the murmurs of the crowd. The emcee snapped her head around from where she’d been looking at Téa. Her eyes were wide as she clutched her microphone in both hands, like it might slip away at any moment. Within seconds, all eyes were on Serena.

"But no, you refused to listen to me! Instead, you barged on up here and started the Duel without stopping to think! She exchanged out almost **half her deck**, and **every single one** of her cards passed the validation test!"

Alessa finally gained some color in her face, but it was a brilliant shade of red coloring her cheeks. "I– She's just some nobody cheerleader…" The words came out, but as a mere whisper. Alessa fixed her gaze on the Blue-Eyes White Dragon towering over her Monsters on the side of the field.

"Obviously not!" Serena actually looked like she had more to say, but she clenched her teeth and remained silent.

"I would thank you," Téa started, but she shook her head, still smiling. "But instead, I'll just play this: Polymerization! I fuse the Blue-Eyes White Dragon on the field with the other two in my hand and Summon the Blue-Eyes Ultimate Dragon!"

Her heart was pounding in her chest now, threatening to burst out of her rib cage. She could feel a strange pressure behind her eyes, and an intense coldness sliding down the length of her spine. This was way different from all the other duels. It was way different from that dizzying feeling when she'd dueled Mai, back when she'd been trying to convince Téa to go on this insane cruise.

And now, here she was –blazing lights all around her, the crowd murmuring in shock and awe: she had **all three** Blue-Eyes White Dragons? Everyone had seen Seto Kaiba kiss her before she'd boarded. A guy like that didn't let his most precious cards get "stolen" from some nobody cheerleader. That meant he'd given them to her, of his own free will… and here she was, using them like the champion no one thought she could be.

"Alessa, I just want to remind you of one thing: **you** started this. You don't know me at all. And you dismissed me, even when I got here, to the same stage as you. You treated me like a nuisance, and then you ignored me. And now…" Téa closed her eyes and took a deep breath.

This was what Dueling was all about, right? Not saving anyone's souls, not saving the world. Not getting revenge. Just this…

And yet, it didn't quite match with the feeling Téa associated with "fun." She tried to remember the last time she'd felt this way. But the feeling she was having now, whatever it was, was too strong. Any memories of the past –of a friendly game with Mokuba or Seto or Yugi or any of the other guys– flickered away like a candle snuffed by the wind.

Téa opened her eyes and stared at Alessa, her blue eyes blazing like twin fires. "Now you're going to pay."

"Blue-Eyes Ultimate Dragon, attack her Legendary Hero Achilles! Neutron Blast!"

"Not so fast!"

Téa turned her startled gaze to the source of the voice… Serena?

"I activate Chasm of Spikes! Your Dragon is dust!" A massive pit with gleaming spikes opened up under the Ultimate Dragon. Within seconds, there was a shriek and then an explosion of bright shards bursting forth from the chasm. Téa knew her Life Points had gone down. The Chasm had the unfortunate side effect of taking half the attacking Monster's ATK value and dealing it as damage. But she wasn't looking at the counter on her Duel Disk, or even at the screens looming above her head with those same numbers shining blood red.

She felt as though a vice was squeezing her chest, tighter, tighter… The world had almost blanked out to white before the emcee's voice split into Téa's mind.

"Whoa, talk about a sudden turn! What will Téa do now…?"

Téa glanced up and let her hand fall from her chest. Her entire body shuddered, her spine revealing it wasn’t cold steel, but fragile human bone, brittle and weak. Cold sweat streaked down and pooled in the small of her back, giving her the disgusting sensation that she’d like to crawl out of her own skin.

_‘No. Not yet.’_

This wasn't over.

Far from it.

Alessa glanced at Serena. The look on the former's face was unlike anything she'd worn on her face the entire time Téa had seen her during the cruise: gratitude. She didn't say anything; she just bobbed her head.

Téa frowned. Despite their similarly-themed decks, up until now, Alessa and Serena seemed to be each doing their own thing. Alessa focused on beating down any of Téa or Mai's monsters. Serena created a near-impenetrable wall of defense. Paired with her deck-revealing Seer that could scrap named cards with a cost of 500 Life Points, Serena alone was formidable. If they started working in tandem…

'_That would be a problem.'_

"I'll Tribute my Kaiser Sea Horse to count for the two Tributes needed to summon Guardian Angel Joan to the field," Téa gritted her teeth. It felt like the next words she spoke were not of her own volition, but forced out. "And I end my turn."

All she had was Joan, now. The Blue-Eyes were in her Graveyard, along with the Paladin of White Dragon. Solemn Wishes was still in play. But if Serena was willing to use a Chasm of Spikes to save Alessa, who knew what other dangerous traps she could be hiding behind her massive Walls of Troy?

"It's my turn!" Serena announced. She was down to just 1900 Life Points, but Téa had seen duels turn around with fewer points than that. It was too dangerous counting her out.

"I'll play Magical Stone Excavation and discard two cards from my hand to add a Magic Card in my Graveyard back to my hand!"

Serena's Magic Cards ejected from her Graveyard. She ran her fingers over the choices, seeming to deliberate with purposeful slowness.

"Oh, get on with it already! We all know what card you're going to pick, so hurry it up already!" Mai snapped from across the arena.

Where Alessa would have made some sort of snappy comeback, Serena just tilted her head to the side and smiled. For a Duelist known for being stoic, the look was downright chilling.

"I'll choose Prophetic Insight and play it from my hand with Cassandra the Seer!"

"And now, I'll activate a Trap! Spellbinding Circle– seal Harpie's Pet Dragon!"

A circle bordered with arcane symbols rose from the arena floor and swirled until it encircled Harpie's Pet Dragon's neck. The Circle reduced the Dragon's ATK by 700 points and preventing it from attacking or changing its Battle Position.

Téa didn't like seeing her friend and partner's strongest Monster on the field bound. But something about all this made her own throat tighten.

_'No way am I going to go down like this. No way…'_

"And now… Ares, God of War, attack Harpie's Pet Dragon!" The only Attack Position Monster on Serena's side of the field charged forward. Ares gripped a bloodstained sword in one hand and a battered shield in the other. Their weight meaningless, he jumped into the air and vanished. Ares then reappeared with his sword pressed against the Dragon's neck. Ares beheaded it in one swift stroke before the rest of the Dragon exploded into fading shards.

Mai's Life Points dropped from 3300 to 2750, but her grimace was momentary.

"So fine, you got rid of my Pet Dragon. I've still got my Harpie Lady Sisters on the field!"

"You mean your Harpies that aren’t even twice as strong as another one of your bird brains? Please! They couldn't even scratch Serena's Wall, much less my immortal hero Achilles!" Alessa laughed.

"Just you wait, Alessa," Mai said, her tone mysterious. "Just you wait."

A moment later, she flipped her hair over her shoulder and glanced at Serena. "Are you quite finished?" Neither of Serena's Defense Position monsters had enough Attack Points to take Mai's Harpie Lady Sisters on. It didn't seem like the Italian duelist had any other tricks up her sleeve.

"I end my turn."

"Finally!" Mai said with a grin. "Let's get this over with, shall we? I draw!"

"I activate Cassandra the Seer's Prophetic Insight– reveal your top card!"

Mai frowned, remembering the pesky card that Serena had just brought back from her Graveyard. Now everyone had to play with the top card of their deck revealed. 

"Shadow of Eyes. Now what are you going to do?"

"I'll pay 500 Life Points and have you send that annoying Trap Card right to the Graveyard!" Serena shot back.

"Fine. It's not like I **need** that card, anyway," Mai said, drawing once more. Because Serena could only use Prophetic Insight once per turn, tournament rules dictated Mai got another Draw Phase. This time, Serena couldn't deny it and send it to the Graveyard.

Mai glanced at her new card and her eyes widened with something akin to glee.

"Oh Serena, dear, you shouldn't have. Really, you shouldn't have."

Mai shoved the new card into one of her Magic and Trap Card slots on her Duel Disk and activated it immediately. "Monster Reborn! I Special Summon my Harpie's Pet Dragon back to the field!"

For once, Alessa and Serena seemed to have identical expressions on their face: frustration. No doubt it was from seeing the hard work of their last turns negated by a chance draw of a powerful card.

"I'll set one card, switch my Harpie Lady Sisters to Defense Position, and… oh…" Mai tapped a manicured finger to her lips. "I think I'll attack your precious Achilles, Alessa! Go, Harpie's Pet Dragon– Saint Fire Giga!"

The dragon roared, sending forth a volley of flame at the Legendary Warrior Achilles. Once again he survived the burst, though Alessa's Life Points still dropped 900 points.

"Ugh, finally! My turn– I draw!"

"Don't forget, Cassandra's Prophetic Insight applies to you, too!" Téa reminded Alessa.

"Unlike **some** people here, I'm not some third-rate Duelist! I know how the card works!" Alessa flipped over the card in her hand and revealed it in a semi-circle, first to Serena, then to Mai, and finally to Téa. She flicked the card into her hand after a split sec of revealing the card to Téaond.

Serena, of course, didn't bother paying 500 Life Points to deny Serena's card–whatever it was; Téa hadn't caught the name. It was some sort of Magic Card, but beyond that, she couldn't tell. She chanced a look at Mai to see if she had seen the card, but Mai wasn't facing her. Instead, she looked uncomfortable and  tense. Her gaze was hard and pointed straight at Alessa's Legendary Hero Achilles. She didn't seem all that worried about Athena, who stood beside and slightly above Achilles, still holding her spear aloft.

The Duelist with the most Life Points changed with each passing turn: first Téa, then Mai, then Alessa.

_‘We’ve got to get Achilles off the field before he gets strong enough to handle Mai’s dragon for good. But how?’_

"I'll set a card… and play this!"

With a flourish, Alessa played the card she'd just drawn. The arena's big screen revealed it as Nectar and Ambrosia, a one-turn, immortality-granting Magic card. With it, Achilles powered up to 2300 ATK points. Since the card immediately went to the Graveyard, Athena powered up another 100 ATK points as well. Thanks to the Nectar and Ambrosia, no card effects would be able to destroy either card for one turn.

"Even third-rate duelists can do math, Marino! Or did you forget that my Pet Dragon has 2900 ATK points?" Mai snickered.

"Who said I was going to target your stupid pet, anyway?" Alessa shot back.

"I'll Summon The Trojan Horse to the field in Defense Position. Then, I'll attack– Athena, destroy her Harpie Lady Sisters!"

Mai's Harpie Lady Sisters were still in Defense Mode, so the attack didn't do any harm to Mai's Life Points. Unfortunately, it did a whammy on Harpie's Pet Dragon. Its masters removed from the field, the leashed dragon's ATK plummeted 900 points, now weak enough for Achilles to destroy.

"I'm sure you know what's coming next, **Valentine**," Alessa sneered. "Legendary Hero Achilles, destroy that infernal Pet Dragon!"

"No!"

But Alessa dealt her damage– though it wasn't much. Mai's Life Points dropped to 2450– still ahead of Alessa, but just barely.

"And now…" Alessa revealed her teeth in a nauseating display of false sweetness, "I end my turn."

"My turn– I draw!" Téa now had the lowest Life Points among them all– a dangerous place to be. But with one draw and Solemn Wishes in effect, she shot up to 1750. It wasn't enough to put her ahead of Serena, but close enough to make a difference.

"De-Fusion," Téa announced. Per the effect of Cassandra the Seer's Prophetic Insight, she had to reveal the card to her fellow Duelists. "Worth tossing another 500 Life Points away, Serena?" Téa imitated Alessa's false smile. Serena, in turn, glared at Téa before shaking her head in the negative.

"Didn't think so."

"Guardian Angel Joan!" Téa called, thrusting a finger at the battle angel draped in white and gold, "Attack Ares, God of War!"

Their difference in ATK was only 50 points, but that 50 points was plenty for Téa. A successful attack with Joan meant she could restore her Life Points equal to the ATK of the destroyed monster. It would be enough of a boost to take her from last place to first in Life Point ranking.

Joan brought her arms together, a white-hot ball of holy light forming between her palms. A beam shot out from the ball, illuminating Ares' torso. It spread to his extremities and finally exploded the former "God of War" into thousands of glass-like pieces.

Serena frowned; she was now the last place Duelist, with 1850 Life Points.

"This ends! My turn– I draw Spirit Sword of Sealing!" Serena called. "And I play it… on Cassandra the Seer!"

Téa fingers twitched against the cards in her hand; why in the world would Serena seal her own card? She tried to run through the possibilities in her head. It seemed like her brain was working in slow motion reverse. First the shocked crowd, then the dwindling feeling of triumph from minutes before.

_‘People thought I was crazy for playing the Paladin of White Dragon. They didn’t know about the Blue-Eyes… what’s she–_” But before Téa could finish her thought, Serena continued her play.

"And now, I play Black Hole!" Serena pressed a button on her Duel Disk. A sudden emptiness filled the field, sucking away her own Priam, King of Troy. Then Téa's Guardian Angel Joan. Then Alessa's Athena, Goddess of Wisdom and The Trojan Horse.

"No! You fool!" Alessa snarled at Serena. But when the spatial anomaly disappeared, Alessa's Achilles remained. He remained untouched due to his immunity to both Magic and Trap Card effects.

Serena didn't respond to the insult. "And now because of the monsters sent from my field to the Graveyard, Cassandra the Seer returns!"

The Spirit Sword of Sealing disappeared in a slow burn of blue light. The pierced card behind it burst forth. Again, the Trojan princess stood on Alessa's side of the field, protected by The Walls of Troy.

"And now I summon Trojan Hero Hector to the field! He gains 500 ATK when The Walls of Troy are in play!" The already-muscular warrior grunted and flexed. A blue-tinted battle aura flickered around him, his strength rising to 2100 ATK points.

"Hector! Attack Mai directly!"

Mai's violet eyes widened as the Trojan Hero lunged toward her, a spear headed straight for her chest. The spear tip got as far as the edge of her vest collar. The Solid Vision System vibrated through the Duel Disk, sending a shudder coursing through Mai's body.

Mai coughed, the sensation having startled the breath out of her. It had been a long time since felt like this –challenged, stimulated, but not afraid. "350 points left. You might have gotten me down a few points, but I'm far from out."

"You talk big, Valentine. Why don't you hurry up and make the most of your **last **turn?" Alessa snapped.

Mai crossed her arms, her Duel Disk tilting downward. "Look who's talking now. You weren't even the one who did the most damage! And didn't anyone ever teach you ladies history?" Mai uncrossed her arms and flicked her hands open. "Newsflash: the Greeks and the Trojans were on **opposite** sides of the battlefield. And all you two have done lately is make it that much easier for me and Téa to take you down."

"Enough of your lecturing! Draw already!" Serena bit out.

Mai only smiled.

"I draw– The Unfriendly Amazon." She raised an eyebrow at Serena, who frowned. "I pay 500 Life Points to discard your Amazon to the Graveyard with my Cassandra the Seer!"

"Fine, fine," Mai said, waving a hand. She rolled her eyes and then drew another card in The Unfriendly Amazon's place. "My goodness Serena, I really ought to be thanking you– these second Draw Phases are doing me good!"

"Harpie's Feather Duster! Destroy all Serena's Magic and Trap Cards!" A giant feather appeared on the field. With a single flap, a massive whirlwind appeared, and blew both Cassandra's Prophetic Insight and The Walls of Troy into clouds of dust.

"Oh… one more thing," Mai added. "I summon Cyber Harpie Lady in Attack Position and equip her with the Rose Whip!" An armored Harpie appeared on the field, brandishing a thorny vine with tiny rose blossoms on it. The already-strong Level 4 Harpie Lady went from 1800 ATK points to 2100. It was more than enough to destroy Serena's Cassandra the Seer, once and for all.

"Cyber Harpie Lady, attack Cassandra the Seer! Red Hell Whipper!"

"Not enough to get rid of that pesky Hector… but I'm sure his body'll get dragged around the field sooner or later… won't it, Alessa?" Mai smiled sweetly at her opponent and gestured with her chin. "Your turn, darling."

"I activate my Trap Card– Powerful Rebirth! This card lets me Special Summon one Level 4 or lower Monster from my Graveyard and increase its Level by one and its ATK and DEF by 100 points! I summon The Trojan Horse!"

"Beware of Greeks bearing gifts, Serena," Téa said in a stage whisper, eliciting several chuckles from the audience.

"And now, thanks to my Trojan Horse's effect, I can Tribute summon it and bring the Invincible Heracles to the field!"

A large warrior appeared on the field, perhaps even more brawny than Serena's Hector. A lion's pelt dangled over his shoulders. Dirt and blood caked his arms and legs. And with the massive club in his hands, he looked even more god-like than Achilles or Hector.

Without any preamble, Alessa yelled "Heracles, attack Téa directly!"

The massive warrior leapt with far more speed and grace than seemed possible for a Monster of his size. Within moments, his club swung down. It would have hit Téa smack in the stomach, but instead the Solid Vision System did its work. It sent a massive vibration and pulsing shock through her as her Life Points fell to 2100.

"Now, Achilles– attack her again!" Alessa's eyes blazed with delight as her armored warrior hurtled his spear at Téa. This time the attack knocked her Life Points down to a precarious hundred.

The second blow had almost knocked the wind out of her. Almost.

"Heh. Glad to see you decided to woman up and Duel me after all, Alessa," Téa smiled. "But I'm not done yet. This is the last turn!" Téa was no Seeress; she didn't know why the words came from her mouth with such confidence. Maybe it was her time with Seto talking. Maybe it was her experience watching Yugi and Joey's duels, how they always managed to pull out of situations just like these and turn them around.

If they could make miracles, so could she.

She had no monsters on the field, and only Solemn Wishes to give her a mere 500-point boost.

Everything was riding on this next draw.

Téa squeezed her eyes shut and tried to drown out all the thoughts swirling through her head. Thoughts of Seto, of Yugi, of Joey and all the others. She tried to think of what it would be like, for once, for **her** to be the victor, for **her** to be the one others cheered for.

Astonishment crept into her head as the silence faded. She heard the crowd chanting her name over and over: at first quiet and then louder, louder.

"Téa! Téa! Téa!"

The other duelists in the audience were cheering. Even the ones she'd faced and forced into surrender or pummeled into submission with her Light Deck and its powerful array of Magic and Trap Cards. One after another, the duelists chanted, growing louder and louder.

Téa blinked, startled where Alessa seemed furious and Serena suspicious. She chanced a look at Mai, whose close-lipped smile seemed almost gentle. The blonde mouthed the word "Go" and urged Téa to finish drawing her card.

With one wide arc of her arm, Téa withdrew the top card from her deck.

There was another tingling in her arm this time. It felt different –like a distant buzzing, or the feeling of a limb woken from a numb sleep. Téa –not Cassandra, whose prophecies everyone believed were false– knew the card she just drew.

_‘I shouldn’t know this. But I _do_, and… and I’m not afraid. Not anymore.’_

"I play Monster Reborn!" Without sparing a glance at the card, she pushed it into an empty Magic and Trap Card slot on her Duel Disk. "Return to me, Blue-Eyes Ultimate Dragon!"

"Serena, you did me a favor when you let me keep this card. I'm sure at the time, you thought it was useless. But just like your so-called partner, you couldn't be more wrong! I activate De-Fusion!"

A vortex of swirling light appeared and encircled the Blue-Eyes Ultimate Dragon. It split from one massive three-headed beast into three separate Blue-Eyes White Dragons.

"And now, Blue-Eyes White Dragons– attack Alessa's Legendary Warrior and Serena's Trojan Hero Hector! White Lightning!" One of the three dragons opened its maw. A sphere of bright electric energy formed, and pulsed once before shooting out at Hector. Though Battle couldn't destroy Hector, Tea couldn't say the same for Alessa.

Her Life Points dropped 1000 points thanks to the difference in strength between the Blue-Eyes and Achilles. There was nothing that she could do to stop it from happening again. Another stream of lightning burst forth from another dragon's maw. This time, Alessa's points dropped to zero. At the same moment, the third and final dragon finished off Hector, taking the last of Serena's Life Points with him.

It was over. Finished.

_'Finally.'_

* * *

"So uh…where's San Francisco?" Téa joked as she looked over the ship's railing with Mai. She still felt a little like she wasn't actually standing on the ship's private balcony. It was more like she was floating over the polished boards, flecks of glitter and paper bits strewn here and there.

_'Must have dragged it in here from when they exploded that silly confetti ball after…'_ She still couldn't quite process it. Even though she'd dreamed of it. She'd hoped for it. Maybe she sort of even **planned** for it with the way she'd arranged her deck. And she'd eventually made use of the cards Seto had given her….

Seto… and Malik. And Pegasus.

Mai wasn't staring out at the fog-obscured city skyline. She handled their crystal trophy like a kaleidoscope, looking through it at varying distances.

"What, can't believe it's real?"

Téa shook her head and gripped the railing tighter. Maybe she could will the pangs of uncertainty to fly out of her head and disappear into the night. Her hands slipped nonetheless, clammy and smeared with something dark. She wiped them off on her skirt and reached for the award.

"You either?" Mai sighed, leaning on the railing after she handed the trophy off to Téa.

"No, I still feel… weird about it all, I guess. I figure once I get my feet on actual, solid ground again it'll start to sink in."

"I'm sure it's out there somewhere," Mai said with a half-grin. She gestured to the pier, a shadow in the dense fog.

She glanced at the watch that had replaced her Duel Disk ever since the tournament completed. For some reason, Mai had taken hers off almost immediately.

True, the Disk did have a weight to it. There was something heavy and hot Téa felt creeping up her own arm each time she dueled with one; did Mai get the same feeling?

The Solid Vision System provided tactile feedback from the loss of Life Points, but it was just supposed to be a vibration here, a shock there. Nothing serious. And nothing like the Dark Games Téa saw.

_'And that Mai was actually _in_,'_ Téa remembered.

Téa opened her mouth, about to ask Mai if she **was** okay. Did she ever felt like the Duel Disk was too much to handle? That was when the emcee bounced onto the private deck.

"Hey champions! It's time! We're just about to dock. I wanted to be the first to welcome you to the U.S. of A!"

"Guess that means we better get our stuff," Mai said. Téa couldn't quite tell what her tone of voice indicated. Mai seemed… flat. Actually, the first word that came to Téa's mind was "defeated," but **that** made no sense.

_'Right?'_

* * *

Getting through customs took a while. On top of that, the press had stopped both Mai and Téa to ask them questions and haggle them for pictures– with their Duel Disks on, of course.

By the time they made it down the hall from the pier to the outside world, crowds of other Duelists, friends, family, and press ambled ahead of them.

"How'd that happen?" Mai frowned, gesturing with her chin at the duelists ahead of them. Her extra-large purple suitcase with wheels kept one hand full. The other gripped their championship trophy in a white-knuckled fist. Téa hefted a duffel bag and the luggage cart one of the crewman had loaded their other suitcases onto.

"I thought the whole point of being champions was that we got off the ship first and got priority treatment at customs."

"Well, we did have a lot more bags…" Téa said with a wry chuckle. She glanced back at the luggage cart to make sure everything was still in place. When she discovered her nose scraping against Mai’s back, she screeched to a halt. She shoved her hands against the cart to avoid an avalanche of luggage.

"Mai, what's up?"

Mai halted right before the hallway turned a corner, her bags set down before her.

"Alessa, you were so cool in the championship match!" a voice gushed.

"Yeah, you and Serena both! Talk about a powerhouse combo!" Another voice.

"Who were they playing again?" Someone older this time. Téa glanced around the corner and made out a gaggle of people surrounding Alessa and Serena. They meandered down the hallway like they didn't have a care in the world. Behind them, a drooping crewman dragged an overloaded luggage cart.

"Uh…I think it was somebody Valentine? And a gardener? That doesn't make any sense, though."

"Haha, seriously, like some gardener could be a champion-level duelist! Get real!" Téa frowned and pulled back from the corner. She took a deep breath, but Mai pressed a hand over Téa's mouth before she could utter a word.

"You mean Mai Valentine," said a girl's voice matter-of-factly. "She made it to the semi-finals in Duelist Kingdom and was Top Eight in Battle City." There was a pause and a pointed clearing-of-the-throat that Téa guessed was Alessa. She was likely staring daggers at the girl who'd spoken.

"Uh… but those are the only qualifications she had for entering the tournament," the voice continued after a moment. "And I mean, sure, she's pretty strong, but what about the champion of Battle City, Yugi Moto?"

Téa's eyes widened in surprise when she heard Alessa's voice next. "Ah yes, Yugi Moto. Holder of the God cards, he who defeated the creator of Duel Monsters! The King of Games himself! He's the** true** Duelist every proper champion wants to face!"

_'Mai and I fought more duels on this ship than Yugi ever fought in Duelist Kingdom and Battle City combined! How _dare _she!'_

Both Duelist Kingdom and Battle City had been 48-hour events. Invitation-only participants with prior Duel Monsters knowledge and experience dominated both of them. They were infamous tournaments, forever engraved in Duel Monsters history. Yes, they had been grueling, but they were also **short**. 

The cruise consisted of several duels in a match. Enough matches, and it constituted more work days than vacation days.    

"Joey Wheeler also made it into the Best Four of Battle City, and he didn't even have a God card," Serena added.

"Ah yes, don't let me forget dear Joey," Alessa said.

Téa could just picture Alessa licking her lips lasciviously at the thought of dueling Yugi and Joey. She wanted to gag. Mai had dropped her hand from Téa's mouth and instead had it balled at her side in a white-knuckled fist.

"I would much have preferred to duel **them**," Alessa continued. "Wouldn't you agree, Serena?"

Despite the anger and tension that had built up between them during the championship duel, Alessa and Serena seemed to be back on good terms. That is, if Alessa doing the majority of the talking and leading Serena by the nose was "good terms."

_'What a doormat,'_ Téa thought. _‘She made herself out to be some calculating genius duelist, but she’s just a meek mouse, letting Alessa bully her like that.’_

_'Maybe a rat,'_ Téa amended. After all, rats sometimes **bit**.

"Definitely."

"This whole duelist cruise was just the most prolonged waste of time–" Alessa continued. Then her voice faded, along with the sound of their footsteps and the scraping of the cart on concrete.

"That stupid little–"

Mai's hand holding the championship trophy was up in the air before Téa could grab it.

In one split second, the trophy lay shattered on the ground, splintered into hundreds of tiny pieces.

A distant "hah!" met Téa's ears as she bent down to inspect the remains of the trophy. If she squinted, she could make out Alessa's silhouette down the hallway leading outside.

The silhouette nodded in what Téa presumed was self-satisfaction. Alessa whipped her head back to the street before disappearing into the night.

"Mai–" Téa began, rising to her feet. There was no way to recover the trophy. It was too broken to even read their names engraved on it. She shoved what she could off to the side of the hallway so no one would step on it. At least it wouldn't hurt anyone else that way.

"Don't. Just–" Mai pursed her lips and raised a hand. "I'm sorry. Let's just go."

Mai didn't wait for a response; she just grabbed her suitcase and took off down the hallway at a brisk pace.

Téa glanced at the crushed trophy, consigned now to the shadows. 

She adjusted the duffel bag on her shoulder and hauled the luggage cart behind her as fast as it could go.

* * *

"Mai, can you slow down?"

After leaving the pier, they hadn't found any sort of limousine waiting for them to take them to a hotel. As far as the championship went, the cruise was over –and now Téa and Mai were on their own. On impulse, Mai decided that they would walk to their hotel. The only problem was that neither of them had a map of San Francisco on hand. They'd neglected to get one from the plastic slots full of them at the pier.

Worse, Mai seemed determined not to ask anyone for help –for anything. That meant that between the two of them, they hefted two duffel bags and three wheeling suitcases, a backpack, a large purse, and their Duel Disks.

"Mai, I don't think this is the way–"

"Then fine, we'll go back the way we came and go down that **other** street until we get there!" Mai snapped, striding past Téa.

"Hey!" Téa's hand shot out and grabbed Mai's arm as she passed, halting the blonde in her tracks. "Look, I get that you're mad at what Alessa and Serena said, but **who cares**? We won that tournament!"

"No!" Mai yelled, yanking her arm back. "**YOU** won that tournament. You pulled that same 'Heart of the Cards' draw of destiny stuff, and you managed to completely destroy **both** of our opponents. And… and I invited you to this. You were the one with no tournament experience." Her voice softened. "They were right. About me. I'm barely qualified to duel."

"Are you listening to yourself?" Téa whirled on her feet and put her hands on Mai's shoulders. "These are not the words of Mai Valentine, **champion** duelist!"

"Téa, they are! This is… this is how I've felt since Battle City. I've just been…" Mai swallowed. As her own eyes widened in astonishment, Téa saw tears start to slide down her friend's face. "I've just been hiding it."

Téa's eyes widened. "'Hiding it?' Are you kidding me? You should get a Japan Academy Prize if that's the kind of acting you're capable of!"

"Ha, ha," Mai deadpanned, sensing Téa's sarcasm. "It's the truth."

"It's bullshit is what it is–" Téa began, but then there was a loud rumble.

"Great. We're stuck in some alley in the middle of the night, in a city neither of us are familiar with. We're surrounded by a ton of luggage, and it's going to **rain**. Can we please argue when we get to our hotel room?" Téa pleaded.

Mai's head dropped to her chest. Never before had Téa seen her look so…

The word Téa had denied earlier seemed all too apt now.

_'Defeated.'_

Téa found herself at a loss for words. She couldn't think of anything that she could say to convince Mai that she was more than a worthy Duelist. She was what Yugi called a "True Duelist," a believer in her deck and her own strength. But if she said those things now, she would just be parroting Yugi. She'd be reminding Mai that they had come this far to escape the shadows of the famous Duelists that surrounded them.

The rain started to fall, a windswept spittle pelting onto the gum-stained concrete. Then it lanced down harder, sharper, a fiercer wind sending bullets of water onto their arms and faces. It didn't feel right to Téa to try and find shelter, to move her bags out of the way and leave Mai and her things in the rain.

_'She's my friend. And I'm going to stay with her.'_

And so they both stayed out there, their clothes getting progressively soaked as they both stared, empty-eyed into the night.

Minutes later, a brilliant light from one end of the alleyway nearly blinded them.

"Hey, what's a pair of beautiful ladies doin' out here in the pourin' rain?" The accented voice –Australian, Téa guessed– belonged to a brawny silhouette. He swung one his leg over a motorcycle, even as its headlamp bore down on them.

"Great," Téa grumbled under her breath. It was a good thing she hadn't taken her Duel Disk off–

Suddenly Mai was walking past her and stopped just a few meters shy of the motorcyclist. He removed his helmet and goggles –_'Wait, goggles? Have I seen those–' _and revealed a fluffy head of auburn hair.

"Hey, I know you! You two are Mai Valentine and Téa Gardner– the dueling world's latest champions! Congratulations!"

Téa's eyes widened as she shuffled closer to Mai's side.

"That's us," Mai said, her voice cracking ever-so-slightly. She didn't acknowledge the fact that this guy had recognized them on-sight. This despite the fact that they were soaking wet and who-knows-where in relation where the _Arielle_ had docked. Were they that famous already, even in another country?

"Well what are you two doin' out here? I can give you a lift if you want…?" He trailed off and gestured magnanimously to a sidecar attached to his motorcycle, a pair of helmets dangling off a hook on the side of his seat.

Téa furrowed her brows at the suspicious convenience of it all. They’d managed to get lost downtown without a soul recognizing them. How likely would it be for some Good Samaritan with two extra motorcycle helmets to show up just as they turn down a garbage-strewn alley?

The guy caught Téa's suspicious gaze and explained. "My buddies have their own cycles, but they got into an accident and one had to go into the hospital. Other's got his bike in the shop and he won't let some bodgy mechanic put his mitts on his bike without undergoing some grueling questions, right? I just took the helmets back for 'em until they're both ace again."

He shifted his weight from one leg to another. "Look, you don't trust me. I get it. Strange guy, pouring rain, dark alley, knows your names already. Sounds totally shonky."

Téa had no idea what "shonky" meant, but she figured it was something close to "suspicious," which she definitely was.

"My name's Valon," the motorcyclist said, thrusting out a hand. He wore fingerless, padded gloves. One of his fingers had a silvery-looking ring with a green stone set into it on. Despite the weather, he wore a sleeveless vest with straps on it in odd places. It reminded Téa of Seto for a brief moment, and her heart clenched.

Mai grasped Valon's hand. "Mai Valentine. But you knew that. And this is–"

"Téa Gardner," she spoke for herself, but did not offer up her hand. After a moment, Valon dropped his hand. If Téa's lack of congeniality disappointed him, he didn't show it.

"Heard you won using the Blue-Eyes," Valon said carefully. "Got one powerhouse of a deck to bring those guys out."

He didn't mention the fact that the cards weren't actually **hers**, or that she had spent the entire tournament up to that point not using them. Or that they rightfully–_'technically?'_– belonged to Seto Kaiba. Téa could almost hear the next words out of Valon's lips: "Got it from your boyfriend, right?" That's all she was– not a champion, not a true duelist, just a girlfriend. An accessory.

It didn't take long for the tears to start to sting her lash line, too.

"Listen, neither of you are stupid ladies," Valon began. "And I know you don't want to be stuck out here in the dark, in the rain, in this place. So hear me out, okay? I can get you both out of this– take you to someone who can change all this."

Téa wanted to say something witty, about Valon taking them to see a meteorologist or something, but the sarcastic joke died on her lips as Mai spoke.

"Someone who can change our fate?"

_'Fate? What, does Mai think this championship was some sort of botched destiny of hers? She –_we_– won!'_

"Not just your fate," Valon said, his voice somewhat softer despite the increasing roar of the wind and the rain. "The whole world, if you want to be part of it. What do you say?"

Again, Valon offered his hand out.

Téa glanced at Mai wide-eyed.

Téa's heart pounded in her chest. The more she looked at this Valon guy, the more the details added up. This guy wasn't some stranger– he'd been on the cruise ship, she was sure of it.

_'And those motorcyclists who stole the God cards–'_ 

Mai placed her hand in Valon's. "Show me." She didn't look back at Téa, but Valon did.

In the heartbeats between his glance and Téa opening her dry lips, a torrent of thoughts flooded Téa's mind.

_'This guy has one of the God cards! But… does he not recognize me?'_ She'd been at that duel between Yami and Gurimo, one of the henchmen of the organization known only as "Doma." She'd seen the devastating power of the Orichalcos.

_'I left Japan to get _away_ from all the craziness and fate of the world-dependent duels, and this guy followed us – _me! –_ all the way here to the States? Why?'_

He'd said something about changing fate.

If it was her fate to keep getting tangled up in Yugi's messes… so be it.

If it wasn't enough to win more duels than Yugi had in Duelist Kingdom and Battle City… If it wasn't enough to become a champion using her own strategies… If it wasn't enough to stand by her friends in a strange place, in the middle of the night, in the pouring rain…

Maybe she **did** need to change her fate.

She could get the God cards back. She could – no,** would**! – show everyone.

"I'm in."

* * *

_"If you haven't heard the news yet, you must be living under a rock. The Pan-Pacific Ladies' Duelist Tournament Cruise champions are none other than Japan's own Téa Gardner and Mai Valentine–"_

Kaiba sighed. He **had** already heard the news in fact. As a champion-level duelist, he had plenty of contacts affiliated with the cruise. He'd received a text alert as soon as the championship ended. He had expected Téa to call him shortly thereafter, but she hadn't.

Enough time had passed that the _Arielle_ had definitely made port in San Francisco. Even if Téa and Mai had gone into the city to celebrate, shouldn't she have at least texted him by now?

_'I'm being paranoid.'_ 

The fear of Téa leaving and never coming back hovered just below Kaiba's self-control. 

But fear in its early stages is just anxiety. Kaiba definitely appeared anxious. He paced back and forth, flipping through various Duel Monsters TV stations. He checked different websites for anything new. He kept watching the same footage over and over again. Téa and her spectacular finishing blow with the Blue-Eyes. It decimating her and Mai's opponents' last shrapnel of Life Points.

After that, Téa's eyes widened, seeming surprised for some odd reason, but then a wide, genuine smile spread across her lips. With a triumphant laugh, she hugged Mai. Téa blushed, no doubt embarrassed by the thunderous applause from Duelists in the surrounding crowd. Then she and Mai started to leave the duel arena, and the clip ended.

That was all.

Though he had watched the clip several times now, Kaiba couldn’t find a single clue. Where had the ship had been in its journey when they’d won? He had no way of knowing what was going on in Téa’s head in those minutes after her victory. He knew her –he was in love with her, after all– but he couldn't come up with any reason why she wouldn't call him after winning.

_'Téa, where are you?'_

* * *

Unbeknownst to Kaiba, Yugi thought the same thing.

As soon as he'd heard the news of Téa and Mai's win, he'd immediately rushed to his house phone and attempted to call Téa's cell. During the taxi ride to the harbor, Téa mentioned investing in an international plan for her phone so that she could use it abroad without any issue. Yugi didn’t own a cell phone, but he figured he'd be able to call Téa. Regardless of what time it was in San Francisco, Téa had to be awake and buzzing from her win, right? He needed to talk to her.

The phone rang. Once, twice, three times.

_'Maybe she's out partying and can't hear her phone ring?'_

Or perhaps she was sleeping by now. It was late there, wasn't it? Or was it the other way around–and it was early? Could someone get jet lag on a boat? Yugi didn't know.

_Ring. Ring._

"Hey!"

Yugi grinned and started to talk, but the voice interrupted him.

"You've reached Téa Gardner. I can't get to my phone right now–"

Yugi moved the receiver away from his face, glancing at it in confusion. _'Her voice mail?'_ Yugi hung up before the beep. His congratulations wouldn't be appropriate delivered as some recorded message. He wanted to talk to **her**, not a recording of her. It was all he could think of to say to her, anyway. It wasn't as if he had any good news about the search for the missing God Cards, or the mysterious monster sightings.

It had been ten days since Téa's departure, but the so-called "Three Swordsmen of Doma" had yet to reappear. Yugi surmised that all three God Cards were still with them –wherever they were. Until he could piece together some clues, they would remain beyond his reach.

‘_Is this what that “phantom limb” syndrome is like?_’ Yugi wondered. He could never tell anyone that missing a trio of collectible trading cards felt as though a wind tunnel gaped inside him, hollow and cold.  

That, and he didn't like the idea of the God Cards in the hands of anyone who could make it rain monsters or suck souls from people.

‘_Pegasus _was _the one who made the cards…'_ Pegasus hadn't made it "rain monsters," but soul-sucking was definitely a talent of his.

The thought gave Yugi pause. Pegasus was still alive–he'd revealed as much when he showed up at the Duel Dome earlier this year, during the Anubis incident. Even if he was "retired" from Industrial Illusions, Yugi knew that Pegasus still had to be keeping an active eye on current events. Especially if they related to his precious Duel Monsters franchise.

Who cared if it was late in the United States? Yugi picked up the phone's receiver from its cradle once more and started to dial.

* * *

"I know you said you were going to take us to see someone, but I didn’t picture a place like this!" Mai shouted over the growl of Valon’s winding-down motorcycle as she disembarked. Téa gingerly lifted herself out of the sidecar, grabbing as much as she could from the surrounding mess of luggage.

A massive gray building loomed before them, wide and blocky. There was nothing particularly unique about it, except for the large logo hanging above the cavernous doors. Mai didn't even spare a glance at it as she walked in. Téa wondered what this place had to do with a caduceus with a circular snake instead of the usual pair of snakes twined around a single rod. A streetlight flickered and then she saw it, just as Mai and Valon started to disappear into the doorway.

_'That symbol!_' Without a doubt, it was the Seal of Orichalcos imposed over the snakes, its points stretching past a perfect circle. And was that a third snake, its maw open to reveal monstrous fangs, instead of a winged rod?

There was no doubt now: Valon was definitely the same guy who'd stolen one of the God Cards, one of the "three swordsmen of Doma." And this place…

Téa stared up at the building, its doorway a cavernous mouth with shadowed fangs, a dank humidity bubbling from the darkness.

"You coming, kid?" Mai called from the pitch-black doorway. She looked weary.

Valon schooled his own expression into something neutral, unreadable.

_‘Does he know that I know?_’

It was a risk she would have to take. No way she’d let Mai walk into a place like this alone.

Téa trotted after them, hefting some of their bags. Valon obligingly grabbed the two largest. He lifted them over his shoulders without so much as a grunt, despite Mai’s wide eyes and Téa’s short-lived verbal protest.

“Come on. This place looks way worse on the outside than it does in. There’s a reason for its name, see?”

“What is this place called, anyway?” Téa asked, speaking to Valon directly.

“Paradias,” Valon said with a chuckle. “Trust me, you’ll get it once we get inside more."

They walked through the dim hallway, while the smallest noises echoed off stone walls. They couldn't see much. Still, the hairs on Téa’s forearms rose, faint stalks peppered with goosebumps beneath. Maybe it was the smell. It was the smell of old, dusty things interspersed with the humidity. It seemed so out of place from a building so huge—and the path that seemed to be leading them further **down**, not up.

This was doubtless some vestigial memory from her first trip to a haunted house as a kid. Téa shook her head. Maybe that way she could clear out the prickling sensation. It had started on her arms and worked its way up her torso until it wrapped around her neck like a suffocating scarf.

_‘I’m being stupid.’_

"Seen one dark, dank hallway, seen them all?" Téa muttered under her breath.

"Say something, Princess?" Valon glanced over the hefty bags he carried over his shoulder like they were no more than pillows.

Téa blushed at the unexpected nickname, and bit the inside of her lip when she realized how hot her cheeks had gotten. "No, nothing." She kept her eyes downward until Valon stopped at the entryway to a massive chamber –one humming with life.

Mai and Téa dropped their respective bags at the doorway. They found themselves staring down a staircase at a bustling room full of people. They were all acting as though they were waiting for something… or someone.  Thanks to some intermittent torches lining the wall, Tea could make out a dais sitting at the far end of the room. She thought she could make out the faint traces of that same Orichalcos logo on the wall behind it. Though everyone stood and looked toward the empty dais, nothing was there: no podium, no table, not even a chair. Nothing… and no one.

_'What–or _who–_are they all waiting for?'_ Téa wondered. There had to be at least two hundred people in the chamber, if not more. Some sat on long stone benches, but many others just stood, murmuring –leaning against the walls, shifting in the aisle way.

"I must have left my conference badge in my other purse," Mai quipped, casting an inquisitive glance at Valon. He had just handed off Mai and Téa's largest bags to a black-clad attendant. The attendant nodded in response to Valon said. Then he and another attendant, formed from the shadows themselves, took Mai and Téa's other belongings. They sank back into the darkness of a side hall Téa hadn't noticed was there before.

"They're going to bring your things to your room. But in the meantime, I thought you might want to join us. Get a chance to meet the guy who's going to help you change your fate."

Téa swallowed. _'Forget Valon being part of some weird magical gang that stole the God Cards! This guy's a total cultist!'_

"Come on!" He waved with one hand and started trotting down the stairs, offering a jaunty wave to someone near the bottom. Mai glanced around. Her face was expressionless, but still she followed him, keeping a slow, observational pace.

Téa hadn't realized that the idea of Valon, Paradias place, and Doma group being some sort of creepy cult made her step back. But then she noticed Mai looking back at her from midway down the stairs, but she didn't say anything.

Okay, so her bags were somewhere in Hotel Mystery. Maybe somewhere here in Weird Headquarters. After their motorcycle ride in the pouring rain and dark.

Mai was going to hear this guy out –whoever he was, with his promises of changing the fate. All because Valon offered her a hand to hold and a sweet smile?

_'No, she's smarter than that. We _both_ are._'

And that meant running away wasn't an option.

Téa sucked in a deep breath, surprised that despite the cold, greenish atmosphere of the place, the air didn't actually feel all that humid. She had expected it to smell like mildew, but instead, the air in this place was…

_'Fresh?'_

She squared her shoulders, shook off the déjà vu that permeated her senses, and wandered after Mai and Valon down the stairs.

Valon squirmed his way through one of the side aisles to near the dais. He stood next to a shadowy form a good amount taller than him and another, centimeters taller than Valon, but not as sinewy. Valon seemed to be chatting like they were his old friends, but the other two had their arms across their chests. They looked like statues.

"Can't see much from here," Téa commented as she approached Mai. She squeezed past a taller man with olive skin and muscles layered on muscles. She popped out of the line of people between him and a lanky woman with hair down to her waist and high cheekbones illuminated by the flickering light. She'd only been able to spy Valon chatting it up with the other two guys.

_'They're probably the guys who have Ra and Obelisk,'_ Téa realized when she was on the last step of the staircase.

Mai had her lips open as if to reply, when a whooshing sound filled the chamber. Torches that Téa hadn't noticed before flared to life. Before, only a third of the torches had been lit. Now, every single one of them bloomed in flame, casting the chamber in a play of dancing light and shadow.

Téa's gaze swung around the room. When her eyes finally met the dais, she saw a man there –one who hadn't been there before, and who most assuredly would have stood out among the crowd.

Clad in white robes lined in turquoise, he had an impressive head of bright hair. It was almost a bright white, but it had a hint of green in it. Thick strands flowed over his shoulders, past his waist– and gathered into a low-hanging tail that almost brushed the backs of his knees.

Even from this great distance, Téa could make out the large green pendant hanging from his neck. Even though hundreds of people separated them, Téa felt as though he were staring straight at her.

She shivered. He wasn't imposing, but…

He had no microphone, but when the strange man spoke, the whole room quieted.

"Good evening."

He let that greeting hang in the air for a moment before continuing. "I am Dartz. I'm sure many of you are wondering why you are here. I'll be brief. Each of you has a unique skill, trait, or ability that sets you apart from the others you have chosen to surround yourself with until this moment. Until this moment, you have not had the chance to use those abilities to their fullest," Dartz added. He started to stride across the dais, "to make a difference in the world, to make it a truly better place!"

Dartz stopped at one end of the dais and glanced at the crowd, his face set with a stern frown. "The pace at which this world changes for the better of all is far too slow. But here –together!– we can change the world within a matter of months!"

A murmur rippled throughout the crowd. Téa could make out some of the snippets of conversation. There were voices young and old, some speaking in English while others spoke other languages Téa could only guess at identifying.

"I ask you –my chosen ones, only the finest and most skilled of all humanity– will you envision a better world with me? Imagine a world where there is no war!" The lanterns flared again, the flames seeming to lick the walls higher and higher.

"No poverty!"

Again– the whooshing of flames, the light continuing to crawl up the wall. Would the darkness swallow the torches, or would they chase the darkness away?

"No hunger!" The flames danced higher still, almost converging as they approached the invisible ceiling.

No one else seemed startled by the flames growing ever higher. It wasn't as if some sort of pipes linked the torches together– at least, none that Téa could see. Who knew what was lurking behind the walls of this weird place, aside from black-clad bag ninjas?

"No sickness!"

Higher still, and this time, Téa thought she could almost make out a shape in the center of the chamber ceiling.

"I come from that world," Dartz said, and the torches shot up their tallest burst of fire yet. They united on what seemed to be an especially large disc of some sort hanging from the ceiling. In a split second, that curved disc flared with light. It illuminated the whole chamber, much to the astonishment of almost everyone inside.

Brilliant light bathed what Téa at first thought was a dank chamber with dark walls, light enough to rival the largest of chandeliers. The walls were not dark, but bright white marble laced with veins of faint green and gold. It was no dark pit.

The place looked finer than any ballroom Téa had ever been in. Sumptuous cushions piled on the floor in various places. Rich, colorful carvings stretched along the walls. A velvety scarlet carpet lined the dais.

When the murmuring died down, Dartz spoke once more.

"There are those among you who are the elite. You are all the best of the best that humanity has to offer. But who among you can shed their worldly limitations? Who among you has no fear? Who," Dartz continued, his gaze sweeping across the room. Once again, Téa felt as though he was staring right at her, "has infinite imagination?"

Dartz opened his palm, and a brilliant pillar of light rose from it, the faintest of shadows hovering within. It was lumpy and small –about the size of an apricot, Téa thought– and somehow just floating there.

_'It's gotta be some sort of trick._' That was how all cults worked, right? All this was just some sort of elaborate stage trick. The torches were probably rigged to some sort of butane system or something. And the curved disc at the top of the ceiling was likely filled with some sort of oil.

And the pillar of his light emerging from his palm?

Téa glanced up to see if she could spot some sort of spotlight, but there was nothing. Nothing but the giant disc with its own flames licking out like forked snake tongues.

"Those of you who believe you are among the elite, I ask you: prove yourselves. Approach this stage and grasp the Light of the Orichalcos!"

'_Well, that clinches it_.'

If there was any tiny, infinitesimal chance that Valon wasn't the same guy who'd stolen one of the God cards… If that the symbol of this "Paradias" place had nothing to do with the Seal of the Orichalcos…  Téa had felt that power shudder underneath her hands. That chance flickered away like a candle flame in the presence of a roaring wind.

_‘Where are the exits in this place?’_ Téa glanced about, hoping to spy one of those illuminated signs, but all she saw was wall. Walls of marble and walls of people.

Suddenly she saw Mai brush past her, walking toward the center aisle.

"I'll do it." Mai's voice was loud and clear, and all eyes swiveled to watch her approach the front of the chamber.

Téa almost reached out to grasp Mai's arm, to pull her back. She had to remind Mai of what she'd said back on the _Arielle -_ the three weird swordsmen, the theft of the God Cards, and **monsters **coming to life to terrorize the city!

Her hand fell back as Mai stepped forward. This was a decision Mai made on her own. She had plenty of fears, though. And…

She didn't know what they intended to do with the God Cards, but she sure as hell wasn't going to let Mai find out alone.

Téa bent her head low and followed after Mai.

They made it to the dais, within punching distance of the guys that Téa knew now stole the God Cards and messed up everything back home. Dartz regarded Mai coolly as he continued to hold the pillar of light in his palm.

"You believe yourself capable, Mai Valentine?" Dartz asked. Mai didn't blink, even though Dartz knew her name having asked. She nodded once, the movement sharp and firm. "You believe yourself elite?" His tongue pushed against his teeth with that word, and Téa wondered if he actually had a forked tongue.

"There is a fine line between confidence and arrogance, child," Dartz said, withdrawing his hand from the pillar of light. Téa's eyes widened as the pillar continued to shine, the light now reaching to the floor. The shadowy shape continued to hover within, taunting those from outside the beam of light to try, just **try** and grasp it.

"Arrogance is claiming I have no fear. Confidence is recognizing the fact that it will never again control me," Mai replied, her voice soft. Not broken, not cracking or hoarse… just soft. Not resigned, either, Téa decided. No, ever since she'd put her hand in Valon's, Mai had not once sounded "defeated."

_"This is how I've felt since Battle City. I've just been… I've just been hiding it."_

In the almost-white light, Téa could make out the red rims of her friend's eyes. The eyes they surrounded were bright and clear. There was nothing hiding in there anymore –nothing fearful or angry, but also nothing joyful or proud.

"Good answer," Valon stage-whispered from the side of the dais. Téa glanced at him and the two men beside him. The taller, bulkier man was a stoic blond with long sideburns and a trench coat that almost hit the floor. The other was a more slight man, with an odd crop top underneath a greenish-gray jacket festooned with buckles.

Mai didn't look at Valon or even crack a smile at his "approval." Instead she just thrust a hand into the light.

Her fingers closed around the shadow while the light surrounding it seemed to crackle and flare as if alive, furious at the intrusion.

Moments later, Mai withdrew her hand. The fire that had appeared searing left her unscathed. In her palm lay a long, teardrop-shaped pendant. Mai tilted her head back and cracked her neck, and for a brief moment, Téa thought she saw the Seal of Orichalcos fade from her friend's brow.

"You have surrendered your weakness to the light, Mai Valentine. You now serve the Orichalcos." Dartz nodded, and Valon walked forward, a strip of black cloth with two small chains on the ends in his hand. He handed it to Mai, who affixed the pendant onto a tiny ring stitched into the bottom of the choker. She lifted her hair and allowed Valon to clasp the chains together. When her hair fell down and she faced Téa, right behind and below her on the dais, her eyes seemed… different.

The pendant fell just above her breasts. It glistened with a light alike that of the pillar. It still had a slow-moving shadow inside of it, tempting the next brave soul to plunge his or her hand within to see what would happen.

"Téa Gardner. It is your turn."

Téa cast a glance at her friend departing the dais to stand beside Valon, but this time, Mai didn't look back. When she turned around to face the center of the dais, her eyes were only on the light, not on Téa.

Téa swallowed. Cult or not… real magic or not…

_"Change the fate of the whole world. What do you say?"_

Yugi believed in some sort of fate– a destiny, a Heart of the Cards, even. Seto… He didn’t believe in fate. He believed in forging his own road. There was no higher power, no guiding hand. You always wound up alone.

_‘I make my own fate. No one else. Me.’_

It wasn't like what Yugi believed, but it wasn't Seto's stubborn anti-belief, either.

Téa stared at the shadow rotating in the beam of light, challenging it with her eyes. Let it tempt her. Let it try and change her. Let it try and seal **her** away from everything she stood for.

So what if the pillar looked as though someone had forged it into white-hot flame?

So what if it was no parlor trick, not now, standing right in front of it and seeing it for herself?

So what if Yugi and the others would tell her she was being crazy, brainwashed by some crazy cultist guy with a bad wardrobe and worse hair?

So what if Seto told her she was being foolish, a desperate cheerleader out to prove herself?

_'So what?'_

Téa plunged her hand into the beam of light and let it swallow her whole.

* * *

* * *

_Take that, TV Tropes!_


End file.
